What owners say

This is genuinely useful whoever you end up hiring, so it is worth writing down properly. Reviews tell you whether people liked someone. They do not tell you whether that person will help your dog, and for behaviour work in particular the two come apart more often than you would expect.

Four questions do most of the work.

“What do you think is driving this behaviour?”

The single best question you can ask. You want an answer about your dog’s emotional state and its learning history — what it is trying to achieve, and what has been reinforcing it. If the answer is “he’s being dominant” or “he’s trying to be pack leader”, that framing has been out of date for decades and in fear-based cases it makes things measurably worse.

“What happens if my dog gets it wrong?”

This tells you which tools are actually in play. You are entitled to a clear, concrete answer. Be wary of euphemisms — “pressure”, “correction”, “communication”, “balanced” — if the person cannot turn them into a plain description of what physically happens to your dog.

“When would you send me to a vet?”

A good answer here tells you a lot. Pain drives far more behaviour change than most owners realise, particularly where it has come on suddenly or the dog is over about seven. Anyone who says they have never needed to refer someone is either very inexperienced or not paying attention.

“What does success look like, and how long?”

You want a realistic answer with caveats attached, not a guarantee. Behaviour change depends heavily on things outside any trainer’s control — your dog’s history, its health, your household, and how consistently the plan gets followed after the session. Anyone promising a fixed outcome on an aggression or anxiety case before meeting your dog is selling you something.

Ask me those four and judge the answers. That is a far better test than a page of quotes, and it works on every trainer in Adelaide, not just this one.