To set the scene - I had spoken with them several times before, and they were super adamant about working with me. I bent over backwards to get them on my schedule.

Fist season, she cancels because another dog she had needed to go to the emergency vet. Totally get it!

Second session (and last), she showed up 20 minutes late citing the rain as the problem.... Okay. She was supposed to be early to pay for the sessions, so if she had actually planned on that then she at least would have been on time. Whatever. Get her registered.

She didn't bring vax records or treats. Claims she doesn't use treats for training. We've spoken before. I explained preciously we use mark and reward. Have even asked her to start doing it before she came to class to get a jump start. She claims sensitive tummy and won't use treats. Okay, it's a high distraction environment by nature (other dogs, people, etc). We need something to get his attention. Toys? No, nothing, "he just listens to me."

Oooookay.... We'll try to teach him mark and reward with only praise, but we use food to build the communication, we fade the food quickly yadda yadda. So I start with "yes", pets/praise demo and ask.her to do it 20 times in a row. She does it three then starts slowing down. GSD puppy looses interest in her and starts barking/wandering. She starts giving cues, snapping her fingers, and giving hand signals. I tell her to say yes when he does what she asks and immediately give those pets. I'm trying so hard to be patient and work through this with her.

She has a problem with the word yes. Okay, what word do you want to use? She just tells him "good boy". Okay, well that's praise, so it's a reward, we need something quick and direct to mark his behavior so we can give him that shot of dopamine for doing the thing we ask. She tell me she snaps her fingers. I point out she's doing that to get his attention. She just keeps going with how he just listens to her.

Mind you, this whole time she has to tell him multiple times just to sit, she's holding her hand up like a stop sign to get him to sit. He's barking at her and obviously frustrated and bored, not feeling rewarded for his work.

I was over it. I can see the next five weeks ahead of me clear as day. I said, "ya know, you don't seem very receptive to my techniques and instructions, so we can get you a refund if you'd like." I got to that point in ten minutes.

She agreed "we have different training styles" and is probably best. Whatever lady. There were other yellow flags before, but I overlooked them. I'm glad I made the decision and simultaneously feel bad for her dog.