ProCoach is a LabsnDucks term. To me, working with a ProCoach to supplement your personal training effort is the best of all worlds.

• You do the bulk of the training yourself
• But you get invaluable and ongoing professional instruction with on-the-spot immediate analysis and correction of mistakes and answers to your questions – a huge advantage
• You choose how much money you want to invest
• You save significant money over extended-stay pro training
• Your dog goes home with you after each lesson
• And yes, you get a far better result than doing it all on your own

The challenge is finding a pro within reasonable distance to where you live that will work as your ProCoach. You’ve got to do your research much like the suggestions in How to choose a breeder in the How to section of this website. Be proactive because they are out there.

Different pros will work in different ways, and you should establish the program that works best for you and the pro. Define your expectations and let the pro define his/her expectations of you. Then together, you decide how often you visit your pro, the cost, etc.

Be careful NOT to dictate all the terms because you are depending on your pro’s advice and experience.

In short lessons, the pro will show you what to do to achieve certain results. A huge advantage is that the pro is showing you WITH YOUR DOG so you both get to see how your dog reacts IMMEDIATELY in all situations and the pro can react accordingly. Your questions get answered IMMEDIATELY through show and tell and when you go back for the next lesson you both have a solid point of reference to gauge progress of both you and your dog.

After each lesson, you take your dog home. The family plays with him and he still sleeps at your feet. BUT you have to work the dog between sessions and practice what you were shown. If your pro has to start over with every session, you’re going to waste money and ultimately cheat yourself and your dog.

A ProCoach is a cost effective way of getting ‘hands-on-do-it-together’ professional advice and training with the bonus of ACCESS TO BIRDS. Do not underestimate the value of working with live birds.

Perhaps the biggest advantage of a ProCoach is that on day one he/she will help you develop a program for training. The program will take into consideration your goals and be based on your dog’s performance not some arbitrary template or timetable.

Many of us have grandiose expectations of our dog and that’s not necessarily a bad thing as long as we can temper them with a good dose of reality. Sadly, many of us also think we as trainers can get the job done on our own even though we have little or no experience; but mostly because we have little or no idea about what it really takes. These are all areas where a ProCoach can help put everything in perspective.

For added emphasis:

A ProCoach is a cost effective way of getting ‘hands-on-do-it-together’ professional advice and training with the bonus of ACCESS TO BIRDS. Do not underestimate the value of working with live birds. Be proactive about finding a ProCoach because your dog is depending on your sound judgment.