how to motivate dog training clients

7 steps dog trainers can do to motivate dog owners

Are they lazy? Or just unmotivated? 7 steps dog trainers can do to improve client compliance.

If you are a dog trainer you have no problems motivating your dogs. With positive reinforcement and clicker training you can do absolute wonders. So why are some clients so challenging? Obviously you can’t follow them around every day and click and treat them to make sure they practice with their dogs, but you would think that dog owners want to learn from you and do with the work with their dogs. After all, isn’t that why they have paid you?

And when it comes time to treating a serious problem like aggression, compliance is even more important. So why do clients seem to undermine their own efforts?

Two words you may not have considered: psychological reactance.

How Psychological Reactance undermines client compliance

Psychological reactance occurs when people perceive a threat to their freedom to make their own choices. As a way to regain their autonomy, they do something other than what you are trying to persuade them to do. No one likes being told what to do. And some people resist it more than others.

But this is the part that will drive you crazy: psychological reactance happens on such a subtle level that most of the time we don’t even realize it. It comes in the form of skepticism, counter-arguing or just plan old procrastination. The problem is that once it has been activated, in some cases the quality of the message doesn’t seem to matter. Nor do the consequences.[1]

The stronger the message we receive from someone else that we need or should to do something, the more we are likely to resist doing it even when we know we probably should. For example, cigarette smokers show little reactance to text-only warnings, but over 80% showed some form of reactance in response to graphic warnings – some experienced extreme levels.[2]

If the consequences don’t matter, how do we motivate people?

So what is the solution? You know they need to train their dog, they know they need to train their dog. Yet you are looking at the client standing there with their arms crossed with plenty of reasons why it won’t work with their dog, or sheepishly admitting they didn’t quite get around to practicing last week, and you feel that familiar frustration. Yet you can’t avoid telling them what to do. What should you do?

A possible solution comes from an interesting book called Instant Influence: How to Get Anyone to Do Anything–Fast. Never mind trying to motivate them with external reasons: try mobilizing their own motivations for wanting to do it.

Here is how psychologist Michael Pantalon suggests how to make it happen:

Reestablish your client’s freedom.
Ask your dog training client to tell you about why they might hear you out or do whatever it is you are suggesting
Ask them to rate from 1 to 10, how ready are they to do change/do/act: one not being ready at all, and 10 being total ready.
Ask them why they didn’t pick a lower number.
Ask them to imagine what it would be like if they had already done it. What would the positive outcomes be?
Ask: why are those positive outcomes important to them.
Ask: What are the next steps, if any?

NEXT: Step 1: How to re-establish your client’s freedom to make their own choices

Footnotes

[1] Rains SA, Turner MM, Psychological Reactance and Persuasive Health Communication: A Test and Extension of the Intertwined Model, Human Communication Research ISSN 0360-3989, 2007

[2] Erceg-HurnDM, SteedLG, Does Exposure to Cigarette Health Warnings Elicit Psychological Reactance in Smokers?, Journal of Applied Psychology, 2011

Step 1: Dog trainers: how to motivate your dog training clients

< PREVIOUS Psychological reactance and the overview to 7 steps dog trainers can do to motivate dog owners

But sometimes people just do not seem motivated. There could be any number of reasons, but in many cases there they stem from a more unconscious factor. In our previous article we discuss psychological reactance and how it can undermine client compliance to a dog training or behavior program. In the next series of articles we outline a process that can help with that.

Before you start this process it would be good to get your client’s permission to ask these questions. You can be completely transparent about why you are taking your clients through the process. It will not effect the outcome.

Step 1: Reestablish your client’s freedom.

Remind your clients that they don’t need to do anything that you tell them. And truth be told, they don’t. You know they are free to accept what you say or reject it even if there are consequences. Communicate that. Of course, you believe in what you are teaching them, but ultimately the choice is theirs.

You may worry that giving permission to reject what you have to say will let them off the hook and they won’t do anything. The truth is if they really don’t want to do it, they won’t. No amount of convincing will change people who do not want to do it. The thing is, you could just as likely push them into refusal simply by trying so hard to convince them they should. If anything this process can uncover whether this is a real concern and then you might be able to work out a different solution.

You may also think there is no need to do this step because you are not intimidating and certainly will never push anyone into doing anything they don’t want to do. However, most of us come with baggage that is carried over from somewhere else, whether it is pressures in the family, from friends or in the workplace. The benefit of giving them their freedom, or reminding them they have freedom here is that they will feel less threatened. The result is that they are more open to truly considering what you have to say, instead of thinking how they can’t do it or how overwhelming it may be.

You can read more about how to restore people’s autonomy here: Instant Influence: How to Get Anyone to Do Anything–Fast

NEXT Step 2: Ask your dog training client to tell you about why they might hear you out or do whatever it is you are suggesting

< PREVIOUS Psychological reactance and how it undermines client compliance

Full disclosure: K9aggression.com earns a small affiliate commission at no cost to you on this book should you decide to purchase it. It is put towards the cost of maintaining this site. However, we only ever recommend products that we have investigated and feel will offer real value to you.

Step 2: motivate your dog training clients

< PREVIOUS Step 1: Re-establish your client’s freedom of choice

But sometimes people just do not seem motivated. There could be any number of reasons, but in many cases there they stem from a more unconscious factor. In a previous article we discuss psychological reactance and how it can undermine client compliance to a dog training or behavior program. In this series of articles we outline a process that can help with that.

Step 2: Ask your dog training client to tell you about why they might hear you out or do whatever it is you are suggesting

You can use these steps for larger actions, but it can work better on smaller ones. It all depends on how resistant the person might be. Just like dog training, sometimes you need to take baby steps toward change.

If you are seeing a husband and wife team for example, likely one took the lead to consult you. That could mean the other partner may already be experiencing some form of resistance as a result of having to go along with their partner. So start with asking who’s idea was it that they hire you.

Depending on how the couple responds, you might get some idea of the resistance. If you sence the resistance is high, consider focusing on a smaller more manageable goal. Such as simply hearing you out. What might be in it for them to listen to what you have to say. Even if you don’t sense any resistance, no one is ever loses by getting in touch with their own motivations for things. If there is no resistance, you might take them through this process when it comes time to practice after you are gone.

Chances are, when you ask them what is in it for them or how they might benefit, the first things they say will be without too much thought. They will probably say the expected answer. Whether you focus your question on why they might do the training for the week or simply listen to you, try to discover what their personal motivations are rather than why they might be doing this for someone else.

If you hear the word should in the sentence, as in, “Well, we should train our dog, we shoshould have a well-behaved dog, etc.) try again. The shoulds are what they have internalized from what other people have made them feel they should do. There is little personal freedom in a should.

What is in it for them to listen to you? Or what is in it for them to do the session? Or how might they benefit from practicing with their dog over the week? You can use these steps again and again to understand your clients better, but also help them get in touch with their own motivations.

Positive language will help you: i.e. why might you want you, why would if be good for you… will get them thinking about their motivations. Negative language like why don’t you, why haven’t you… etc. can cause them to think about the reasons why they don’t want to do something. Check out: Instant Influence: How to Get Anyone to Do Anything–Fast for more suggestions.

Finally, look for what motivation you can sense and reflect it back to them. They may position it in negative language (i.e. to get the wife off their back, or stop their dog from jumping up). Try to re-position it in a way where you are focusing on the positive (being on the same page as their significant other, having a calmer dog, etc.)

NEXT > Step 3: Ask: from 1 to 10, how ready are they to do it.

< PREVIOUS Step 1: Re-establish your client’s freedom of choice

If you want to learn more, check out Instant Influence: How to Get Anyone to Do Anything–Fast. Panatlon discusses in much more detail the language that can help or undermine motivation, how to influence people who don’t want to change, how to identify change and when to move on, how to make an action plan, as well as a whole lot of suggestion on how to deal with various responses.

Full disclosure: K9aggression.com earns a small affiliate commission at no cost to you on this book should you decide to purchase it. It is put towards the cost of maintaining this site. However, we only ever recommend products that we have investigated and feel will offer real value to you.

Step 3: Dog trainers: how to motivate your dog training clients

< PREVIOUS Step 2: Ask: why they might hear you out or do whatever it is you are suggesting?

If you work with people to train their dogs, it’s inevitable that you eventually are going to run someone who just doesn’t seem to want to do what you are suggesting. Sometimes it’s because they have a prior belief about training and – like all of us – they look for evidence that supports their beliefs and reject or ignore anything that doesn’t. So be prepared to leave some leave-behind materials with several links to credible third-party information. ScienceDirect provides access to over 2000 academic science and medical journals and is a good place to start.

But sometimes people just do not seem motivated. There could be any number of reasons, but in many cases there they stem from a more unconscious factor. In a previous article we discuss psychological reactance and how it can undermine client compliance to a dog training or behavior program. In this series of articles we outline a process that can help with that.

Step 3: Ask them to rate from 1 to 10, how ready are they to change/do/act: one not being ready at all, and 10 being total ready.

This is pretty straightforward. But you may need to make it okay for them to answer honestly. If they have hired you they may be quick to say a 10 because that is what they think they should answer. It’s better that they think about how they feel rather than attempt to please you (or their spouse!).

You can tell them that the number doesn’t matter because this is about them and what is important right now is what they want. Reiterate that regardless of what they think they should do; the choice of what they end up doing will always be theirs and that is important to explore.

Pantalon says this step helps you and them gauge their motivation. My own experience is that it’s can act like a kind of gateway to getting in touch with yourself because often the question seems to activate more personal thinking. Often we don’t even recognize the feelings we have: we just act on them. Putting a number to it requires a bit of reflection – more reflection than asking why they might want to do this. And getting to the heart of things is just what we want.

In reality the number really doesn’t matter all that much. According to Pantalon, studies have indicated that it has virtually no bearing on whether they will do it or not, surprisingly. But the more honestly they answer the more in touch with their own motivations they will be.

NEXT > Step 4: Ask: Why didn’t they pick a lower number

< PREVIOUS Step 2: Ask: why they might hear you out or do whatever it is you are suggesting?

If you want to learn more, check out Instant Influence: How to Get Anyone to Do Anything–Fast. Panatlon discusses in much more detail the language that can help or undermine motivation, how to influence people who don’t want to change, how to identify change and when to move on, how to make an action plan, as well as a whole lot of suggestion on how to deal with various responses.

Full disclosure: K9aggression.com earns a small affiliate commission at no cost to you on this book should you decide to purchase it. It is put towards the cost of maintaining this site. However, we only ever recommend products that we have investigated and feel will offer real value to you.

Step 4: Dog trainers: how to motivate your dog training clients

NEXT Step 5: Ask: imagine what it would be like if they had already done it. What would the positive outcomes be?

If you work with people to train their dogs, it’s inevitable that you eventually are going to run someone who just doesn’t seem to want to do what you are suggesting. Sometimes it’s because they have a prior belief about training and – like all of us – they look for evidence that supports their beliefs and reject or ignore anything that doesn’t. So be prepared to leave some leave-behind materials with several links to credible third-party information. ScienceDirect provides access to over 2000 academic science and medical journals and is a good place to start.

But sometimes people just do not seem motivated. There could be any number of reasons, but in many cases there they stem from a more unconscious factor. In a previous article we discuss psychological reactance and how it can undermine client compliance to a dog training or behavior program. In this series of articles we outline a process that can help with that.

Step 4: Ask them why they didn’t pick a lower number.

I love this question. Pantalon in his book Instant Influence: How to Get Anyone to Do Anything–Fast says most people are surprised by it because they expect you to ask why didn’t they pick a higher number. I guess this is because we constantly try to persuade people to do what we want them to do and in turn we experience the same thing from others: our spouses, our children, teachers, bosses, friends, etc.

But asking them why they didn’t pick a lower name actually gets them to focus on what motivation they actually already have. This is one of the better ways to overcome resistance. This shifts them off the focus of why they don’t want to do something to why they might want to.

I did this with one of my daughters. I was trying to encourage her to study French over the summer because she hadn’t done that well in it during the school year. I was surprised when I found out she already had some motivation to do it. She said 5 or 10 minutes of studying (all I required) was not actually too bad and she had identified how much easier picking it back up in the fall would be. But had I told her why she would benefit from it (my ideas), or insisted she do this, she would never have discovered her own reasons for it (which we not the same as mine), and I would have encountered much more resistance. Win-win!

What if they pick a 1?

You might not experience this with the person who actually called you for the training session. However, you may encounter it with a reluctant family member. But even in that case, that family member at least turned up. There is usually something there to work with. But if your client has picked the number 1 (not ready at all), start over with a smaller, less intimidating action. Or ask them what would it take to move the 1 to a 2.

NEXT Step 5: Ask: imagine what it would be like if they had already done it. What would the positive outcomes be?

< PREVIOUS Step 3: Ask: from 1 to 10, how ready are you to act?

If you want to learn more, check out Instant Influence: How to Get Anyone to Do Anything–Fast. Panatlon discusses in much more detail the language that can help or undermine motivation, how to influence people who don’t want to change, how to identify change and when to move on, how to make an action plan, as well as a whole lot of suggestion on how to deal with various responses.

Full disclosure: K9aggression.com earns a small affiliate commission at no cost to you on this book should you decide to purchase it. It is put towards the cost of maintaining this site. However, we only ever recommend products that we have investigated and feel will offer real value to you.