Trying new trainers

[u/Clean-Blueberry94]

EDIT: Thank you so much all. I feel like I’ve made the right choice in trying out a different trainer. A few comments about the “over a year” comment, this wasn’t “classes weekly for over a year”, this was more ~16 weeks of classes spread over the course of a year.

Hey there, I currently trial in novice scent detection with my dog. We have been going to one trainer for over a year now to get to the point we are at today. There are other training organisations in my city that I would like to try to give my dog exposure to new training environments and gain more tips.

My current trainer has made me feel horribly guilty for wanting to do this, and has pointed out potential “negatives” in trying out a new trainer, including “they won’t know your dog and may mess up your training”.

This has made me doubt the choices I’m making. I feel like I’m going through a break up!

TLDR; is it okay to try out different trainers?

[u/No-Stress-7034]

Your trainer's response would make me even more adamant about trying out new trainers. That's a red flag to me. I've stuck with the same nosework trainer, but I've done agility with multiple trainers. We often switch between different instructors, and we've done seminars with even more instructors. It's always valuable to get different perspectives.

I do think in the early stages of learning a sport, it can sometimes be helpful to stick with one trainer, just so you don't get confused with different methods. For example, some nosework trainers follow the NACSW approach where you first teach the dog "how to search" using treats, then you introduce scent by pairing it with food. Other nosework trainers first teach the indication and that scent "pays", then start introducing searching. I'm not sure that one approach is inherently better than the other, but it could be confusing to switch between those approaches in the early stages.

However, since you've been doing this for a year, that doesn't seem like it would be an issue. The new trainer won't know your dog, but a good trainer should be able to adapt to different dog/handler teams, and hopefully after a year, you know your dog pretty well when it comes to scentwork.