Why Puppy Boot Camps Do More Harm Than Good

Feeling overwhelmed and considering sending your puppy to a boot camp for quick and easy training? Before you make that decision, find out why this short-term fix can lead to long-term problems.

Your desire to have a well-trained dog is admirable! You deserve that and the appeal of having a puppy return to you with improved manners can be strong. It can feel overwhelming to raise a puppy, especially when you are struggling with transforming their challenging behaviors.

The lure of sending your puppy away for a few days to have an expert teach them the rules of life so you can “skip” the hard parts of puppy-ness is truly tempting. But there are some things you need to know about how focusing on your short-term needs can lead to long-term issues.

What IS Puppy Boot Camp?

Puppy Boot Camps typically involve sending a young puppy to a training facility for a set period, often ranging from a few days to several weeks. During this time, professional trainers work intensively with the puppy on various aspects of obedience and behavior.

Programs promise to address puppy needs from basic obedience, like SIT/DOWN/STAND, loose leash walking, and crate training to more advanced behavioral issues like barking, chewing and nipping. The longer camps may even pledge to teach your puppy impulse control for waiting at doors or “leave it”. Trainers and facilities will tell you the structured environment, routine and discipline will ensure your puppy returns home a new dog.

That DOES seem appealing! Who wouldn’t love to have a perfect puppy who does not jump on people, returns objects to you and chooses to toilet in the appropriate places at the appropriate times?

Seems too good to be true? They usually ARE!

While the promise seems positive and the results are desired, there are several reasons this approach is more likely to be harmful to your puppy.

Separation Anxiety

Your puppy JUST left their littermates and mother to come to your home. Sending them away after they have started to adjust to a new environment will cause significant stress and anxiety for your puppy. Puppies are in a critical period of brain development and need a nurturing and positive approach as they form their outlook on life. Moving them to a puppy boot camp can result in long-lasting separation anxiety behaviors.

Lack of Owner Involvement

Effective puppy training involves teaching BOTH the puppy and owner. Boot camp removes the owner from the training process so they miss out on the real learning of their puppy’s personality and how to reinforce the good behavior, which is crucial for long-term success. Owners will also miss the bonding opportunities that come with getting to know and learning WITH your puppy. Owners and puppies will lack the understanding of each other’s cues and needs so while your puppy may come back knowing commands, this understanding rarely transfers back to the owner.

One-Size-Fits-All Training

Puppies have unique temperaments, learning styles, and developmental needs. In order to train multiple puppies at once, boot camps use standardized training methods that may not be suitable for every puppy, leading to ineffective or counterproductive results.

Potential for Trauma

The stressful new environment of a boot camp can be a traumatic event for a puppy. When your puppy is stressed, they are not open to learning and training so rather than understanding great new manners, they are on a path to developing long-term behavioral issues like fearfulness, withdrawal/shut-down or aggression. 

Use of Harsh Methods for Quick Results

The main technique to train a dog in such a short time is to employ harsh or aversive training methods. You may think the programs are simply intense but effective without knowing what is really happening to your puppy during camp. Many boot camp trainers rely on:

• Shock, Prong or Pinch Collars: to enforce commands or correct behavior.

• Harsh Corrections: these can be physical like leash pops or alpha rolls, or verbal such as loud scolding.

• Forced Compliance: Using force or physical/verbal intimidation to make the puppy obey.

These approaches can have negative consequences because they cause fear, anxiety, and aggression in puppies, undermining their trust and confidence in people. 

While the reasons for sending your puppy to boot camp are understandable, it’s important that you learn positive reinforcement based training, where YOU are actively involved. Is is a far more effective and humane approach.

In other words, no matter what training you do, puppies still need time to develop and grow out of their puppy brains. Literal time. The reason professional trainers can claim to train obedience commands so quickly is because it’s VERY easy to do and you CAN learn how!

What to do Instead

Instead of investing your time and money in a puppy boot camp, consider the following.

Use the Time for Bonding with Your Puppy

Building a strong, trusting bond with your puppy is crucial for their emotional well-being and your long-term relationship. It is the foundation for all of your training throughout your dog’s life.

• Quality Time: Spend quality time with your puppy through playing with a purpose and simply being together. This helps your puppy feel secure and loved.

• Understanding Body Language: Learn to read your puppy’s body language and signals. Understanding when they are happy, anxious, or scared allows you to respond appropriately and build trust.

• Patience and Compassion: Training a puppy takes time and patience. Be compassionate and avoid using harsh methods or punishments, which can damage your puppy’s trust and lead to behavioral issues.

Play Games With Your Puppy

Mental stimulation is just as important as physical exercise for puppies. Engaging your puppy's mind helps prevent boredom and associated destructive behaviors.

• Puzzle Toys: Provide puzzle toys and interactive feeders that challenge your puppy, keep them engaged and help them to learn to problem solve, which develops confidence.

• Training Games: Incorporate fun training games that teach commands and tricks while providing mental stimulation.

• Variety: Offer a variety of toys and activities to keep your puppy interested and mentally stimulated.

Limit Access to the World

You want to give your puppy the best life! Keeping their access to the world is a KEY aspect for proper development. If you give your puppy too much, too soon, they get to practice and rehearse a whole variety of behaviors that may be cute as a puppy, but will be unwanted and cause a life of challenges later on.

Take time to learn proper Socialization

Puppy Socialization is actually NOT about playing with other dogs. In fact, it’s often best if there are NO OTHER dogs around, especially if you don’t know the puppies and their personalities.

Socialization IS about teaching your puppy to choose YOU over the environment and to look to YOU for guidance rather than looking to the stuff around them for their entertainment.

Conclusion

While puppy boot camps promise quick, desirable results, the reality is these programs have a high probability to be detrimental to your pup's emotional well-being. The obedience and behavior results generally do not transfer to your home, you miss out on getting to know your puppy, and your puppy to know you, and your puppy can never tell you their experience so you’ll just have to wait and see if there is behavioral fall-out from the time away.

For more information about what to do when you bring your new puppy home, you can read our quick reference guide:

References:

1. Magna, Michelle, 54% Of Dog Owners Have Regrets About Getting A Dog, Forbes Advisor, retrieved July 15, 2024 from source page

2. AVSAB Position Statement on Pupppy Socialization, American Veterinary Society of Animal Behavior (AVSAB) (2008), source file

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