# Royvon Surrey Residential Training - Any experiences?



## DogueDeBordaux (Apr 13, 2012)

I have a lovely and badly behaved Dogue de Bordeaux. He is now 19 months old, and despite the fact that he attended the puppy/dog classes, we had dog trainers coming to us for lessons, my doggy still misbehaving.... he is the most friendly dog ever, but he gets very excited whenever we have visitors, or whenever he sees other people in the street.... so taking him to the vets, or walking on the streets or having visitors is a mission almost impossible.... 
At home he obey most commands.... but it is not too bad. 
We decided that the next step would be a residential training, and so far I have only heard very good things about Royvon in Surrey, but as the time approaches to send him in I am getting more anxious and I was wondering if anyone had any experience..... 
I undertand that there is a lot of people that would deeply disagree with sending dogs to residential training.... I am not very keen either, but I feel that we have reached our limit, and by doing nothing we are depriving our family (doggy included) of so many experiences.... 
Your comments will be appreciated.


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## 8tansox (Jan 29, 2010)

The misconception is that the dog needs training and in reality, it's the handlers/owners. Sending your dog away for training will teach him how to respond to the trainer and not the person(s) who he lives with.

I've never understood it. I personally think they're a con - just my view.

Years ago I went with someone who used the same company in Wales. She had a GWP who would not come back, tried virtually everything. So she put him into this Royvon organisation and I went with her to collect him. 

He'd been there for 4 weeks, cost a fortune and this is what I witnessed:

We were taken to a viewing point, high above the field where the dog and trainer were, the woman who was with us had a clip board and we were told "and now, your dog is going to ignore a new dog, under full control" we watched, yes, the dog did stay in a down position, when we agreed, the woman with us "ticked" the sheet - and this continued for every exercise. We were taken into a very large enclosed area and we sat at one end, the dog and trainer came in, he unclipped the dog who ran around with great excitement, saw his "mum" and when the trainer called him back, he ran straight back to trainer - eureka, recall achieved and another tick in the box. The next step was to take the dog outside into an open area, surrounded by trees. The dog was put on a long line and allowed to run around the field, called back, came back with a slight hesitation but not awful, eventually all the boxes on the sheets were ticked "as seen" and the owner signed the bottom. Paid the dosh and off we went.

We were on our way home and needed to stop for a break, that dog was so focused on the livestock around, he went straight back into his usual "not paying you any attention mum" mode, so we gave him the benefit of the doubt rolleyes and we got to my house after a two hour drive. I have a very secure back garden and it's large. So we thought we'd try out a recall, we weren't expecting miracles but I have to say it was dreadful. We ended up catching the dog.  

Again, we thought it probably because he was excited and we made allowances, but that dog never had a good recall, it was and still is always shoddy, but because the boxes had been ticked "as seen" and the bottom of the form signed, when she rang back and said the recall problem was no better, in fact it was worse, she was informed it was down to her, the dog while at the centre was indeed fine, as she'd witnessed with her own eyes....

So, sorry for rambling on, just wanted to make you aware of exactly how they operate. Some people might have found them useful but it's not something I would recommend.


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## newfiesmum (Apr 21, 2010)

Firstly, you cannot send a dog away to be trained like a defective motor car. Dogs do not need training, you need training on how to handle the dog. A dog this young is going to be excitable around visitors and people outside, how does it help his excitement in your house if he is sent somewhere else?

It is unfortunate that any idiot can call themselves a trainer and you pay for them to come and sort out your dog, and get nowhere. This dog is very strong and very young, and it seems he doesn't have a lot of problems, just normal big puppy behaviour. This needs to be handled and managed. Make him sit and stay when visitors arrive, tell your visitors not to pay attention to him until he is calm. Do the same outside. Get him to sit and wait while people go past.

It is all normal behaviour and all you will get out of sending him away is a big hole in your bank account.


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## Cleo38 (Jan 22, 2010)

I have to agree with the other comments. The only residential course I would consider was the type where the dog & owner attended. 

I looked at one in Somerset regarding preventing livestock chasing but unfortunately it was just too far for me to travel to

Do you still attend training classes? It may that just have trainers come to your home is not enough. Both my dogs are amazing at home but it's outside with all the distractions that one in particular has problems focussing.

What have your trainers said about his behaviour so far? What do you do when he gets excited with visitors?

When out how does he react when he sees other dogs or people? What do you do? How do you react?


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## Betsie (Jan 31, 2012)

That is very interesting about the training. I have always wondered how this works and considered sending my dogs to places like this, but never bothered, just gone and done it the old fashioned way, with treats and hard-work.


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## TabithaJ (Apr 18, 2010)

Honest answer?

*DON'T DO IT.*

Once you drop your dog there and drive away, you have _*no way *_of knowing how your dog is being treated.

And apart from that, any training *has *to include you as the owner.

I *do* empathise with you; I adopted a 14 month old Lab from a rescue. Within one month I was literally crying and tearing my hair out on a daily basis, as he was a reactive dog, had never been walked on a lead, and never been taught a single command.

Luckily someone put me in touch with an experienced trainer who was very generous with her time, and who did not charge the earth. She taught me to understand my dog and read him far, far more effectively.

I would really urge you to look for a good trainer; there are many out there and this way you can be part of the training.

Because even IF you send your dog away and he learns to obey the trainers on the course, that can all fall apart when he's back with YOU.


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## smokeybear (Oct 19, 2011)

Whereabouts do you live in Surrey? If you live near Epsom let me know I can recommend an excellent trainer who is used to handling these types of dogs.

If you gave your dog to (insert name of relevant dog trainer) they would train it and your dog would obey them, once it gets home, it has previous history of doing what it likes.

So, you have had no training in how to get the behaviour you want, what to do if x, y or z happens and thus you are back to square one, but several hundred pounds poorer.

YOU need to learn how to read your dog, how and when to step in and what to do in certain situations, you will learn nothing if you send your dog away.

Also, you are not in control of what methods are used, at least if you are in a class or with a 1:1 trainer you can walk away.

But how comitted are YOU to his training?


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## mushymouth (Jan 9, 2011)

my dog is exactly the same she gets so excited with people but shall i give u my opinion its not the dog its the blimmin people that come into your house and encourage the dog to go over to them 
i get so frustrated with the people that come in my house and i tell them ignore the dog and they dont!!! i think people need the training not the dog,
one day my mum went to fuss roxy and acidentally caught her with her knee and roxy just walked away, 
roxy is brill if she is ignored by guests now we have to resort to leashing her up while guests r here untill she calms down then she comes off te leash then when she gets excited back on the leash and its made a massive improvement, 
ive worked with roxy so hard since we had her from 8weeks old
two lots of training classes and alot of practicing and using commands daily it takes alot of work on the owners partroxy isnt perfect and never will be but she is brill 90% of the time and thats to my credit aswell, no one else puts the time in, what the point in sending your dog away to be 'trained' it wont come back trained the dog will just 'adjust' to the life it has there for the duration of its saty and prob go back to 'normal' once its home 
cos it doesnt know any different when its with you and its you that has to implement the changes!!!!


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## newfiesmum (Apr 21, 2010)

mushymouth said:


> my dog is exactly the same she gets so excited with people but shall i give u my opinion its not the dog its the blimmin people that come into your house and encourage the dog to go over to them
> i get so frustrated with the people that come in my house and *i tell them ignore the dog and they dont!!! *i think people need the training not the dog,
> one day my mum went to fuss roxy and acidentally caught her with her knee and roxy just walked away,
> roxy is brill if she is ignored by guests now we have to resort to leashing her up while guests r here untill she calms down then she comes off te leash then when she gets excited back on the leash and its made a massive improvement,
> ...


Of course note; they come to see the dog, after all I admit I could not ignore a dog at someone's house if it comes to say hello.

A friend of mine is hopeless with dogs. He had a newfoundland years ago that was completely out of control, sent it away to be trained, didn't last more than a couple of days when he got back. Same with his little spaniel; he left it with a friend while he went on holiday, and all was well till he had been home two days.

Complete waste of money and won't do anything for the dog's confidence, especially at that age.


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