Wednesday June 18th 2025
Midlothian Dog Trainer Nick McMechan
This View has been written by Midlothian Dog Trainer Nick McMechan
Social media is a minefield. There is so much information on there, some of which is great, some of which is at best, misleading, at worst harmful.
Dog Training is no different in that respect. Many of my clients are exasperated with the dog training advice on social media. Often they will try what they see and it doesn’t work, or they are simply confused. One dog trainer says do one thing and another tells you not to do it. Neither explain why, or worse they do and it just confuses most dog owners.
It frustrates me as well as my clients. Obviously I’m interested in all things dog on social media. Frankly, a lot of what I see is utter nonsense.
Here’s my five top red flags to watch out for. If you see them, scroll on, don’t watch the video, don’t comment, react or share. The algorithms will pick up on it and keep showing you more.
1. Tools
Watch out for trainers that talk about tools, whether it’s a harness or a head halter. Stay away from talk about electric shock collars (often described in a euphemism of “e-collar”), prong collars and slip leads. The simple fact is tools help, but any over reliance on a tool isn’t really dog training.
2. “I fixed this dog in 10 days”
So the social media video I recently watched had claimed…It was from a dog trainer on social media, He described how 5 previous trainers had worked with the dog and failed. The dog was being medicated and facing behavioural euthanasia. It had even bitten one trainer’s dog. The owners went on holiday and he fixed the dog in ten days. Sounds awesome? Now, in my head, alarm bells weren’t going off, air raid sirens were. A dog with behavioural issues that deep rooted can only be ‘fixed’ in that period of time by
– using punishing aversives such as electric shock collars
– suppression
– flooding (an example of flooding is, if you are terrified of spiders, placing you in a room full of of them until you accept them)
Whilst these techniques exist for quick fixes, they are only that…quick fixes. The behaviours are suppressed for a period of time and everyone is happy for a while…except the dog. The dog will simply express the behaviours at some point in the future at a higher level (maybe a full attack rather than a bite) or express in another unwanted way. Worse still, the dog may go into something called “learned helplessness” – deep physiological scars that human torture victims experience.
3. The bizarre
Here’s some absolute clangers I’ve seen posted by dog trainers recently on social media.
– don’t throw a ball for your dog. This went viral. Whilst I’m massively against ball launchers because they can wreck your dog’s physiology, believe me, it really is okay to play with a ball with your dog. Better one on a rope so it involves tuggy, but, really, its okay
– harnesses are bad for your dog. No, they aren’t. Badly designed ones are, yes, badly used ones are, yes. But no, they’re not bad for your dog.
– Stop scatter feeding for your dog. This one I saw recently is one of the worst bits of advice on social media. I actively encourage you to scatter feed, the positive impact this will have on your dog is fantastic but I won’t bore you here with all the wonderful reasons this is good.
If you see stuff on social media that’s quite different, it’s there for a reason. It’s there for the trainer who posted it to get more likes, comments, shares and follows
4. Great attention catching post, but no solution (click bait)
So, I’ll see a video by another dog trainer and it does a good job of catching my interest. I think to myself, “oh, I wonder how they approach that problem” and I’m fascinated to see what they do with the dog in the well shot video.
And, then, they don’t. You have to click on a link to find out more and get through a pay wall to get anything. I hate this, it feels like I’ve been conned. And, because I watched the video for a minute, the social media algorithm hits me with more of their no-solution videos.
5. Criticising other dog trainers
Something like 15 years ago I met Dr Ian Dunbar at a seminar in Edinburgh. He was giving an all weekend event.
I attended the first day, which was, from memory something like £120. I couldn’t really afford the second day but it was so good I whipped out the credit card and attended day two! (For some reason my memory has blocked out how that went down when I got home…)
There are things that Dr Dunbar taught me that weekend that I still use in my practice with clients to this day. For those that don’t know who he is; he was, at the time, famed to the best in the world. The ‘father of modern, science based, dog training’. He introduced clicker training to Karen Pryor (another top of the world trainer) and is a leader in the industry.
One of the things that Dr Dunbar has always been passionate about is how dog trainers criticise other dog trainers. He is strongly against it and I’m 100% with him on this. From memory he said that weekend “you can’t claim to be a professional dog trainer if you criticise other dog trainers, because you are then not acting in a professional manner”
A lot of these types up posts play on your emotions, catch your attention. If you seen anything like this, scroll on!
Nick specialises in Loose Leash Walking and Reactivity as well as everything you would expect from a great Dog Trainer.
You can find out more here: eskvalleydogtraining.co.uk
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