I have been going on about empathy in dog and human training for a long time now. I think in addition to having a solid education and experience empathy is one of the most important traits of a good trainer.
Only too often do we trainers get caught up in our own little world forgetting that others are in a complete different situation. Most of our clients are not interested in formal obedience, competition heeling or out of sight stays. I mean, who really cares except obedience competitors. Most of them are also not interested in agility and that is just fine.
That’s when another important aspect of developing training solutions becomes important: creativity.
As a trainer we need to suggest training plans that work for that specific client with their specific dog. Anything else is a waste of time, money and effort.