Here are steps owners should take to choose an instructor who uses techniques that won’t hurt their pets.

1. GET A REFERRAL, from your veterinarian, the animal shelter or a friend who has taken an obedience class. Don’t randomly sign up for just any training class.

2. OBSERVE A CLASS. Visit the class without bringing your pet. Are the dogs and people having fun? Talk to some of the class participants after class. (if the trainer will not let you visit DON’T ENROLL).

3. QUESTION THE TRAINER. Ask the trainer questions about their training methods, what kind of experience do they have. Ask them how many dogs they have trained, ask about the trainers own dogs, how many have they had and what happened to them. Avoid a trainer who does not keep a dog that is a problem or has had a lot of dogs for only short periods of time.

4. STICK WITH YOUR DOG. Avoid trainers who want to train your dog without you. You and your dog are a team and you are both essential to developing a well-trained companion. During a session don’t allow a trainer to work your dog without your permission and make sure you know exactly what’s going to happen.

5. LOOK FOR TREATS. Avoid trainers who won’t use food as a training tool. Food is a powerful positive training aid that works with most dogs. It also makes training more fun.

6. THINK POSITIVE. Look for a trainer who uses other positive rewards, such as toys and play for good behavior too.

7. AVOID THE JERK AND PULL Avoid trainers who are still training with the old methods of jerking and pulling the dog all over the room and using force to make dogs mind. There are better, kinder and more humane ways to train your dog.

8. AVOID GUARANTEES. They’re a sign that a trainer doesn’t understand the complexities of dog behavior and individual needs.

9. SHUN SHOCK COLLARS and trainers who insist on putting a prong collar on every dog. With today’s positive approach to dog training most dogs can be made good canine citizens with the use of a buckle collar or training collar. Very few dogs need the use of a prong collar and NO dog being obedience trained needs a shock collar.

10. NO PUPPIES Avoid instructors who mix puppies and adult dogs into one class. Puppies have short attention spans and training them for an hour is unfair. There is also always the possibility of and older dog being aggressive and if it is being handled by an inexperienced person that dog could attack your puppy.

11. LIMITED CLASS SIZE. The ideal class should have no more than 4 or 5 dogs per instructor.

If during training, you have any doubts about the way your pet is being treated, tell the trainer to stop.