My fiance and I just adopted a ~4 month old puppy from a shelter. She had kennel cough after the shelter immediately brought her in but once she was medically cleared we picked her up. It's been two weeks and we just had a trainer come for the first time and I feel a bit discouraged and was not expecting that reaction from the trainer.
When she knocked on the door our puppy barked and we are staying in an Airbnb for a short time due to home repairs from a flood but she barked and once the trainer walked in she acted completely appalled. We have noticed our puppy takes a little to warm up to people but she eventually settles in an hour or so. She was giving treats but our puppy was still barking. She was also barking to get attention. The trainer then said "this happens every 1 in 7 dogs she trains when she walks in the door" and "I'm sorry this is your first dog experience" which I felt was a bit odd to say… my fiancé and I had childhood dogs but this is our first dog together. She then proceeds to tell us about a re-homing a dog situation because one dog she trained kept biting.
Our puppy is usually a snuggle bug but we definitely notice she's got a lot of energy. We have a lot of enrichment toys we use since we both WFH. But the trainer then proceeds to tell us that Hills food has whole grain corn which prevents serotonin growth and its why she's continuing to bark at the trainer. She's in a constant fight or flight mode she said. She suggested we change to Acana or Orijin.. anyone here use this instead of Hills? Our vet recommended Hills too. Seems like these two food options are higher protein.
After the hour, we just felt pretty discouraged and we knew this was going to be a process and we're ready and committed to our puppy but I think I was just anticipating a more positive trainer attitude.
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