Best dog trainer in XXX? Who writes these and what do they really mean?

Recently a group member of our Reactive and Aggressive Dog Community Group (A Free Resource and Support Group) asked me to vet a few trainers in their area to see if there was one with the credentials they needed and if there were any red flags.

I reviewed the first two, KPA graduates, one was also an IAABC and Pet Professional Guild Credentialed Pro, and the other was a CCPDT member and graduated from Jean Donaldson’s academy for dog trainers. The third one, however, led me down a rabbit hole.

The first thing I encountered when I got on their site was “VOTED BEST X COUNTY DOG TRAINER by the editors of (we will se a pseudonym here Animal Issues)” and I thought to myself, well that’s interesting. It states voted and by some publication, I have never even heard of before. So I scrolled past the numerous videos of groups of dogs on prong collars, all lined up in public, heavily panting and I opened a new tab in my browser to look up this publication.

The first thing I notice is there is no way to contact anyone on this website unless you click on a link titled ““Done for you” dog trainer marketing service”. I also recognized the name from a FB group of someone who does SEO work for trainer’s websites. As I read further it was a self-promotion page with no ability to sign up for this weekly newsletter. You could however buy one of the numerous books this person had available on Amazon, watch their training videos on Amazon, and numerous dog training articles in a section titled as follows “Most of these articles were written by myself and contributing writers and editors over the past twenty+ years.” Including an entire section on why they moved from dog training to marketing for dog trainers.

Here is a screenshot of the, disclaimer I would guess, in regard to the voted Best by…. that I had seen earlier. It has left me a little Cringe. Because it’s not voting, it’s not a magazine, it’s a dog trainer marketing company. They get paid to help with marketing dog trainers. This isn’t an unbiased review situation.

Personally, I find these tactics to be unethical and deceptive and I feel it is beyond important to research these types of BEST IN and VOTED #1 organizations to determine what is valid and the criteria they hold the businesses up to in order to be nominated.

So now, when doing research, please make sure you take these comments with a grain of rice and really look into HOW they are being “voted” or named “best in”. Just another reason why we need regulation in our industry. The public is not protected by marketing like this.