Your trainer doesn't need to see the behaviour.
"How can you possibly help unless you see my dog lunging at other dogs/nipping the postie/pinching food from the side?!"
I promise, it's never necessary to set your dog up to fail for us to be able to help you.
You see, we BUILD behaviour, we don't correct or suppress behaviour.
If you want something; build it!
By making the new option more rewarding for your dog and removing the potential for them to rehearse the old behaviour, that's how we shape lasting behaviour change.
You see, practice makes permanent.
The more your dog practices barking, nipping, lunging, counter-surfing etc, the better they get at defaulting to that particular behaviour.
Neurons that fire together - wire together.
This is the opposite of what we want to achieve!
We build skills out of the context the original behaviour occurs in, digging the foundations.
Then we put the bricks on top, by slowly slivering down the stimulus gradient, ensuring the dog has all the skills they need to succeed.
Setting dogs up to fail to demonstrate behaviours is potentially really dangerous. Frustrated, stressed out dogs don't often make good decisions and situations can escalate.
It's not unusual to hear,
"Oh he's not doing it now you're here!"
That's because we always set dogs up to succeed.
We control the environment; not the dog.
And you'll never see demonstrative before and after videos here. It's not in your best interests or your dog's best interests.
We believe you when you say they lunge and bark - and we know exactly what that looks like!
If the day we visit you is the last day you ever see that behaviour - surely that's the absolute best outcome?