When does a hot dog wear a harness?

"C'mon, honey, let's pick up a cheap hot dog at the Huge Box store. Then we'll go to the opera."

You and your blushing bride pick up the hot dog at the front of the store, and an hour later, leave with a flat screen TV, thirty rolls of paper towels, and a bushel of rice. Well done, hot dog. You performed flawlessly, you loss leader, you.

Brick and mortar pet stores use dog training classes as their hot dogs. Cheap and convenient, these loss leaders fail to pay for themselves. They do something far more critical.

Feet in the store. 

Once your brain tricks you into going for your Wednesday night boring, scripted class taught by any person with a heartbeat, it tells your feet to go there for your pet's needs. That is the power of pet store classes. They are not designed to provide good training.

There is no shame in loss leaders. They provide a good way for a business to create clients. The mistake occurs when the consumer believes they are purchasing a quality meal or a quality recall.

Independent trainers have no loss leaders. We don't offer them because we don't have a plethora of leashes, collars, food, or lavender-scented beds to sell. These are the high markup items. Pet stores are happy to lose money on a pet training class. You'll come back to buy the stuff that makes them a profit.

Pet stores and dog training have been together since pet stores sold their first hamster. The pet store gets forty percent of the class fee, along with the leash, collar, and all the bounty you can buy on Wednesday night. It's a fair deal for the store and the trainer. 

But it isn't for you if you expect to buy good training.

If you and Sammy find yourselves in a pet store class doing recalls through the toy aisle to showcase the high-markup items, enjoy it. Then, find a class where the trainer offers better training for a higher price and create a well-trained dog.

Cheap roofs aren't good, and good roofs aren't cheap.