-
The Builder and the Wind
A builder spent months designing an elaborate tower.It had curves, carvings, and a winding staircase that spiraled like art.But when the first strong wind came, the tower leaned. His neighbor,… Read more
-
The Rulebook No One Wrote: Rethinking Accountability in Dog Training
One of the most common frustrations trainers share is this: Clients struggle to be consistent with corrections. Sometimes the issue is assertiveness. Other times it’s simply follow-through. Either way, When… Read more
-
Language Arts for Dog Trainers
The real work of a trainer is not simply to act as a translator between species, but to teach the human to become bilingual. When a person learns to move,… Read more
-
Serve Your Clients, Not Yourself
Many trainers carry a universal vision of what every dog should know: sit, down, heel, place, etc. But dogs do not live in universals. They live in households with particular… Read more
-
You Should Feel Bad About Using Punishment
In dog training, punishment is a loaded word. For many owners—and even for some professionals—it carries an emotional weight that is hard to ignore. And maybe that’s the point. Read more
-
How Reward and Punishment Studies Miss the Point
The problem is, dogs aren’t levers on a Skinner box. They are social beings living inside of social systems, and those systems—family, household, relationship—fundamentally change what rewards and punishments mean. Read more
-
Pressure Motivates, Release Educates
Pressure is a term that I use a lot when discussing dog training. The concept of pressure is somewhat central to my system of training and influencing dogs’ behavior, and understanding… Read more
-
The Relativity of Pressure
Is training with rewards, without the use of physical corrections inherently more ethical than training with which utilizes other tools such as a leash and training collar, or an electronic… Read more
-
If You Aren’t Listening, It’s Just A Lecture
Around this time last year, I coined a term, and a system I called Conversational Leash Work™. The idea behind this approach to leash handling is to utilize the leash… Read more
-
Conversational Leash Work and the Future of Dogmanship
Last week I had the pleasure of hosting a couple professional trainers at my center to offer them some education and insight on some of the training programs I offer,… Read more