Category: Dog Training
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Dog Trainer DEI
“If our goal is to raise the overall standard of life for dogs and families, no single ideology will get us there. It will take a broad spectrum of approaches.”
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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, who built a small square house with nothing fancy about it, slept peacefully.When the builder complained that the storm was…
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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 clients hesitate with corrections, progress usually stalls. Unless you know how to turn hesitation into consistency—and consistency into real results.…
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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, speak, and structure interaction in dog-like ways, their cues require less effort, less rehearsal, less correction. The relationship itself becomes…
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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 rhythms, families with unique dynamics, and people carrying their own needs and limitations. A universal checklist can feel reassuring to…
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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.
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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.
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There is No Missing Technique
And there’s no magical “method.” When I look back at the time I have spent over the past year coaching professional dog trainers, there is one thing that stands out above the rest. Trainers come to me from many different backgrounds and many different experience levels. While some trainers are…
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How to Feel More Confident in Private Lessons
Dog trainers often come to me for help with their private lessons. Commonly, a dog trainer will say, “I have this client coming in in a few days, Their dog is (name the behavior problem of choice), I know the owner needs more foundation, but I’m not totally sure what…