Arrive Dog Training

If there was one concept I could get owners to truly devote some serious time to contemplating, understanding, and implementing, it would be this.

All the major, truly problematic, quality-of-life impacting behaviors you’re dealing with now were once tiny little moments of seeming insignificance to you — but which were anything but insignificant to your dog.

Whether it was the bolting out of the crate like a maniac; the jamming through the front door dragging you with them; the pulling and zig-zagging on walks; the not-so-intense “curious” and “playful” staring and barking at other dogs on walks; the following you endlessly through the house and never learning to be alone and always being pet and talked to; the chaotic and constant motion in the house with whining and barking and no ability to settle; the over-the-top charging of the door every time someone approached; the tense and quiet body language (and maybe even low growling) when you approached your dog when they had a favorite toy or food, or you dared to sit too close to them on the couch or bed; the “innocent” jumping up on you or others in a pushy and impolite fashion; the fairly taught commands that were consistent blown off when incompatible with the dog’s desires… and on and on.

All of the above typically start off as something fairly mild and seemingly benign — and slowly, moment by insignificant moment, allowance by insignificant allowance, push by insignificant push the snowball of truly problematic behavior begins to form. And soon enough you have something truly life-impacting on your hands — and because it all occurred so slowly, and so incrementally, you scratch your head trying to figure out how you and your dog got here.

But for the trainers out there, they know exactly how you both got here. Because sadly, they’ve seen this pattern over and over and over.

And that’s why, if you’re working with someone experienced and wise, you’ll hear them pushing you over and over to learn to re-see the small moments for what they really are: the gateways to either your dog’s best, or your dog’s worst.

PS, and if you want to know how we undo all this and retrain your dog — and how you can do the same — simply reverse this process. See every small inappropriate moment and interaction as profoundly important, and respond accordingly. Wise and experienced trainers don’t try to tackle your dog’s worst stuff in its worst moment or presentation, no, they go after all the small moments which have unhealthy flavors to them and build relationship leverage and momentum there. And with diligence and consistency, they manage to slowly melt the snowball that you’ve created via allowance, and build another one that’s healthy, enjoyable, and safe.

While there’s plenty of folks who will happily tell you no such thing is needed, and your heart will happily agree with them, reality doesn’t much care about those pedaling falsehoods, or your emotional preferences.

We can continue to go down this road of denial and delusion, but I promise you you’ll only end up deeper in the struggle—and so will your dog.

There’s a reason any honest and knowledgeable trainer can typically stop most of the unwanted behaviors that are making your life miserable; and do so close to immediately—because they’re not enveloped in denial or delusion. Sure they have more skills and knowledge, but their primary advantage is a firm grasp on reality and an unwillingness to dance around it.

And a large part of that embrace of reality is the embrace of skillfully applied, emotionally neutral punishment. Of course they teach the other stuff—the behaviors you DO want—but that’s easy…both to do and to talk about. Punishment is the elephant in the room; the elephant very few want to look squarely in the eyes.

That all said, it’s your life and your call. You get to do this dog training and dog-living-with thing however you want. But from where I stand, and from the dogs and owners I see who are both struggling and miserable and in need of help, the avoidance of that which can transform all this struggle and misery is both selfish and emotionally immature.

Choosing to bring a dog into your life SHOULD mean choosing to do all that is beneficial for them, including—perhaps especially including—that which is difficult, uncomfortable, and emotionally challenging.

Let’s make the toxicity of selfishness at the cost of those in our care something we find less worthy of celebration, and more worthy of condemnation.

This of course doesn’t mean you can’t enjoy, dote on, and appropriately indulge your dog. It means that your job is to ensure that your dog’s deeper needs are prioritized over your superficial ones. Which means, enjoy them — but keep them healthy and balanced, even when you’d rather do otherwise.

Because if you ask just about any trainer, they’ll tell you that the human’s need to spoil their dog for their own pleasure, and refrain from the balancing act of sharing proper discipline in equal amounts to the spoiling — is the biggest hurdle to success.

PS, And for all those who are triggered and already madly typing away an outraged response of “I spoil my dogs and they’re perfect!”, please extend your outrage to all those unlucky dogs — who are most dogs — who are nowhere near perfect, and are instead terrible messes.

PPS, And I’m pretty certain the word “perfect” gets an awful lot of flexibility/re-interpretation/latitude when it’s being used as an emotional shield to deflect guilt and dereliction of responsibility.

Here’s a quick leadership checklist for all of you owners out there looking to make things as healthy as possible with you and your dog.

You’ll notice there’s no actual obedience training included in this list. This is the stuff we do WITH all of the obedience work that helps shift mindset, attitude, create impulse control, and fosters healthy deferential relationship dynamics.

When you combine this list with all the on and off-leash obedience we do, the duration/mindset work, along with addressing any specific behavior issues — you find yourself with a comprehensive, and deeply effective training/lifestyle program/approach that goes far beyond superficial obedience work.

And while the stuff on this list might seem like tiny, inconsequential, nit-picky stuff, you’d be surprised just how profound of a positive/helpful shift is created by prioritizing and addressing them — and you’d be equally surprised just how profound of a negative/undermining shift is created when they’re dismissed and ignored.

Because these are seemingly benign, “no big deal moments”, I watch owner after owner focus hard on the big and obvious obedience, while they let the profoundly important leadership stuff slip by. And trust me, their relationship and their dog’s overall behavior suffers for it.

So honesty time! How do you stack up against the list? Let me know in the comments. :)

The dog: so I just get better rewards when I guard from you? 🫡

If you’re struggling with resource guarding, we have a full step by step course on how to eliminate that behavior.

All courses can be found on solidk9academy.com

E collar trained dogs actually have *more* freedom?? Blasphemy 😅😂

With rare exception (true genetic anomalies), severe aggression, reactivity, separation anxiety, resource guarding, and chronic fear don’t just appear. They are practiced into existence.

This matters—whether your goal is to prevent these problems entirely or you’re already working to reverse them.

There are two main reasons these issues develop:

1. The early signs are subtle. Because most people don’t understand how serious behavior problems are built—and hope the behavior is a phase—they don’t treat those early moments as something that requires action.

2. Owners do notice the early warning signs and do understand where they can lead—but they don’t know how to address them correctly.

The critical takeaway: the worst behavior problems are built slowly, by humans. Your responsibility is to understand how that snowball forms—and how to stop it. Simple. Not easy.

Follow trainers who teach clear, logical, common-sense principles—and who consistently demonstrate results that reflect that logic.

TLDR: the bad stuff is created drip by drip by drip. It’s also reversed the exact same way.