11/25/2025
Responding to a troll comment I receivedā¦
In my email newsletters ( You can sign-up here. Itās free! š https://happyhounds.myflodesk.com/newsletter) I like to take one great question I received that week and answer it in-depth for everyone to benefit from.
In my last newsletter, I instead responded a statement from a Youtube troll, and I received so much positive feedback from it I thought Iād share it here as well!
(As a force-free dog trainer, I get comments like this all the time from people who want to justify harsh, unnecessary training methods. Theyāre not interested in learning ā so I just block and move on. But in case this is something youāve wondered about (or youāve seen similar criticism online), letās talk about it!)
Q: (Statement, actually) āā¦ this will all fall apart as soon as you encounter competing reinforcers in the real-world. The only thing you'll teach your dog with this is that your commands and expectations towards them are OPTIONAL. Please educate yourself and stay away of this kind of people that know nothing about dogs living in their princess worlds.ā
A: Short answer: Youād be amazed how well āprincess worldā dogs walk when training is built on respect instead of fear ššš¾
Long answer: I'll ignore the blatantly anti-female language (thatās a whole other conversation about how many angry men show up in my comments). But seriously ā what āprincess worldā is this? I live and train dogs in a large, busy city. These methods work everywhere.
When someone says āthis will all fall apart as soon as you encounter competing reinforcers,ā what theyāre really admitting is that their own training wasnāt proofed for the environment theyāre now asking their dog to perform in.
Thatās not the dogās fault ā or the training methodās. And the good news? Itās fixable.
Iāve talked about this plenty on my channel, but letās revisit the concept:
Why does my dog (or a clientās dog) reliably āDrop it!ā when they find a chicken bone on the sidewalk ā a competing reinforcer far more valuable than any treat I can offer in return?
Why do they listen to āLeave it!ā when a squirrel darts past ā when Iāll never be able to ācompeteā with the thrill of chasing it?
Yet, time after time, the dogs I train don't struggle with these requests.
The answer: repetitions.
If youāre trying to use treats as bribes to compete with real-world distractions like squirrels, youāll probably lose.
But thatās not how proper reward-based training works.
Instead, we set dogs up for success in controlled environments, repeat those lessons until theyāre solid, and then gradually add distractions. Thatās how reliability is built.
Never underestimate the power of a solid reward history.
š Watch this video (How to Make Reward-Based Dog Training Work (Even Around Distractions!) for an entertaining 3-minute reminder of this concept.
Think about it this way: if the first time you ever tried to park a car was in a busy Costco parking lot, how would that go?
Thereās a reason we start in empty lots!
That foundational practice builds skills that make the harder environments manageable later.
That's why I suggest starting leash training indoors (https://youtu.be/4fUVXntWPOM)
Or training ādrop it!ā when there's nothing in the dogs mouth. (https://youtu.be/4sDCPXcZkEM)
Build the foundation, then increase difficulty gradually.
And finally, about that āThe only thing you'll teach your dog with this is that your commands and expectations towards them are OPTIONALā claim ā yup!
When weāre working with a thinking, feeling, sentient being, it should always be optional.
Our job as their guardian is to make the āright choiceā the one they want to choose ā not through punishment, fear, or pain, but through fun, trust, and reward-based learning.
If you want total control and obedience without free will, get a stuffed animal (and therapy).
Sentient beings deserve choice. Always.
