06/07/2026
I’m always incredibly appreciative of the commitment people make for their dogs. This owner drove several hours and stayed in a hotel last night just to make an early morning appointment. I never take that lightly.
One thing I see a lot especially with high-drive dogs is people doing all the right things… but sometimes actually doing too many things.
Food, toys, obedience, movement, these can all be incredibly valuable tools. But if we’re constantly using them to move a dog through a situation, the dog may never actually learn how to process it.
Today we worked on slowing things down.
Less managing, less masking, and more teaching the dog how to exist in the moment without needing a ball, food, or a task to constantly focus on.
Because when these things aren’t present, the dog constantly whines and is looking for that crutch.
We need to be careful about how we’re using both rewards and corrections.
This dog is very ball driven. The ball works. It helps her move through situations and stay engaged, but at some point we have to ask whether the dog is actually learning to deal with the situation or simply focusing on the ball instead.
Today we recreated something similar to a vet visit and used one of our calm board & train dogs for the sake of the exercise.
What was interesting was that earlier on, Mom had given a couple of e-collar corrections to stop her from reacting to the other dog. The reaction stopped, but the dog immediately went into avoidance, avoidance isn’t always bad but not when you know the dog is looking for feedback.
This is where things can get tricky.
If we’re constantly correcting a dog for reacting, but the dog doesn’t actually know what to do instead, we can end up with a dog that is avoiding the triggers rather than ever learning how to navigate it.
This is where some dogs may tolerate some trigger yet explode at others. It’s usually not even about the trigger itself, it’s a build-up over time
The correction isn’t the problem. Corrections aren’t bad. But they need to have intentional meaning, just like our rewards do.
This is also why I’m such a fan of teaching the art of doing nothing before adding triggers into the picture. If a dog can’t simply exist, settle, and process the world without needing constant direction, rewards, or corrections, they’re going to struggle when we start adding difficulty.
The goal isn’t to distract the dog from the trigger. The goal is for the dog to learn how to work through the situation.
As a bonus, one of our current board & train dogs got to help with the session today. Always cool watching dogs help other dogs.
