The Good Dog Training And Rehabilitation

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Bellingham, WA
The Good Dog Training And Rehabilitation

World Renown Trainer, Author, Teacher
Transforming Dogs And Humans
Phoenix, AZ
Gig Harbor, WA Hello!

At TGD we’ve been training dogs and helping owners find answers and find their way for over 15 years. We’re experts in everything from puppy training to adult off-leash obedience, but are likely best known for our extensive work with extremely serious behavior cases. If you have any questions about our programs, pricing, philosophy, or are looking to book a spot, please visit our website at www.thegooddogtrainingneworleans.com

We also have an extensive line of our own very special training gear (leashes, collars etc.) as well as training programs and books that many owners and trainers swear by. These are available at www.TheGoodDogWay.com

Thanks for stopping by. :)

11/02/2026

Turning around a severely reactive, mentally chaotic, and exceptionally tough puller…

Here’s a great little teaser video with one of our current client dogs, Tug Boat. His family, who although they love him dearly, are at their absolute wit’s end with him. They’re unable to walk him, unable to take him anywhere, and he’s an absolute disaster in the house.

So I wanted to capture his first walk to show our process. Unlike many others who prefer to not work on the walk or reactivity straightaway, we do. We aren’t interested in keeping him under threshold a million miles away, avoiding any and all stress, and we don’t need to build a deep relationship prior to—gasp—starting this weird thing called dog training. We just start, and strangely it always works.

I allowed him to do his thing for a bit so you could see him being an absolute nut case, and then we got to work.

I did my usual e-collar heel intro, which helped quite a bit, but we still needed to reel that big boy in a bit more. So then I added some e-collar 180’s and e-collar turn-ins. Then I moved to corrections.

By the end of the 20 minute walk—which also had some dog, horse, and people distractions—we had something profoundly different than we did a half an hour ago.

Is it amazing? No. Is it perfect? Absolutely not. Does he look like he’s thinking extra hard and trying to hang with the new and challenging rules, you bet.

Of course it’ll only get better and smoother and more relaxed with more reps, but really nice progress for his very first walk.

Oh, and to show the true, daily progress, I also included pieces of his second and third walks. So you can be the judge of his progress and how he looks using our approach.
——
The full video is live on my Patreon channel. It was a messy ride and some stormy seas, but we managed to bring Tug Boat safely into harbor. ;)

www.patreon.com/thegooddog

11/02/2026

That pulling, chaotic, reactive walk that’s driving you crazy — it was created by way of countless moments of allowance of pushy, bratty, overly excited behavior that happened long before you ever hit the streets.

It’s like letting your kids be bratty, entitled monsters at home, because it’s not that big of a deal — and then heading out to a nice dinner and telling them they’d better behave.

Haha…

If you want a fighting chance at a nice, polite, enjoyable, and safe walk, it’s time to take a look at all the non-walk moments occurring between you and your dog and have an honest conversation with yourself about how it all looks.

While it’s possible, it’s wildly unlikely that you’ve got an amazingly well behaved dog in all other contexts, and yet your walk is a disaster. Everything matters, and everything is a conversation that either tells your dog there are rules and standards — and consequences for breaching them… or not.

If the walk is a mess, START with reversing/transforming the first 5 items on the above list — that’s a solid beginning. And then, when you’re ready to make some major positive changes, take a look at the final one, prepare yourself for a serious challenge, and then get to work.

11/02/2026

BREAKING: Another force-free last-chance behavior specialist, weighs in on the negatives of prongs and e-collars!

This one was especially painful to sit through and edit. The tone, the delivery, the hair flips, the questionable brain function, the complete lack of logic. (Luckily for you I edited it down considerably.)

Of course this “celebrity dog trainer”, self-described behavior specialist, and last chance aggressive-dog-saving-guru… has precisely zero videos showing her work with these “last chance” cases she’s so passionate about saving. Of course there’s plenty of cutesy training tips with puppies and doodles, and lots of exceptionally fancy lifestyle videos—her’s, not the dogs.

When I see still like this I always ask myself: “Self, who the hell is watching this and thinking ‘You know, this lady really seems to know what she’s talking about. Methinks I should give her boatloads of my time, money, and hope.’”

All I can say is that if folks can watch this and feel like it’s a solid presentation of training knowledge, experience, and expertise, well, I guess you get what you deserve. Not to be harsh, but jeez, this is hard to watch.

Anyway, my apologies, but as I said, if I gotta sit through this stuff, so do you. And so does poor Bubbas. 🤣

11/02/2026

Stop rushing to correct…

One of the most common misunderstandings, and thus mistakes made by owners (and many trainers) is the belief that they have 1-3 seconds to correct/address an unwanted behavior.

This causes them to try to rush sharing the consequence for an unwanted behavior, OR because they think they only have a 1-3 second window they’ll let important moments of addressing behavior issues go because they don’t have their training tools close at hand.

Here’s the problem. We all are exposed to positive markers (clicker, whistle, “Yes”, “Good” etc) being used to identify desired behavior AND being used as a bridge between the behavior and the reward being delivered. We’ve seen dolphins and whales getting a whistle for doing a good job and then swimming back to get the fish. And we’ve seen dogs being clicker trained to do something where the desired behavior gets a click and is leisurely rewarded for it.

But due to society’s disdain for reality, we rarely, if ever see a dog engaging in an unwanted behavior, then hear a negative marker used, and then witness the actual correction, negative consequence, punishment (choose the word you prefer) being delivered.

So due to the lack of general exposure to the phenomenon, AND the unfortunate nonsense that has been openly propagated that you indeed only have 1-3 seconds to correct a behavior (this has been purposely done to make punishing behavior a scary/fallout-drenched affair), many owners and yes trainers don’t understand that markers are symmetrical in their use and effect.

All this to say, if you consistently attach a positive or negative marker to behavior, the marker enables you to identify desired and undesired behavior precisely, AND it creates a bridge between the moment of identification and when the positive or negative consequence is delivered.

So, no need to rush. When your dog engages in an unwanted behavior, simply say “No” to identify the precise behavior that is the problem, and then share the negative consequence in a relaxed and effective fashion. Easy peasy.

11/02/2026

Let’s set the record straight. There is no set/static working level. That’s why I don’t use the term “working level.” It’s supposed to mean: whatever level “works” in a given situation for the dog, but it’s come to be interpreted as a set level that simply works everywhere regardless of the circumstances — which confuses the heck out of owners.

So owners will tell me their dog’s working level is a 6. I then ask is it a 6 when someone knocks on the door, or when trying to recall your dog off a bunny or? And their answer is usually a confused look.

This is why I use two distinctly different terms:
1/ The Perception Level (The first level the dog perceives the stim at.)
2/ The Motivational Level (The constantly changing level that is sufficient to motivate the dog to do something about the stim.)

The perception level has zero to do with being motivational. A dog can feel the stim and absolutely not care a whit about it. The motivational level will be moving all over — up and down — as the dog’s brain/body becomes more or less aroused/interested/flushed with chemicals.

Anyone skilled with an e-collar knows that it’s essential to be hyper-fluid with the levels — if we’re going to properly motivate/influence the dog… because I promise the dog’s mental state, reactions, and thus their needs level wise will be hyper-fluid.

If you’ve watched any of my e-collar training videos with a soundbox, and if you listen carefully, you’ll hear soundbox conveying the constantly shifting levels — up, down, down, up — as I’m dialing in the dog’s shifting motivational level in each moment.

To do the kind of work I share in these clips one absolutely has to have a fairly advanced skillset as far as being able to fluidly adjust the e-collar levels without looking at the remote. Attempting any of this stuff with fairly static e-collar levels will not achieve the same results. Improper stim levels mean either an overwhelmed dog who will struggle, or an underwhelmed dog that you’re simply dragging around by their leash… and thinking you’re doing e-collar work.

So for anyone who thinks their dog has a single, static “working level”, or is in search of it, you’ll only find that to be the case when you find a dog with a mind and body that responds to the ever changing world around it in a singular, static fashion…. which unless they’re stuffed—which is entirely possible in the current training world, lol—won’t be happening.

11/01/2026

Ever wonder why all the posts and responses from force-free trainers sound as if they’re reading from the same script?

Well, that’s because they are.

When individuals become ideologically possessed, or consumed, you’ll find that the individual—as far as thinking independently, critically, and courageously, and as far as using their own observations, insights, and experiences—strangely disappears.

This is the logical outcome when all of the above critical functions are outsourced to the ideology instead of the individual.

Said plainly, the individual becomes parasitized by the ideology, and they become a living, breathing, human-esque host who does the ideology’s bidding.

That’s why you’ll hear the same buzzwords, the same catchphrases, and, most damagingly, the same conclusions.

If one thinks about it, on the surface it’s quite the arrangement. In exchange for living and expressing your true individuality, you simply adopt the identity of the ideology. It does all the thinking, all the talking, and takes all the risks. You get belonging, status, attention, financial gains, and the familiar arrogance that ideological certainty provides. All you have to do is disappear, or be consumed.

Of course, ideological possession isn’t limited to the dog-training world. We find it everywhere. If you listen and watch carefully, you’ll see and hear the same behavior patterns in countless places like politics, religion, and many other culturally impactful domains. (I’m sure you can all relate to bumping into ideological possession and wanting to bang your head against the wall as the identical beliefs and words—something akin to magical incantations you’ve become all too familiar with—come tumbling out yet again.)

Regardless of where it arises or the arguments it’s confronted with, it always has the maddening sameness for those who encounter it. It’s the madness of hearing a human whose brain has indeed been consumed—or parasitized—confidently regurgitating a copy-and-paste message and response that never deviates or updates according to new information or experiences that confront the individual. The message and response only chang

11/01/2026

Pre-“training” nonsense, play, and strategic behavioral exploration with Migz the human aggressive Akita…

Before we jump into our “official” training (of course we all know that we’re always training—but before we do the more controlled obedience work), we’re just being goofy, revved up, and letting off some steam.

But, is that all we’re doing?

Of course not.

I’m seeing if when he feels things are at their loosest, when I’m at my softest, and when he’s at his most aroused if he makes any bad decisions.

I’m actually allowing him to jump on me to see if to goes anywhere bad. He loves to jump up and kind of bear hug you, which could easily go sideways if his mindset went sideways, so we have to scope it out.

Remember:

1/ if you always keep the dog chill, relaxed, calm, and controlled (especially in an obedience command), you’ll never see what the dog will do when they’re truly at liberty and allowed to explore different levels of arousal—which is what the end goal should always be. You can easily fool yourself into thinking you’ve made far more progress with a dog than you actually have if you constantly use a s**t ton of management and control. (Lots of trainers make this mistake.)

2/ you can disagree with this, but I’m a firm believer that if you’re doing true behavior mod work, YOU have to explore the risky spaces, push boundaries, and take (strategic) chances—and come to terms that if someone is going to get hurt, it’s your responsibility that that someone be you and not your client, or one of the family members, or someone in the community. Migz could easily have attacked me when he was up on his hind legs and had his front paws around me (he’s done this many times with me)—and I want to know if he will or not. Do I want to get bitten? Absolutely not, but I know that if things go sideways, I have a much better chance of handling it effectively, with the least amount of damage compared to a “civilian.”

10/31/2026

I’m sorry, but I make no apologies for insisting on using the very best tools and training in order to live the very best (biggest, most included, and safest) life with my dog.

I’d recommend you imagine and explore what being able to consistently “insist” occurs behaviorally with your dog might create in your own lives together.

Because here’s the thing, most owners who haven’t tried e-collar training have no idea what they’re missing. They can’t even imagine having their dogs off-leash reliable, or able to hang out at cafes, or being part of family events without creating chaos, or just taking a nice pleasant walk without pulling or reactivity. I speak from experience. Having my dogs’ first 6 year of life missing out on e-collar training is sincerely one of my biggest regrets. We missed SO much fun, adventure, inclusion, peace.

PS, “insisting” is just code for leading and taking responsibility for guiding your dog through this life in the very best way possible.

PPS, can you lead, take responsibility, and guide your dog sans E-Collar? Sure. But I promise you the headaches, limitations, and especially risks you encounter will be ones that I won’t. :)

PPPS, I insist on using e-collars for myself and all of my clients not because we want to micromanage and “dominate” our dogs lives, but because we want to gift them the very biggest and best lives in the short time they’re with us. ❤️

10/31/2026

What happens when owners reject the popular, the accepted, you-better-adhere-to-what-we-say-or-else messaging… and instead decide to grow a pair and think for themselves?

You get videos like this. 🙌

What this owner is conveying in this clip is precisely what I’ve been shouting about for years. What’s that? That the answers that all of you struggling, in pain, upset and overwhelmed owners are looking for are out there—right under your noses.

But you can only find these answers when you choose to grow a pair, think for yourself, and be willing to deal with the activist-esque nonsense from the cowardly and unthinking herd of either the indoctrinated and brainwashed, or the ignorant and parroting masses… who are determined to do everything to prevent you from finding these answers.

That’s why I want to bang my head against the wall on the daily. Because I KNOW—because I witness it over and over and over—that the overwhelming challenges that so many of you face, are absolutely resolvable… and often resolvable in a mind numbingly short timeframe.

But that necessitates that you reject the bulls**t and the social pressure and find your courage. Because, regardless of whether the answers are out there, and that many of them are free, or incredibly inexpensive, you’ll never find them if you’re already certain that A/ they don’t exist, B/ they are abusive and morally unacceptable.

Guys. Don’t you see, I’ve got zero incentive to tell you this. I’m not going to make any money off of it. If anything, I’ll just catch more s**t from those who despise that I tell you this so straightforwardly. I tell you because it makes me insane to watch so many of you struggle unnecessary, and to have your time, money, and hope robbed from you by charlatans who care not what happens to you or your dog.

PS, give her a follow and some love at Jen Sotolongo | Off-Leash Adventure Dog Trainer

10/30/2026

Let’s break this down in a few super simple examples.

The dog who is punished for jumping learns that everything else they’re doing besides jumping is good to go.

The dog who is punished for barking at dogs on walks learns that everything else they’re doing besides barking at dogs on walks is good to go.

The dog who is punished for whining in the crate learns that everything else they’re doing besides whining in the crate is good to go.

So if we get past the knee-jerk response to the nonsensical BS we’ve been fed, we find that punishment actually DOES teach what to do. It teaches that EVERYTHING but that which is being punished is good to go.

Sounds like a pretty clear and healthy conversation. :)

PS, for all those who passionately, and ignorantly claim that punishing the dog in any of the above circumstances will create a negative association with the people the dog was jumping on, the dogs who were being barked at, the crate the dog was whining in… sorry, that’s some of the deepest and most toxic owner derailing propaganda around. The only negative association that occurs is between the dog and their actions — because that’s the only thing that controls the consequence, and thus by simple logic, the dog’s actions are the predictor of whether a consequence occurs or not — so the trigger or thing that is close to the dog has zero to do with the association.

PSS, for all those who get emotionally derailed when the word “punishment” is used. Please look up operant conditioning. The context here is dog training, so let’s not get our emotional un**es in a bunch. Punsihment in this context simply means anything that reduces or stops a behavior.. which could be a stern look, a spoken “no”, a sq**rt bottle, all the way up to a leash pop, an e-collar correction, or a bonker toss.

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Bellingham, WA
98225-98229

Website

http://www.thegooddogway.com/

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