05/01/2026
We have an epidemic of stressed out, neurotic, ill-behaved dogs. And the answer most often given by professionals and online “experts” is to do more stuff—‘cause that’ll help ‘em relax, find peace, and make better decisions.
No. No fu***ng no.
Your problem dog almost certainly doesn’t need more snappy obedience, more brain puzzles, more aimless wandering around the house or yard, or more exercising them into oblivion.
Your dog already has a full, non-stop plate of sensory inputs coming from a very noisy human environment—that includes you and the rest of the world—which means the last thing their overwhelmed brains and bodies need is more “stuff” to process and contend with.
Of course this requires the obligatory qualifiers. I’m not saying don’t obedience train your dog. I’m not saying don’t include brain stimulating activities. I’m not saying your dog has to be shackled to a place cot. I’m not saying you shouldn’t exercise your dog.
What I am saying is that we’ve gotten so far away from a more natural, lowkey, relaxed, less input, less activity, less go-go-go world… that our dogs are mirroring much of the same problems we see in modern human life… and are doing about as well.
There’s simply too much input, for all of us.
Seeing as this is a dog training page, I’ll leave the human coaching to others—but let’s tackle a few things you can do for your dog. And maybe you’ll learn something valuable as well.
You CAN train a more relaxed, natural, strictly functional obedience without it becoming an activity that creates edgy, overly-aroused, anticipatory, adrenaline junkies. Avoid aiming for and conditioning only high-speed reactions—slow things way down. Avoid constant amped releases to high rewards. Avoid prioritizing motion over stillness.
You CAN engage in activities that your dog finds extremely rewarding, enjoyable, and beneficial. Off-leash excursions are truly the greatest reward and an incredible healthy way to fulfill your dog’s need for mental stimulation. Relaxed, structured, often slower than what you think is best walks are also fantastic. Play, not just throwing a ball, but actually engaging in back and forth between you is a fantastic and truly enriching outlet.
You CAN allow your dog the freedom to wander freely. But constant and often anxious wandering, following, hyper-vigilance is bad news. If you’ve conditioned duration down or place, you’ve taught your dog how to relax—which they will often happily choose on their own, and IF they do need help, you can offer it.
You CAN—and of course should—exercise your dog daily. And doing so without leaning excessively on exercise as a crutch to create good behavior. A well trained dog is well behaved whether they’ve exercised or not. And excessive exercise creates 1/ an athlete you can’t out work, 2/ an adrenaline j***y, 3/ obsessive focus on the next session.
Stop making this stuff so fu***ng complicated, and destructive. Have your dog properly obedience trained to a high standard—but with a focus on calm. Teach your dog how to be still and relaxed in a busy world—dogs don’t know how to do this until we teach them—duration work works wonders for the body and mind. Learn to prioritize (and value) downtime to the same degree you prioritize (and value) activity. Plenty of crate time and just chilling out (without you having constantly touch, talk to, treat) will work wonders. Have fun and exercise your dog in a healthy, natural, balanced, non-obsessive fashion.
PS, if you saw the amount of “less” we do with all the training dogs who come through our program, and transform from the wildly challenging cases who initially arrived, into the calm, relaxed, well-behaved, happy and healthy dogs who leave… you’d likely be shocked.
PPS, it’s counterintuitive, but if you’ll do less, you’ll see far more good come from it.
