07/22/2026
Well... this is embarassing.
Story time:
I always tell prospects and clients that training fails, to some degree, and at some point. For everyone.
It's a fact. Our dogs are living, breathing creatures that have instinctual impulses sometimes.
So... myself, my kiddo, and my dogs (Beau & Minnie, pictured below) were in our front yard. My kid was digging in the dirt, because why not. Beau and Minnie were sniffing around doing their thing.
We've been in this scenario 100's of times before.
Then my neighbor across the street, whom they love! , got home. They bounded across the street to say hi to him without permission. Then they started exploring his yard and our other neighbor's yards. No harm done.
Got back to our yard and my other neighbor from down the street came around our corner and they bounded over to her to say hi.
Thankfully her dog wasn't with her, because it's a little touchy around other dogs.
They got their pets, and she kept walking down the street to her house. Well...
Beau decided he would run back across the street to my neighbor's house and sniff the bushes.
Minnie went down the street with my other neighbor.
Ugh!
Do you think either one of them respected my recall? Nope
Did I foolishly not put their remote collars on because I forgot to charge them? Yep
Have my dogs backslid on their training regimen because I've been super busy training client dogs? You Betcha!
Moral of the story: Besides extreme feelings of embarrassment, even the pros have training failures sometimes. Whether it's not having the correct tools, or letting their dogs fall into old habits due to life getting busy.
But here's the big takeaway...
This was information. A setback, yes, but it provided information for a clearer path forward so we can better handle this when it happens again.
Keep up the great work with your dogs!
