LK9 Online Dog Training and Coaching

06/03/2026

It is far better to remove stitches on a trained dog than it is trying to wrestle an untrained dog.

Just sayin'

06/03/2026

There's no moral high ground that starts off with "better off dead than..."

Yet we are constantly being told that killing a dog is better than training a dog.

Is euthanasia necessary? On occasion, yes, but not because of some virtue signaling bu****it about never punishing a dog for misbehavior.

I tell ya, if some of the dogs we see had been told "NO" on occasion in meaningful ways before adulthood, there would be far less dogs looking for new homes and far less bites, fights, and dogs in shelters.

Same with kids.

06/02/2026

My friend Tiffany up at AQK9 in Minnesota has some stuff to say.

Your Dog Almost Ruined Someone’s Day. It Could Happen Again Tomorrow.🐾

I train my dog — first, for their safety. 🦺Second, for my peace of mind. ☮️ Third, because I respect the people around me. ✊
If you’re reading this, I probably respect you more than you respect me — because when I’m in public, I think about how my dog’s behavior affects you, your dog, and your experience. Every time I pass someone with a dog lunging, pulling, and dragging them down the sidewalk, I think about how entitled that person is — caring only about what they feel, never about what everyone else has to absorb.

This past weekend, during our pack walk, one of my student’s dogs charged a woman walking her dog. My first thought wasn’t about the dog or the owner — it was about that woman and how terrified she felt. That’s the whole point of these walks: to show my students exactly how they need to respond in moments like that. Looking back, no apology was issued to her — and while there was no contact and the dog was 15 to 20 feet away, that apology should have happened immediately.

Here’s something most people get completely backwards: a dog on a leash isn’t automatically safer than a dog off leash. It’s actually scarier when an on-leash dog lunges at you from 6 feet away than when a trained off-leash dog holds its position. In that moment on our pack walk, I had more control over my two off-leash dogs than most people have over their leashed dogs on any given Tuesday. Think about that.

This is why you must have an on/off switch. An emergency recall. A sit-stay or a down-stay — whatever you want to call it. Because real life doesn’t give you a warning. The owner likely missed one small alert, one signal a second before — and that second is everything. This is where ultimate control matters.

And about the apology? Honestly — I’ve been charged by multiple dogs in my life. An apology after the fact serves no real purpose. My thoughts? Don’t let it happen again. The owner is a student of mine, and I know she understands this. She’s been charged by dogs too. Always come back to this: how did that feel? Now make a commitment to yourself that you will never make another person feel that way.

One more thing I need you to sit with: you’ve seen this person — maybe you are this person. Their dog runs free, totally carefree, until another dog appears in the distance. Suddenly the leash clips on, wraps tight around their hand, their body goes rigid. You know what that signals to the dog? Danger is coming. Tension rises the moment another dog and person enter their visual field. As my mentor says — that leash becomes a precursor to an unpleasant event. The freedom is gone. The calm is gone. Everything safe and comfortable disappears the second that leash goes on. And the dog remembers.

A loose, relaxed leash pass? That’s a completely different experience. But that’s not what’s happening out there.

The time to fix this is not after the next incident. It’s right now.

Drop a comment below — have you been on either side of this situation? I want to hear your thoughts. And if you’re ready to stop white-knuckling that leash and start building real, reliable control, reach out to me directly about lessons. This is exactly what I do, and I would love to help you and your dog get there.

05/22/2026

The Animaniacs are at the heels of every animal-concentric endeavor with the intent of eradicating animal ownership across the board. It’s no longer PETA and the assortment many other donation-driven, tax-exempt sh*tholes like the H$U$, who I understand re-branded recently. I suspect that was because of their tarnished image, and understanding how the human psyche works, banked on the collective short memory of the average American.

Terms like abuse, inhumane and cruel adorn their print and social media presence, while they show images of pain p**n to drive those donation dollars.

Folks feel guilt, send money, organization directors get fat paychecks, but nothing is really done for the animals.

The grunt work is handled by locals, who get no glory or assistance, while the large, easily recognizable organizations get all the media attention and all the subsequent donation dollars.

Anybody who wears a suit and tie wins, while the poop-covered ground crew wearing full-face respirators gets the burden of labor and the added expense.

We see this routinely with every big animal cruelty case. These large businesses (because that is really what they are) get the accolades, and the small, local shelters and rescues get all the animals, except a few cherry-picked profit generators, and all the additional expense for manpower and care costs.

We see the images carefully selected to invoke as much guilt and emotional trauma on its viewers, so they don’t feel bad about spending money on a cheap tee shirt or foreign-made bauble to remind them of their virtue.

But they didn’t care for any of these animals themselves. They just blindly threw money at an issue they thought someone else would be tasked with, leaving the heavy lifting to others.

Yes, everyone agrees that the insidious images of animals in filthy cages, rail-thin and in obvious discomfort are evidence of abuse, and nobody is disputing that it should never occur.

What also needs to occur is serious prosecution with serious consequences for perpetrators of such atrocities. Nobody disputes that, either.

What is not being addressed is the grey area between actual abuse and perceived abuse.

Suburban Sally getting verklempt over the neighbor dog barking- not chronically, but maybe in response to the delivery person, or landscaping company, or even a neighborhood jogger.

Immediately, neighborhood groups on Nextdoor, Facebook and elsewhere are flooded with accusations of neglect or abuse, and threats of actual violence against the owner of that dog, “If something isn’t done!”

Civility is dead. Common sense is also. Humans have turned into a tribe of vindictive, petty little as****es who truly believe their actions are justified for no other reason than they are ‘their’ beliefs, and ‘their’ rights to impose those beliefs on others.

We have weaponized terms like abuse and cruelty and have forged them into tools to wield power over people. We dislike our neighbor? Call animal control and fabricate some BS about their pets. Have an enemy? A competitor? Call the law and allege that you saw them beating a dog in their front yard.

Don’t think that has ever happened? Oh, my dear, sweet, summer child.

We accept these terms as parameters for how we should feed, train and care for dogs, under the scrutiny of social media, where everyone has a window, and therefore, everyone has an opinion.

A collar or leash is not abusive, unless it is activated in such a way as to deliberately cause harm. Ask any ‘force free’ hysteric and the mere image of them hanging on hooks in a trainer’s space is cause for these whingers to drag out their pitchforks and torches.

Same with crates and crate training. Same with raw feeding, same with immunization schedules, breeding, mutts or purebreds, ‘no-kill’ shelters… The list is endless.

We can all recognize obvious abuse and cruelty when we see it, but where things get dicey is when these things are alleged over a standard tool or accepted process, by folks who have little experience or understanding, but vivid imaginations.

When “Well, I heard on the internet (or best friend’s mother-in-law’s sister’s next-door neighbor, whatever)” or other dubious source, becomes the barometer through which all of these things are measured, we have a real problem. And it’s not a small one.

I spend an inordinate amount of time in the company of dogs. Alternately, I spend a lot of time in the company of their owners as well. I get a first-person perspective of human nature this way. It allows me the ability to apply critical observations with which to frame my language and ‘handle’ sensitive conversations made taboo by the omnipresent ‘Big Brother’ aspect of animal ownership in the 21st Century.

It’s scary out there.

Owners are deluded not thinking that raising their voice to their pet is cruel. Using leash pressure is cruel. Using different training devices is cruel. Telling their pet ‘NO!’ is cruel.

None of those things are cruel.

NOT training your dog is cruel. Getting frustrated with your dog because you never taught it how to behave within a specific set of boundaries is cruel. Sequestering your dog from company, or from going on adventures in the community because of their uncontrollable behavior is cruel.

Training is not cruel. There are thousands of people who train dogs that have never hurt a dog in their careers, but they are labeled cruel because they use devices or methods that other people have been told are cruel.

Tools are inert. Their appropriate application isn’t abuse. Are there outliers who use tools and methods badly? Absolutely.
And here come the naysayers who allege that the only thing treats did was make dogs fat.

Welp, not true. Many dogs ‘trained’ with food have been heavily reinforced for some profound aggression. Yes, I know it wasn’t the owners’ intent to do that, but that is the result of reinforcing with food if the timing is less than precise.

So, yes, leaving a training device on a dog for anything other than training is potentially cruel. Prong collars are not designed to tether a dog, nor are slip collars, electronic collars or head halters. Yes, dogs have been damaged because of that practice. Doesn’t make that tool ‘bad’, it makes the user an idiot.

Electronic collars do not ‘burn’ dogs. It is impossible. Contact dermatitis is possible if the collar doesn’t fit correctly or is left on too long. Fools who light the dog up like Hoover Dam at night should seek counseling for their anger issues, but those infrequent individual cases rated against the sum total of electronic collar users doesn’t validate a reason for their being banned outright.

Neither does weak, pseudoscience that is constructed to drive an agenda rather than prove incontrovertible evidence that electronics in dog training is damaging.

Sorry, I refuse to take advice from individuals who have never learned enough about any piece of equipment to claim proficiency in their use.

I remember the early days of electronic collars. Their design was flawed, their use was flawed, and as a result, I chose not to use them. Sufficient time elapsed, sufficient progress was made in both design and understanding, and they have become an elegant tool to convey information without conflict.

I have had people who have never owned a dog look at me with absolute contempt because I am working a dog on a Starmark or on an e-collar. They don’t acknowledge the happy, enthusiastic dog at my side, or see the pocket full of freeze-dried liver or the tug tucked in the waist band of my pants. They see abuse. They conjure a boogeyman where none exists.

Working a lovely little Lab puppy in a BJ’s parking lot one day last fall, a woman ran up to me and in her accusatory tone, told me how awful I was, training a dog so young, when she should be allowed to ‘be a puppy’ for at least a year. The puppy was bouncing around, learning how to navigate the leash, while learning her name in a safe, disease-free environment, that I had erroneously presumed was also free of nattering magpies who would be better served minding their own damn business.

You can’t escape it. These lunatics are everywhere.

Where is the abuse? Would it stand up in a court of law? Because push me too damn hard and that’s where we are ending up.

Where actually was the cruelty? Where is the alleged ‘abuse’?

Since we closed our last facility a couple years ago, I train a great deal in public. I am fully aware that when doing so, I am at the whim of onlookers who may question what I am doing. They may video tape me as I am doing it.

I know what they are doing- they are trying to find fault. Instead of having the courage to ask, they sit in their judgement trying to find a reason to blast. Not just me- a lot of trainers have experienced this.

I was recently working a feisty little terrier mix in a public park up the road from us and had a guy ‘camp out’ in his car, across three parking spots so he could video tape the entire session. The nose of his car was pointed at the side door of the truck, only feet away from it as a matter of fact, so he had a full view of all the other dogs in their crates, waiting their turn. I wonder if he is still getting his jollies from imposing so rudely into the affairs of another taxpayer who has as much right to be there as he did.

He didn’t get what he came for, but he didn’t leave ‘til I put the dog back in the truck. The dog was more distracted by his proximity. I was more thankful for the guy’s presence than he was of mine, to the point I asked my husband to go tell him thanks for supplying much needed distractions for this dog’s level of training.

People like that bore me. They have nothing better to do than create problems where none existed.

Yesterday, I was in a large chain hardware store in another town, in another state. Between myself, three other trainers I had traveled to meet there, and the number of dogs we worked while we were in the store, I was truly amazed at the number of refreshing comments we got from passers-by and employees.

It helped to be respectful of the business we were commandeering to escape working in the deluge, but it was comforting to note the number of people that supported the group of dogs, their handlers and the mindfulness with which we conducted ourselves in the presence of so many novel experiences.

I was surprised at the number of strange dogs you can encounter at one time in a store on a rainy day. There were at least 6 or 7 that were not part of our cadre of goofballs. All well, mannered, all wearing an assortment of devices, all clearly happy to be there, to be seen, and to be enjoyed by an appreciative public.

I figure if you look hard enough, you can find abuse anywhere, but if your agenda is to find fault, look in the mirror occasionally.

If you are looking for advice that makes sense, we are here, or there... or anywhere folks are looking for sensible solutions to help them with their training.

05/20/2026

Nobody gets out of this one unscathed. It happens, it happens at least once to everyone, and it’s time somebody talks about it.

I am referring to what happens, and what needs to happen when you lose your temper with a dog.

By “lose your temper”, yes, I am talking about unfair and over-the-top punishment out of frustration; yanking on the leash, hitting, even kicking- stuff you hear about that makes you wince, or stuff that you remember that should make you wince.

I have often heard many influential trainers across many different disciplines lament that if they had it to do over again with some dogs, they would love the chance to redeem themselves.

I’m not convinced that those reasons are all about being heavy handed, but they’re certainly about choosing different approaches. Six of one, half dozen of the other.

When you have been around for longer than a minute, you tend to have a few of your own experiences where you admit to yourself that you could have done something differently, better, put less pressure on the dog.

What happens next? Now that you have scared the animal you are working with, how do you come back from that?

A little introspection goes a long way. Was this a one-off? Bad day? Is this a pattern? Do you lose your patience frequently? Is it *this* particular dog, or are there others?

Anger issues tend to leak into a majority of life’s little trials, and it takes monumental effort to learn to control those impulses, but it is possible. Our dogs, our kids, our spouses and our closest friends are usually the brunt of those explosive, impulsive acts. They deserve our best, not our worst.

Maybe it was a one-off. What do you do to recover? How do you apologize to your dog?

Start by analyzing what precipitated the incident when you lost your temper. What were you working on? Was it a lack of understanding? Were you inconsistent in your cues? Had you become complacent and expected too much too soon? Were you anticipating a giant cognitive leap before the dog had time to practice the skill adequately?

It doesn’t necessarily mean that the dog is damaged forever, but that really depends on how far down that rabbit hole you went before your senses took over and you realized what you were doing. Walking that event back will take time once you muster the courage to evaluate that non-productive episode and vow to become a more trustworthy handler.

Over-emoting isn’t the answer. Yes, you made a mistake, but you have the power to help yourself and the dog to recover from it. Slavering all over the dog, wracked with guilt, is pointless. Just be more precise and consistent in your handling and be the coach you were before that incident, as long as you were a fair and consistent one. Get professional help, if you struggled before.

We all know these things happen. Nobody is brave enough to admit it out loud, but we all have experienced or witnessed what could be construed as excessive and undue force, even cruelty, on an animal, as we weak humans process our little fits of rage. Don’t tell me you haven’t experienced it, witnessed it or engaged in it to some degree. You would be a liar.

Recognize it for what it is and then move on in an appropriate way. Seek guidance if you need it, or just practice mindful, emotional self-regulation, so you can stop it from happening again.

Dogs remember consistency more than perfection. If this message resonated with you, share it with another trainer or dog owner who needs the reminder that accountability and recovery matter just as much as methodology. And if you are struggling with setbacks caused by frustration, or with rebuilding trust with your dog, feel free to message me privately. You do not have to work through it alone.

05/19/2026

I follow a few horsemen and am always amused by the similar concerns between their trade (horses) and mine (dogs).

The topic was about trainability of certain animals, and if trainability determines whether that animal is “safe” or “suitable”.

I found it interesting, since this topic comes in many forms across the dog trainer community. I wrestle with it a lot, as should anyone with a conscience, and although I am asked fairly frequently whether or not a certain dog is ‘trainable’, my refrain is always the same; “I have yet to meet a dog unimproved by training”, which people erroneously assume that I mean all dogs can be rendered either “safe”, or “suitable”.

I can legitimately count on the digits I was born with, the number of animals in my career that I thought posed serious concerns for their handlers. This is not the number of dogs that were truly dangerous, which is an even smaller number, but dogs that were outside the scope of their owners to handle safely by virtue of mass, temperament, or relationship challenges that could not be overcome.

The 1% of dogs that are legitimately dangerous (percentage by overall population) are pretty easy to spot and have no place in the human world. Period.

Personally, I think the distinction between the two cultures deals with the intimacy with which we permit these animals to live with us. Our dogs are everywhere with us. Our horses are in the pasture, or in the barn, not in the living room or on the bed.

Many of the behaviors owners inadvertently encourage end up giving birth to the behaviors they wish to eliminate or at least control better. Many of those behaviors, when left untended, can be dangerous.

The question is always “Is the dog trainable?”

My answer is usually “Yes, but are YOU?”

The dilemma arises when we make that cognitive decision to either continue working with that animal or terminating the relationship with the owner. I have exhausted myself trying to help owners who were less than committed to the problem, only to have the work fail because the owner wasn’t as decisive, or as vigilant as they should have been, and I always end up blaming myself.

Backing out of a doomed relationship requires a few things; primarily the moral compass to determine what is, in fact, in the best interest of animal and owner, the experience to mindfully make that judgement fairly and honestly, and the understanding that it’s not a matter of quitting when the going gets tough, but genuinely having concerns about the rate of success in the future for that animal in that home, with that owner.

It doesn’t make that dog necessarily “untrainable” as much as it may make that dog “unsuitable”.

Dogs are single trial learners. You do not eliminate a practiced behavior entirely. Through training and management in the case of dangerous dogs, you may be able to help the dog find better coping skills than defensive (or offensive) aggression, but it is never really eradicated from memory. Once a successful strategy is practiced even once, it is indelibly logged in the animal’s memory as a strategy that can be drawn upon if circumstances call for it.

Outwardly, the dog may appear perfectly fine, until that one moment when he is decidedly not fine. Morally, I have to weigh if the risk of a relapse is worth it. Consciously, I have to help the owner understand those risks and let them decide whether they want to continue pursuing training or make the command decision to let the dog go to a more suitable home or face the real likelihood of euthanasia. Guiding the owner’s choice with appropriate support isn’t easy, when ultimately, the outcomes for the dog are so profound.

As I stated previously, I have yet to meet a dog unimproved by training. That doesn’t mean the dog has been rendered either safe or suitable. Thankfully those numbers are low compared to the overall population, and nobody should be denying their existence. Improvement and “safe” are not exclusive, nor should perceived progress be relied upon to determine dependability with certain animals. The only thing left is vigilance, and quite honestly, nobody has the emotional stamina for that, long-term.

In conversations with owners of potentially dangerous dogs, part of the discovery absolutely includes questions about desired outcomes and risk mitigation.

Sometimes success looks like getting another dog. A more suitable one.

I will terminate a training agreement or simply decline it from the very beginning if I don’t think it would be worthwhile. It’s a pretty straightforward process to determine if an owner has the sand to go through the training with the dog, and it’s a safe bet that success is rendered only after a lot of trials and errors.

It is always preferable to work with the owners privately so they can identify and change their behavior which may be triggering the dog’s behavior. Achieving that level of muscle memory is simply not possible in a boarding and training environment. After training for half a freaking century, I say that with absolute confidence. And even then, there is absolutely no assurance that the owner won’t default to prior behavior, and somebody ends up getting hurt anyway.

Many owners of dogs like *this* will still believe that it’s a matter of trainer, training, or timing, and persistently throw money at a problem that is simply not going to go away. There are dogs who have blossomed after ownership found a trainer with more than an ecollar and a dog bed as their sole training methodology, and who understood how dogs apply their past experiences to future outcomes, but there still remains a number with unresolved issues just waiting for the right opportunity.

Yes Virginia, I do believe that dogs are capable of malice.

There are dogs who look like they are improving, but there is something about them that makes your skin tingle, because you can see their active predatory response in virtually any situation, looking for an opportunity to take advantage of a momentary lapse in vigilance. It’s an evolutionary strategy that made predator species successful hunters. It was never ‘bred out of them’, and in some instances, was compounded by selective breeding in many dogs; guardian breeds, terriers and many herding breeds.

People don’t see that. They just see Fluffy Bedfellow and never his primal ancestors who would have run that same owner down and feasted to the point of gluttony.

And then there is the rare individual that needs a permanent place in the heavens. He’s still learning, but he’s observing his prey for weakness. He learns how to push, he learns how to intimidate, and how to manipulate.

Professional trainers may be able to control the outcomes of that animal’s behavior, anticipate actions and counter them, but none of that even remotely suggests that animal is ‘fixed’. I am certainly not inviting that kind of chaos into my home. When I come in after a long day of training, I prefer uncomplicated dogs. I spent the better part of 20 years ‘managing’ personalities. I am old now and choose differently. Most companion animal homes are simply not prepared for that type of vigilance.

My primary goal when training is preparing that dog for a lifetime with humans, including their clumsy mistakes, and their sudden frustrations. If I can’t achieve that, I’m not being honest with the owner, and potentially subjecting the public to risks. There are dogs where “good enough” will never be an option.

The incestuous ‘rescue’ cult of virtue signaling has more to do with inappropriate placements than any other source of pet dogs currently. The Underground Rescue Railroad that shuttles dangerous dogs across time zones to maintain their “no-kill” bu****it status has seen an increase of dog attacks on their own staff, volunteers, or adopters, and to the communities these animals are being released to.

Owners are not experts. They are in love with their pet, and are blinded by that love, or the image conjured in their heads about the ideal relationship. The owner sees the mechanics, and the trainer sees the rusty clockworks underneath, waiting for a cog to slip or a spring to fail. The owner sees what he considers to be improvement, and the trainer sees a predictable outcome.

The difference is in the observation of any behavior and being able to interpret what that behavior means. The dog doesn’t have to lash out for me to know what he’s thinking. If knowing is half the battle, executing is the other half; timely adjustments to keep the dog focused and on task, without creating an opportunity for potential risk. Just because a trainer can interpret and redirect that course, doesn’t make the owner as capable. Only time and practice and vigilance will do that. Sooner or later, that animal is going to take his shot. Opportunity is inviting.

I never call a dog ‘fixed’ anymore than I call spaying or neutering a dog ‘fixing’. You can’t fix what isn’t broke, in the case of de-sexing a dog. They were born whole. We are altering them, not fixing them.

Behaviorally speaking, we are not fixing that, either. Remediating, in this case, does not mean fix. We are accommodating through altering the environment, compensating by developing alternative strategies in order to bypass a deficit, introducing adaptive coping strategies to manage the challenges caused by the deficit, reframing how a behavior is redirected turning a problem into a manageable trait, and mitigating risk by reducing the severity, frequency or impact of a behavior.

Fixing isn’t really probable. Management is permanent, with the goal of improvement, but often even that is not possible in certain circumstances.

The distinction between a trained dog and a managed dog are self-evident. Trained dogs make decisions independent of a human handler, and managed dogs are never given the opportunity. Trained dogs possess self-control. Managed dogs need to be controlled.

There is no ‘[behavior] came out of nowhere’ in the animal kingdom, outside of neural damage caused by injury or disease. There’s always a reason. Let’s call it a trigger. We may not identify what that ‘reason’ is, but you can bank on the animal thinking it had a reason. I cannot count the times when a very slight, subtle moment made the difference between an attempt and a failure of a dog to consider an ‘act of bravery’, on myself, an owner, or an observer.

Subtle things. An eyeroll, a fraction of a second moment of rigid posture, lowering of the head, leveling of the spine, tail, whatever. There is always a tell.

One of the primary reasons I no longer offer boarding and training options for adult dogs is because understanding the inter-relationship is paramount in planning for a successful outcome for any behavior. It’s not a matter of whether ‘another trainer’ is better suited. It’s a matter of what drove the behavior to begin with. Management couched as training isn’t training. It’s a band-aid. The problem remains, what is the long-term prognosis?

The road to hell is paved with good intentions. Passing on a dog may make you feel guilty for a minute, but inevitably news comes down the pipeline, and you will be thankful you dodged that bullet. It does become the owner’s responsibility to make the decisions, and as long as you were honest, you have nothing to fear and nothing to hide. Naysayers exist in every industry. Just remember the ‘man in the arena’. That would be you.

There is no shame in declining a client or terminating an agreement to train if you think you are unable to provide the owner with those two maxims of ‘safe’ and ‘suitable’. There is no crime in saying “I do not think I can make this dog safe or suitable for this household.”

It doesn’t mean the dog can’t be trained. It doesn’t mean that the dog won’t be suitable for another home. It just means that you are not willing to engage in some performative artistry that competes with your ethics and what you truly believe; that the dog is a headline, waiting to happen.

I do not believe that every dog should be saved. Skill, knowledge, patience and consistency all matter, but none of them can assure success outside certain parameters and if ownership is incapable of maintain those parameters, training can and does fail. Dangerous dogs need to be honestly evaluated not only for their inherent risk, but their inherent risk in any environment that is not heavily managed by professionals.

It’s simply unrealistic.

Everybody loves the stories they see online about the tragic beginning and the triumphant end. I like them, everybody does. My job, however, is to denude people of their fantasies, when it comes to animals that present serious risks to them, their families, and their communities. I have seen them. Not many, but enough to know they exist, and in increasing numbers.

I don’t care about what other people think. My conscience is clear. I would rather be known as the failure who wasn’t able to get the job done, than be the name in the news report of the trainer that ‘trained’ a dog who escaped and savaged somebody. I don’t lie. I don’t deceive. If I don’t think I am the person for the job, it’s no skin off my beak to admit it.

Even though every dog may be improved by training, is the dog trustworthy? Is the dog safe? If not, then the training was simply not enough. It’s a hard pill to swallow, but it’s still a fact, whether folks want to admit it or not.

Dogs like that do exist. They become more dangerous, not less. He is no longer acting without thinking, he begins to calculate. He learns how to manipulate the environment, including the people in it.

And that is a risk I am not willing to accommodate.