Since today is my birthday, I wanted to do something a little different and reflect on some of the things dogs—and spending so much of my life training them—have taught me. The funny thing about working with dogs is that the longer you do it, the more you realize how much there still is to learn. 🌱 Patience Dogs have taught me that progress doesn’t happen on my timeline. Sometimes you need another repetition. Sometimes you need to make the exercise easier. Sometimes you need to stop training altogether and try again another day. Trying to rush learning usually tells me more about my expectations than it does about the dog. 🗣️ Communication I’ve also learned that communication isn’t just about getting better at telling a dog what I want. It’s about getting better at listening to what they’re telling me. Body language. Hesitation. Excitement. Avoidance. Engagement. Disengagement. The behaviors that happen before the behavior everyone notices. Dogs are communicating constantly. I’ve had to learn how to pay attention. 🧠 Humility This might be one of the biggest lessons. I’ve been training dogs for a long time, and there are things I believe and do differently today than I did years ago. I hope I can say the same thing years from now. Because experience shouldn’t mean deciding you already know everything. When better evidence changes my understanding, I want to be willing to change my mind. That’s not weakness or inconsistency. That’s learning. And I think our dogs deserve trainers and guardians who are willing to keep learning. 💚 Progress Isn’t Always Obvious Dogs have also changed the way I think about progress. Sometimes progress is a beautifully performed behavior. But sometimes it’s… A reaction that lasts 10 seconds instead of a minute. A dog choosing to check in. Recovering a little faster. Hesitating and then deciding to try. Feeling safe enough to say, “I need some space.” Or something that was incredibly difficult six months ago becoming so ordinary that you almost forget it was ever a struggle.

Imagine handing your dog the calendar and saying: “Okay, you’re in charge. What are we doing today?” What do you think they’d choose? Would your dog schedule: 👃 A ridiculously long sniffing adventure where they choose the route? 🎾 Seventeen consecutive games of fetch? 🌳 Exploring somewhere new? 🧠 A training or puzzle session? 🐕 Playtime with a favorite dog friend? 🚗 A car ride to their favorite place? 🦴 A good chew followed by an uninterrupted nap? 🛋️ Three hours cuddled next to you on the couch? (Susie would choose this one) 🏊 Swimming, digging, chasing, searching, or another favorite activity? How well do you know what your individual dog finds rewarding? Not what dogs are supposed to enjoy. Not what we wish they enjoyed. What would your dog actually choose? Thinking about their answer can tell us a lot about their preferences, natural behaviors, favorite reinforcers, and what might be worth incorporating into their everyday life. And if you have multiple dogs, I’m especially curious whether their schedules would look completely different. 😂 💬 Your turn: If your dog had complete control of one afternoon, give us their itinerary! Bonus points for writing it from your dog’s perspective. 🐾

When we’re working on a challenging behavior, it’s natural to measure success by whether it happened: Did my dog bark? Did they pull? Did they hesitate? Did they startle? If the answer is yes, it can feel like the training isn’t working. But we’re missing an important part of the picture: How intense was it—and how long did it last? Imagine a dog who normally sees another dog and: 🐕 Lunges to the end of the leash 🗣️ Barks repeatedly ⬆️ Struggles to disengage ⏱️ Takes several minutes to settle afterward After some training, that same dog sees another dog and still barks… …but only twice. They don’t hit the end of the leash. They can turn back toward their guardian. And within 20 seconds, they’re sniffing again. The barking didn’t disappear—but something absolutely changed. 🧠 Behavior Isn’t Just “Happened” or “Didn’t Happen” When we’re tracking behavior, we can look at more than its presence or absence. Consider: Intensity: How strong was the response? Duration: How long did it last? Frequency: How often did it happen? Recovery: How quickly did your dog return toward their usual behavior afterward? Distance/Context: Did they handle the trigger under more difficult conditions than before? That gives us a much richer picture of progress. 🐾 The Same Applies to Other Behaviors Maybe your dog still pulls toward another dog, but now it’s a brief moment of tension instead of dragging you across the sidewalk. Maybe they still hesitate at the vet door, but walk inside after a few seconds instead of refusing to approach. Maybe they still startle at a loud noise, but recover and continue sniffing instead of remaining vigilant for the rest of the walk. Maybe they still bark when someone knocks, but stop after a few barks instead of continuing for several minutes. Those changes matter. 📉 “Less” Can Be a Very Big Win We sometimes set the finish line at: “My dog never does this anymore.” But especially when we’re working with fear, frustration, excitement, or reactivity, progress may appear much earlier than that.

Meet our hypothetical dog, Cooper. At home, Cooper’s guardian says: “Down.” Cooper immediately lies down. He can do it while dinner is being prepared. He can do it in the living room. Sometimes he even offers a down before being asked. Then they go to the park. His guardian says: “Cooper, down.” Nothing. “Down.” Nothing. “Cooper… DOWN. You KNOW this!” Cooper is staring at another dog across the field. So what happened? Did Cooper suddenly forget how to lie down? Probably not. Instead, let’s look at what changed. 🧠 🏠 1. The Kitchen and the Park Are Two Very Different Classrooms In the kitchen, Cooper has practiced “down” dozens—maybe hundreds—of times. The environment is familiar and predictable. There aren't many competing distractions, and he has a long history of reinforcement there. At the park? 🐕 Dogs are moving nearby. 👃 The grass is covered in interesting smells. 🐿️ A squirrel just ran past. 👨‍👩‍👧 People are talking and playing. 🌳 There's an entire environment to explore. We might see the same cue. Cooper doesn't necessarily experience the same training problem. 🔁 2. Reinforcement History Matters Imagine Cooper has practiced 200 successful downs in the kitchen and only three at the park. Which environment has the stronger reinforcement history? The kitchen! This is one reason I don't like saying: “But he knows it!” A better question is: “Under what conditions does he know it?” A behavior can be extremely reliable under one set of conditions and much less reliable when those conditions change. 🌎 3. Dogs Have to Generalize We often assume: Down means down everywhere. But generalization is something we need to help dogs develop. Your dog may need experience learning that “down” still applies: Kitchen → Living room → Backyard → Driveway → Quiet park → Busier park We don't necessarily have to train in every location on Earth. 😂 But practicing successfully across different environments helps the dog learn that the relevant cue remains meaningful even when other things change.

“Do you want to go outside and go potty before I leave so you can be a good boy while I’m gone?” Your dog runs to the door. Did they understand the entire sentence? Probably not in the same way another human would. But that doesn’t mean they understood nothing either. Dogs can learn the meaning and predictive value of particular words and verbal cues. But when we communicate with them, they’re also taking in a much bigger picture. 🗣️ Verbal Cues Words like sit, outside, walk, dinner, toy, or a dog’s name can become meaningful through learning and repetition. But there’s an important distinction between: Recognizing a word or sound → expected behavior/event and Understanding human language with all of its grammar, intentions, and abstract meaning. Most of the time, we should be careful not to assume the second simply because our dogs respond to the first . 👀 What Else Is Your Dog Reading? Imagine you say: “Want to go for a walk?” But at the same time you: 👟 Put on your walking shoes 🦮 Reach for the leash 🚪 Walk toward the front door 🕐 Follow the same routine you do every evening Which part told your dog a walk was coming? Maybe “walk” contributed. But the shoes, leash, time of day, your movement toward the door, and hundreds of previous walks may be providing just as much—or sometimes more—information. That’s environmental context. 👉 Our Bodies Communicate Too Dogs are remarkably attentive to human behavior. A hand signal, where we’re looking, how we’re standing, where we’re moving, or whether we’re reaching toward the treat pouch can all become part of what predicts what happens next. You might think your dog knows “down” from the verbal cue alone… …but discover they struggle when you’re sitting instead of standing. That’s useful information! They may have learned: “Down + person standing in this position + familiar hand movement + this environment.” Now we can work on helping the verbal cue become more reliable across different situations.