01/30/2025
Absolutely the truth, every year I hear it more.
The popular narrative is that dogs are only surrendered or euthanized by horrible humans who are unwilling to put in the work and who were born without hearts.
And while there are of course horrible humans and dogs who’ve been unlucky enough to be paired with them, the reality is, they make up an incredibly small portion of the people surrendering/euthanizing their dogs.
The vast majority is made up of kind, caring, and often heartbroken owners who are so terribly overwhelmed by their inability, as well as the trainers they’ve hired inability to stop behavior issues that have hijacked their lives.
Sadly, many of the issues are wildly easy to resolve (jumping, rushing the door, barking, running out the door, knocking kids over, bratty/attitude-based “aggression” or “resource guarding” or “reactivity” which are actually nothing truly serious but are simply the byproduct of an owner appearing as a doormat and not having the skills to change that perception.
And then you have your more serious, real-deal issues. Stuff that requires far more skill and experience. Behaviors like severe separation anxiety, resource guarding, reactivity that results in owner redirection (bites), massive destruction, human or dog aggression.
You won’t find dogs being surrendered or euthanized for not holding that down stay perfectly or that recall not having a perfect sit front finish.
Don’t get me wrong, dogs having fantastic obedience can be a huge help to the owner living comfortably with the dog, can give dogs far more freedom and fulfillment and inclusion, and will often help with many annoying behaviors and even help improve some poor relationship dynamics.
But if you can’t stop problem behaviors (you get to choose how mild and severe — just market yourself honestly), and do so in a reasonably short timespan, and then transfer these skills successfully to the owner, you’re putting a really nice bow on a package that’s often destined for heartbreak.
Of course stopping behaviors is by comparison to training fun-filled obedience — the ugly, unpleasant looking (and feeling) stuff; the stuff which puts a hit on your social virtue points and even your reputation, and thus the stuff so many trainer shy away from. And fair enough. We all get to choose our path. But the trainer who can do both — train the fun, freedom and inclusion granting obedience, as well as stop the problem behaviors which make dogs things we sometimes decide we can no longer live with — those are the trainers worth their weight in gold to owners in pain.
PS yes, we have a shortage of trainers willing to be honest about how to effectively solve behavior issues. Social pressure and ideological pull (emotional appeal) will do that. But you get to choose if you want to be the one who provides real, honest, difficult (and desperately desired) answers, or the one who provides superficial, safe, BS in the form of “wisdom” — “wisdom” that serves you, and “wisdom” who’s self-serving nature leave dogs and owners to suffer… but you unscathed.
PPS, courage is in terribly short supply. The self-serving critics on both the PP/FF and balanced side have seen to this.
