Arrive Dog Training

01/14/2025

01/13/2025

For all those owners who allow their dogs to meet people and other dogs when they’re out and about and don’t know why their dogs go bananas when they see a person or dog, I hope this helps.

Dogs are amazing pattern readers, and easily become conditioned that something occurring predicts another thing occurring if it happens often enough. It’s why picking up your car keys, or walking towards the cupboard where their food is, or picking up their leash, or packing your suitcase, or answering the door after the doorbell goes off — causes an intense reaction.

It could be excitement, it could be anxiety, it could be sadness, it could be anything depending on what the “signal” predicts, and how your dog feels about it.

Same goes for your dog who is allowed to meet random people and dogs — and who takes great pleasure in it. If this sequence occurs often enough, it will begin to condition your dog to view people as a visual signal that predicts a party/arousal/intense emotional escalation.

You end up turning people and dogs into “doorbells”.

This is why you’ll hear almost all experienced trainers not engaging in this activity. (Of course there’s other considerations like creating negative outcomes from these interactions, but that’s a post for another day.) Most trainers, and astute owners are keenly aware that if this meet and greet activity is practiced enough, you’re going to have a dog who is struggling to hold it together when they see people and dogs — because you’ve conditioned your dog that the appearance of people or dogs predicts craziness.

Of course there are exceptions. (There are always exceptions.) There are chilled out, lowkey dogs who enjoy these interactions but who don’t lose it. And there are owners who only do this on rare occasions — and so the reactions are far less intense. But if you do this on the regular, and you have a dog who loses its sh*t when it occurs, you’re almost certainly setting you and your dog up for a lifetime of overly-aroused, reactive nuttiness when people and dogs come into the picture.

And if you don’t enjoy the behavior this creates in your dog, then I’d highly advise you change your approach, or at the very least, minimize it greatly. A doorbell that only predicts someone at the door 5-10% of the time is a far less insanity-inducing doorbell, so perhaps you can adjust your dog’s predictive powers by making things far less predictable. :)

01/05/2025

A good personal check in.

Are your rules actually rules — meaning valuable consequences occur if they’re not followed — or are they hopeful but empty suggestions — meaning the only consequence for not adhering to them is you getting frustrated, flustered, and angry?

If you don’t know how to enforce the rules, there’s plenty of info on this page and my YouTube (the good dog training) to guide you — but you’ll have to dig in and do the work.

If you do know how but find that knowledge emotionally unsavory, you’ll almost certainly find yourself and your dog continuously struggling.

01/03/2025

That pulling, chaotic, reactive walk that’s driving you crazy — it was created by way of countless moments of allowance of pushy, bratty, overly excited behavior that happened long before you ever hit the streets.

It’s like letting your kids be bratty, entitled monsters at home, because it’s not that big of a deal — and then heading out to a nice dinner and telling them they’d better behave.

Haha…

If you want a fighting chance at a nice, polite, enjoyable, and safe walk, it’s time to take a look at all the non-walk moments occurring between you and your dog and have an honest conversation with yourself about how it all looks.

While it’s possible, it’s wildly unlikely that you’ve got an amazingly well behaved dog in all other contexts, and yet your walk is a disaster. Everything matters, and everything is a conversation that either tells your dog there are rules and standards — and consequences for breaching them… or not.

If the walk is a mess, START with reversing/transforming the first 5 items on the above list — that’s a solid beginning. And then, when you’re ready to make some major positive changes, take a look at the final one, prepare yourself for a serious challenge, and then get to work.

12/22/2024

Can we really blame our dogs for the confusion when their entire world is enveloped by mixed massages?

Why mixed? Because we knowingly or unknowingly teach them that they and us precisely the same. And then we become upset when they respond to what we’ve taught them by challenging us, pushing us, disregarding us, stressing us, overwhelming us, and sometimes even injuring us.

I’m sorry, but if you’re going to teach your dog that you and they are the same — meaning the social structure, aka the differences between human and canine aren’t clearly articulated — you can’t be upset when they run with what you’ve taught them.

This isn’t a student issue, it’s a teacher issue.

PS, I know many bristle at the fact that I point out that there should be a clear distinction between dog and human — with the human in charge and above in status, and and the dog subordinate and below in status. Feel free to bristle away. But when you’re struggling with your dog, refer back to this post and attempt to digest it with an open mind. The answers to why you’re struggling are likely here when you’re ready to find them.

PPS, here’s the kicker — you can disagree with this all you like, and even discount it as invalid “old school” nonsense — just remember that makes one of you. 😉

12/20/2024

🤫 don’t tell the haters the dogs actually love being e collar trained and having off leash freedom 😉

It’s the best training tool that not only gives you an invisible leash— but has saved THOUSANDS of dogs from death row.

No, you don’t just slap it on your dog and start pressing buttons, you still need to train your dog.

And we have step by step courses on this so you never need to second guess yourself.

Right now our Green to Graduate course and Community membership are 50% off, so you can achieve off leash freedom, master your e collar skills, AND have a full year of follow up support from us!

This offer expires 12.31.

Comment “December” for the link and info 💯

12/20/2024

11/25/2024

11/25/2024

Are you truly ready to change? We don’t ask this question lightly because we know how easy it is to say the word “yes.”

To say you’re willing to do anything and stop old habits is one thing, but to actually act upon those words is another. Change doesn’t happen without the real, hard, and sometimes “ugly” work.

How does this relate to dog training? Because we see it every day. We have owners who are struggling and at their wits end, while their dog is on their final chance.

Something has got to give. So what will it be?

Are you ready to become a real leader to your dog? To get your dog out of the bedroom and off the couch? To move your dog away and give it a correction when it breaks command to demand attention from you? Will you be emotionally vested in recognizing the signs and not letting your heart talk you out of doing the “mean” things?

Are you going to be firm, consistent, and disciplined even when things seem to be getting better, or will you let it all slide at the first sign of “good enough”? Are you in it for the long haul?

We see it every day. We see owners struggle when they don’t have to, but it’s also hard to train your own dog and do the stuff that takes actual work.

We’re not talking about the reps of obedience. we’re talking about the emotional work like holding your dog accountable and correcting unwanted behaviors.

So many people feel bad about this part of dog ownership, but it’s probably one of the most important.

If you want change—truly, honestly, deeply, want change, then you have to follow through with action to match it. Words are meaningless without the behavior to back them up.

Dog owners are 50% of the equation when it comes to how successful a training program is

So if you are ready for things to change with your dog…start paying attention to your own behavior as well.

11/23/2024

We’re fascinating creatures. The answers are all around us, and have been for the entirety of our lives. And yet, we’ll happily allow charlatans, selling us feel-good snake oil, to not only take our time, money, and hope, but to also take our dog’s quality of life, and perhaps their actual life as well.

And it will all occur under the guise of “kindness”, “empathy”, “care”, and “goodness”.

What seems to be missed over and over, is the distinction between superficial, ineffective, momentary, and selfish kindness, empathy, care, and goodness—over true, transformative, longterm, and selfless kindness, empathy, care, and goodness.

This is one of the consistent plagues of the human condition: the gravitation to what feels (and even seems) good now, regardless of longterm, unforeseen 2nd and 3rd order downstream consequences—versus what is difficult now, but creates truly positive longterm, 2nd and 3rd order consequences.

You can ignore, dismiss, and use some creative “reasoning” to sidestep the reality you personally know all too well in favor of doing what feels better/easy/superficially virtuous/selfishly rewarding, but as we all know deep down, this decision never leads anywhere actually positive.

If you’re struggling with your dog, take a look at your own life experiences and the wisdom you’ve gained from the positives and the negatives, and simply apply that wisdom to your choices of influences, trainers, tools, and beliefs. The answers are out there, but they’re hiding behind a reality which doesn’t operate from a place of pure pleasantness, never ending fun, easy feelings, and intellectually insulting nonsense like postive only/force-free training which obviously have no alignment with reality.

But you know that.

11/19/2024

11/19/2024

11/19/2024

11/19/2024

11/19/2024

11/19/2024