Arrive Dog Training

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

11/17/2024

One of the current fads you’ll hear trainers and online experts pontificating about is “building confidence”. And while we’d all love to have our nervous, insecure, fearful dogs feel more confident, the stuff that’s typically put forth as the “how to get there” path is almost all style and superficial emotional “feel good” stuff and very little true substance, and truly do good stuff.

We get dog after dog after dog who is nervous, insecure, fearful, and we don’t have them running over A-Frames, jumping on top of fire hydrants, or scaling burning buildings.

No, we simply create a predictable, consistent, dependable, lifestyle framework that includes clear and consistently enforced rules. A non-chaotic, structured lifestyle. We teach a clear “yes” and “no”, and ensure the dog values both. We don’t baby, coddle, shield these nervous/fearful dogs—nope, we hold them to the highest possible standard they’re capable of. And at the foundation of it all, we have a clear attitude and belief system that humans should lead and dogs should follow. This underpins all the previous beliefs and therefor actions.

Am I saying there are no other ways to help increase confidence? Nope. What I am saying is that, as per usual, the training community looks past the obvious, the common sense, and the less fancy sounding—which your everyday owner could easily implement—in favor of what sounds like a game changing approach that is so deep, so sophisticated, and so profoundly new and different that unknowing owners flock to it. (I’ll let you figure out why that occurs over and over.)

All I know is that this un-fancy, common sense, glaringly obvious approach to training that we utilize with all our client dogs—does this exceptionally strange thing… it builds confidence. Real confidence. Not tricks and not fun-looking stuff to entice unsuspecting owners. But the real stuff that enables dogs who struggled terribly prior to training to blossom, to find they’re capable of far more than they (or their owners) ever thought, and to learn to enjoy life to a much greater degree.

So before you sign up for a “confidence building” course, first have a look at my list above, and see if there’s any gaps between the list and your life with your dog. You’d be the exceptionally rare owner who doesn’t have any of these gaps in play—which means you’ve got a ton of non-fancy, easy-to-implement work you can do to help your dog transform, and find their best version of confidence.

And that should be awfully good news. ❤️

11/12/2024

08/25/2024

Meeko's owners in public, practicing at a coffee shop. This guy was reactive/aggressive and had bitten hands and faces before. Now he can be in public with his owner without a leash and be fine.

08/25/2024

Goose doing some place practice with some double downs at the end. And Memphis on place while the pup works

08/25/2024

Some of the pups this morning

08/25/2024

We will be doing this training, if you can donate please message us. Even $100 can go a long way towards helping them pay for everything.
You can donate straight to our Venmo or Cash app to help pay for her training program.

https://venmo.com/code?user_id=3912405281146431748

Cash app - $K9dogman23

This is Rebecca
Rebecca is a 11 year old girl. She has been through a-lot in the short 11 years. We are located in West Virginia. She has been diagnosed with many disorders.
We have found a trainer who will train the puppy. All of this is very expensive. The training program starts at $7500 We are asking our family, friends, and our community to help us pay for the dog, the training, and the gear.