Darrin Greene's On Command Dog Training

11/25/2025

Doesn’t look like much, but let me tell you a story.

Meet Lucy. Lucy would like to interact with people she meets - but she’s fearful and unsure. Very conflicted. Are these friends, foes or?

She expresses her trepidation by barking, growling and threatening strangers that come into her home, then eventually getting close to them but… blowing up again any time they move.

Sometimes, she doesn’t even trust her owners. No fault of theirs. She came to them this way when they adopted her.

Who knows what breed she is or what her background looks like.

Most people will assume abuse.

Probably not. More likely just genetic predisposition and a lack of socialization, exaggerated by her movements being restricted.

Bluff - precursor to fight, instead of flight because… no choice.

The living room and the leash only provide so much freedom to run.

So what do we do to help her?

Well, first thing is we set a 15’ boundary for her, and yes, we used a prong collar to make that boundary very clear and meaningful. Also, incredibly simple to implement and for Lucy to understand.

Then we started walking together as a pack. Yes - that’s right I said the P word - pack. That thing a lot of folks say is debunked because they think the concept of “pack leader” makes people abuse their dogs.

But we’re using the pack concept differently here.

Dad is making ME part of the pack by traveling together.

As usual, I don’t have any good “before” video, because I’m always focused on the client, not my own need for marketing materials.

Take my word for it - Lucy was very unhappy with me when I came into he house and reactive toward me when we met for this walk.

After a little while though, I was just there. Part of the pack, traveling together as a pack of dogs would do…

Lucy even gave me a sniff a couple of times toward the end.

She still didn’t want even a glance of eye contact from me, but she did approach 4-5 times when I stood perfectly still and let her be curious.

Good news is - she will play with her owners at times, and we’re building on that concept, along with building a solid walk without reactivity.

Lucy’s owners are on a long road toward getting her socialized, so they can have guests without crating her.

Kudos to them for investing in Lucy’s future.

If you’re going to “rescue” a dog, you need to be committed to helping them cope with whatever demons landed them in rescue to begin with.

Sometimes, there are none, and sometimes there are a lot.

Maybe someday I’ll get to play with Lucy myself.

I hope so.

11/19/2025

Always!

11/05/2025

IYKYK annual Elkacation

10/30/2025

10/27/2025

Here is a tip to save you a lot of time.

Rather than do separate training sessions, incorporate training into your daily walk.

Here, you will see me practicing Boone’s heel behavior for just a few yards in the middle of our normal, loose leash walk.

I may do this two or three times in a 45 minute walk. I might stop and sit a few times also. I might even get him to give me his paw now and then.

Between one 45 minute walk per day and having good rules and boundaries during every day life, Boone is a pleasure to live with at 11 months old.

10/21/2025

300 comments about a “picky eater” and not a single one about rationing their food…
Check out the first comment…

10/20/2025

YouTubers get paid for views - not results! Board and train at $1,200/week and you still need extensive follow up work? Please - save yourself the time, effort and money! The right information is a few clicks away.

10/18/2025

Too funny

10/17/2025

You don’t need these to train a dog at the end of a 20’ long line.

But if you (or your trainer) knows how to get off leash reliability…

Big things are possible!

10/16/2025

My account got suspended in a +R only dog training group the other day…

Because, through very calm Socratic questioning I was able to get someone to admit it took them a year and a half to get from “Not being able to leave the house for a minute, up to a full HOUR”.

This - after drugging the dog and eventually weaning her off because of their great accomplishment! A year and a half to make 1 hour of progress!

“Great accomplishment” is sarcasm, if you don’t already know.

All the while this person kept asking me “Well what would you have done?” Over and over and telling me all the things she wasn’t going to do, assuming the advice I was going to give.

I hadn’t offered a single piece of training advice.

Or told her she failed (even though she has).

Or been snarky AT ALL. In fact I was super careful not to (becuase I know I can be).

I let the discussion drop after she told me about her “accomplishment”.

I never offered to help. She was way beyond that, and it wasn’t why I was there anyhow.

Then found that my posting privileges were suspended for 2 weeks or something.

I tell you this story to remind you - there are a lot of really crazy people in this world masquerading as “dog trainers”.

People who wrap their virtue up in caring for “broken” dogs. Literally - killing a lot of them with kindness.

People that are willing to leave their own dogs to suffer, and are quite happy to allow yours to suffer too.

Because the more broken their dogs and their client’s dogs are, the less broken they feel.

Don’t question them - because it’s YOU who needs better “education”.

Struggling along with nothing but treats and a trainer who can’t seem to solve your problem after months?

Hit me up - no matter where you are.

I’ll help you.

10/14/2025

Does your dog dash out the door to greet guests? With the holidays coming up - now’s the time to learn the easy way to keep your pup safe and inside the house!