11/19/2025
So you think the only way to train your "stubborn non compliant" dog is force. Here is a great article for you...Let's open our minds and think outside the box. Thank You Suzanne Clothier
Many years ago, while attempting to demonstrate some no-pulling techniques in a seminar, I was utterly exasperated by a young Labrador.
Clancy had leaped up and head punched me very hard not once but twice, making me see stars and really hurting my nose. Clancy was not malicious or intending harm, he was just an exuberant adolescent who had been taught that leaping around was acceptable. Not being physically sensitive himself, it was doubtful that it dawned on the dog that a head butt was very painful to a human.
I had been patient, kind, vaguely successful but by the second slam to my face, my patience began to shred. I began to think, “One good correction might get through this dog’s thick skull.” I surprised myself by thinking that, but then I further shocked myself (and some of the audience) when I asked the handler explicitly for permission to use a physical correction on her dog.
She agreed, trusting me as a trainer to do right by her dog.
In that moment when she trustingly agreed to let me use force on her dog, I found something in myself that surprised me further: a little voice that challenged me to push myself further, to help this dog without force.
Read more of this article at:
➡ https://suzanneclothier.com/article/i-had-to/
