Sky Soldier Dog Training

07/11/2025

Every day I see owners praising their dogs for simply existing. “Good boy” for walking normally. “Good girl” for just sitting there. You’re teaching your dog that mediocrity deserves celebration.

Most owners think love means constant praise. Wrong. Real love is teaching your dog what matters and when it matters.

That “good boy” you’re throwing around for literally existing? It’s teaching your dog that your words have no weight. That praise becomes meaningless background noise.

Dogs thrive on structure, not constant validation. When you praise everything, nothing has value. When you set clear expectations and reward actual achievements, your dog learns what truly matters.

Stop being your dog’s biggest fan and start being their confident leader.

This is exactly what we do – we teach you how to lead your dog, and your dog to listen and respect you. The difference in their behavior will speak for itself.

Want to work together? Link in bio to schedule your free consultation.

07/10/2025

📍 Balance Isn’t 50/50 — It’s Devotion

Most people think “balance” means splitting your time evenly.

It doesn’t.

Balance means showing up on purpose.

When I’m training a dog, I’m all in.
When I’m at home with my wife and kids, I clock in there too.
Not perfectly, but intentionally.

This isn’t just about dog training, business, or marriage.
It’s about how you carry yourself through this life.

Balance isn’t fair.
It’s faithful.

📝 Read the full piece on Substack, 🔗 in bio.
📚 This one’s for the husbands, the fathers, the tired ones still trying.

07/08/2025

07/08/2025

“This isn’t a story about killing. It’s a story about remembering.”

Hound hunting isn’t just a tradition, it’s a thread that connects generations, stretching from the cedar-lined mountains of Idaho back through time to the first firelit hunts of man and dog. It’s how we honored the land. How we fed our families. How we passed on grit, reverence, and skill.

Now it’s under threat.

If you’ve ever felt something stir in your chest at the sound of a baying hound or the weight of a rifle passed down from a grandfather, this story is for you.

📖 Full piece now on Substack. Link in bio.

https://skysoldierdogtraining.substack.com/p/hunting-with-dogs

07/03/2025

You can’t lead anything if you can’t lead yourself.

We’ve built an entire generation on the idea that desire is king. Those dogs, children even adults should do what they feel like doing.

But life doesn’t bend to your feelings. And neither should your training.

Dogs don’t come pre-wired for suburbia. Kids don’t grow into resilience by accident.
They both need structure. Direction. Leadership.
They need you to be steady.

This is the foundation of my training philosophy. And honestly, my parenting is too.

📖 Read the full piece on Substack — “Steady”
🔗 Link in bio

07/01/2025

“You Don’t Get To Keep Your Opinions If You’ve Never Faced Them.”

Two stories that changed everything for me, one at a chow hall in 2013, and the other in the mountains of Idaho just last week.
One taught me humility. The other taught me where my influence ends.

We waste so much energy trying to control the world when we’ve barely learned to control ourselves.
These are the rings we live in. And if we don’t learn where the edges are, we drown in our own noise.

📖 Read the full piece on Substack: “Rings and Reckonings”
🔗 Link in bio.

07/01/2025

Who's cutting onions? 😭😭

Some times a hen isn’t just a hen.

06/29/2025

My dad would have turned 60 yesterday. It’s been almost 15 years since he left this world, and still, not a day goes by that I don’t think about him.

He was a man who believed in the long game, especially when it came to raising a hard-headed kid like me. I wasn’t easy. I was wild, reckless, full of fire and fight. But he never gave up. He walked with me through the storms, not because it was comfortable, but because he believed the struggle was worth it.

He wasn’t perfect, no man is, but he cared deeply. And in a world that’s running low on fathers who show up, he stood tall.
I miss you, Dad. I hope somehow you see the man I’m trying to be, and the boys I’m raising. I hope you’re proud.

Your fingerprints are still all over my life.