When it comes to dogs, you really only have two choices:
- Relationship first: Turn the dog into “man’s best friend” first, and train whatever you want later.
- The default route: Train the dog right out of the gate into a transactional relationship built on rewards and punishment—without ever really taking the time to know the dog.
One of these paths leads straight to behavioral issues and constant friction. The other gives you the dog you actually want to live with—usually to the point where formal obedience training becomes completely unnecessary.
The Proof is in the Communication
I’ve watched members build that deep “man’s best friend” foundation and then go on to do things like agility. Because they established genuine communication from day one, they truly know and understand their dog. They don’t need treats, clickers, or a hardware store’s worth of aversive tools to get things done.
I remember one lady who took her dog into agility. The instructor—standing there with a treat pouch strapped to her hip—was genuinely baffled, watching a dog learn and execute agility courses without a single piece of food dangling in front of its nose.
Trade Training for Psychology
The secret that the commercial industry doesn’t want you to know is simple: In order to achieve “man’s best friend,” you need to throw dog training in the garbage and pick up psychology instead.
When you stop managing behavior like a vending machine and start understanding how animals actually function, everything changes. You don’t need a bribe to cooperate with a friend.
Why Psychology Destroys the Scam
Psychology takes away “free will”—that illusion of choice that dog trainers completely depend on. And the fact that they blame B.F Skinner for all this? The man openly opposed punishment – and dog training is all punishment.
If the dog isn’t making a conscious, malicious choice to be “bad,” then the punishment trainers inflict has nothing to do with the dog deserving it. Dog training is a great gig if you enjoy abusing animals. People cheer it on and throw money at it, and the psychology behind that is incredible. It’s no different from throwing money at an obese person doing mukbang videos and cheering them on until they end up dead.
Most trainers know they are lying to you. And when you lie to people to make money? That’s called fraud. How does one prove it? Go ask some questions – ask what a behavior is… Watch how fast they ban you – or start a fight with you.
Why You Have a Right to Be Angry
Trainers have been trying for years to shut me up, shut me down, and close the group. why? Because psychology is the cure for the cancer called dog training. When you understand the why behind that, it makes complete sense.
If you’re a dog owner, you have a right to be angry. I’ve spoken with thousands of dog owners over the last 15+ years. Some have spent $30,000 or more on dog training, behaviorists, vets, and quick fixes. What did they get for it? All they heard was the trainers’ flight response due to fear, the dog couldn’t be fixed, and it needed to be put down. And to top it all off? It’s your fault, don’t blame dog training.
That is designed to shut you up, shut you down, and make you feel like a complete failure. You are not a failure. You were duped. You were lied to. You were ripped off – by a bunch of people that couldn’t define the word behavior in the first place – but they are all experts.
To put it in the very words of Larry Krohn—a man who should need no introduction:
“Cuz let’s face it, in the pet dog world, most people hire a trainer because they struggle with behavioral problems. And if you’re going to be honest, you have to come to the realization that the true success rate, and when I say success rate, I mean everlasting um success rate, where the dogs really change for the better for the rest of their lives, and problems go away. I think we could all admit that is absolutely abysmal. It’s abysmal, and people don’t want to admit it. It’s disgusting. The money that dog trainers charge people for no results whatsoever. And even worse than no results, where they just destroy dogs.”