Out-of-the-box dog training perspectives

Guest post from Sean, who doesn't really know anything about dogs

Haley has spent hundreds of hours reading scientific studies on dog behavior, conditioning, and training methods. I haven’t spent a single one.

When working with Scout, Haley’s instinct is to carefully analyze her timing, order of cues, and body movements. My default is to be free-form and reckless until Scout literally starts corralling me like a horned herd animal, and only then I back it off a notch.

Haley has become a scholar of dog training through years of experience and thousands of hours of conversations. Everything I know about dog training is from watching what Haley does and copying it.

But I don’t just do everything she says

You’d think that this would make me a humble student who gratefully listens to her expertise.

Nope.

I’m often an arrogant inquisitive little brat, asking her if she has considered doing X instead of Y, or why we can’t shortcut the long-established method of A by doing B instead.

Haley is usually receptive to my often-intelligent but half-formed ideas.

Some of …