The Dunning-Kruger Effect in my dog ownership journey

I have spent time on the peak of Mount Stupid

When I first started getting into dog training, I was totally overwhelmed.

Then I learned a bit from a handful of sources… and I felt like I knew so much!

Not too long after that, I adopted Scout and realized all over again that I actually understood next to nothing. Cue the overwhelmed feeling again.

Welcome to the early stages of the Dunning-Kruger graph

This is called the Dunning-Kruger effect. It’s common when learning about a new subject.

Basically, we often experience an “early high” of knowledge where we don’t know that much but feel like we do. This is the time where things seem simple—and sweeping generalizations abound. I remember feeling like I had all the answers at one point only to look back and realize I didn’t actually have a single one

Oh, how my mind has changed!

Here are a few things I staunchly believed in my early knowledge high about dogs:

• Retractable leashes were always irresponsible (now I use one several times a week)

• Every walk with our dogs needed to be structured (n…