07/15/2026
I don't often share other trainers on my page, but The Good Dog Training And Rehabilitation is one every dog owner should be following.
Over the years I’ve shared countless examples of healthy vs unhealthy relationship dynamics, and have tried to explain the impact these dynamics have on your dog’s behavior.
I’ve tried to point out the value of healthy leadership, authority, and clearly conveyed hierarchy between humans and dogs… and what happens when these elements are absent.
But unfortunately, modern culture, and by extension modern dog training has vilified anything having to do with leadership, authority, hierarchy. It’s all been placed in the “old school”, “heavy handed”, “unscientific”, “unsophisticated”, “unnecessary”, “unhealthy”, “damaging”, and often “patriarchal oppressive” training s**t box.
Instead we celebrate the hyper-intellectual, the complex protocols, the fancy scientific terminology—and of course the emotional fragility and thus necessary bubble wrapping of our dogs to shield them from all things unpleasant… aka damaging and traumatic.
But it doesn’t take a training genius to see that owners are struggling at levels that are absolutely absurd. Of course we’ll offer all manner of justifications for this explosive upsurge in behavior issues… all manner of justifications except the obvious.
The list I shared in the primary post all have something in common. They all have humans who create order, respect, and healthy behavior via a very simple mechanism—they are able to leverage and wield healthy fear. Not terror, not incapacitating anxiety, not anything debilitating—just the awareness that they can and will levy valuable consequences for poor choices.
Of course almost everyone will bristle at this. It’s antiquated, anti-intellectual, old school nonsense.
And yet, like it or not, fear of consequences are THE behavioral guardrails for both human society, and canine alike. And as we’ve become disconnected from the simple, obvious, primal aspects of nature, we unsurprisingly find ourselves struggling with our kids, with crime, and of course with our dogs.
Current society despises leadership, authority, and hierarchy, and so it’s no surprise that current society, and our dogs are a mess.
My point here is a simple one. Over the years I’ve tried to share tangible, obvious, commonly experienced (and known) versions of healthy fear in action, in the hopes it will help reconnect owners to elements of reality that they know and understand, so that they can repair their broken relationships with their dogs.
Because here’s the simple truth: when I watch owners struggling, often after having great training and tools onboard, the reason is wildly obvious. Their dogs don’t have a healthy fear of them—or if it feels better for you, a healthy respect (which is the same, just with easier language)—and thus all decisions and behaviors they see from their dogs are filtered through this dysfunctional lens and dynamic.
Said even more plainly—if your dog doesn’t believe you can, and will share valuable consequences for poor choices and behavior, you better get used to a whole lot of s**tty choices and behavior.
Sorry for the blunt convo, but most of you guys are lost, and this is the stuff almost no one can or will explain to you.
