07/02/2026
Sometimes dog training looks a lot less like teaching commands and a lot more like… doing nothing.
He got his chew stick wedged in a crack in the sidewalk. I watched him pause, think, try a few different things, get a little frustrated, and then figure it out all by himself!
I could have reached down and fixed it in two seconds.
But then he would’ve missed the opportunity to learn that he could solve the problem on his own.
As dog owners, it’s natural to want to jump in the moment our dogs look confused, stressed, or frustrated. We want to make the discomfort disappear. But if every challenge is solved for them, they never get the chance to build resilience, confidence, or problem-solving skills.
Sometimes your dog is going to be uncomfortable. Sometimes they’re going to be frustrated. Sometimes they’re going to have some really big feelings while they work through something. As long as they’re safe and the challenge is fair, that isn’t something to avoid, it’s often where the learning happens.
I think one of the hardest parts of owning a dog is learning to sit with their discomfort without immediately trying to make it go away. A lot of the time, we’re relieving our own discomfort more than theirs.
That doesn’t mean we never help our dogs. It just means we learn when to step in, and when to let them surprise us.
More often than not, they’re capable of a whole lot more than we give them credit for. 🫶🏼