08/13/2026
My friends over at The Good Dog Training And Rehabilitation saying it like it is ...
Dog trainers, let’s stop with all the “fixing” talk. We all know that whatever you accomplish with the dog — no matter how amazing — if the work isn’t kept up by the owner then whatever greatness of “fixing” you’ve accomplished will quickly fade.
Thus, the dog was never “fixed”
Dog owners, let’s stop with all the dog trainer should “fix” my dog talk. As stated above, whatever your trainer accomplishes with your dog, if you don’t apply the same degree of work, skill, and diligence your trainer did, all that “fixing” will disappear, along with all your money.
Thus, the dog was never “fixed”.
The reality is simple. A dog’s behavior will always revert back to whatever their environment allows — which means it’s always up for grabs, and hence why I hate the term “fixed”, because that implies something permanent has occurred, when it hasn’t.
Typically this conversation will bring up arguments about the differing value of board & trains vs one-on-ones vs day training vs… blah, blah, blah. The reality is, they all work — and they all don’t work. They each have their pros and cons, but that’s a conversation for another day.
What makes any training model work or not is the skill and insight of the trainer and their ability to actually create positive changes in the dogs they work with; the skill and ability of the trainer to then transfer these skills and insights to the owners so they can replicate the work; and finally the commitment/determination/drive of the owners to create an environment that leverages all of these newly learned skills and insights (including all personal changes that need to occur) and applies them longterm to bring out the very best in their dogs and themselves… and thus make these changes in both species permanent.
That’s the closest anyone will ever get to “fixing” a dog… but it’s more than close enough. Promise.
