Are You Waiting Until Your Dog Crashes And Burns?
I see it all the time. People are trying. The dog owners I meet are often trying very hard and are very committed. But! They are making a huge mistake. The mistake is that they believe they are holding their dog accountable for their behavior, but they are missing the things that truly need to be addressed because they are more subtle.
By the time they are trying to hold their dog accountable, the dog is all ready off the rails and burning in a ditch. This might be as simple as jumping on someone or running through a door, or it might be as serious as severe reactivity and aggression.
The fact is our dogs usually give us signs that their state of mind is going downhill long before any tangible behavior actually occurs. There is too much emphasis on behaviors and not enough emphasis on reading your dog so that you can give him feedback sooner and it will be more meaningful and more impactful and avoid a lot of your unwanted behaviors before they can never even happen.
Don’t correct your dog for going through the door, or do, but in the future correct your dog for simply crowding the door or being too excited about the door, being too amped up at the door. Don’t correct your dog for reacting to the dog, but correct your dog for staring, for his ears going up, for him telling you he’s too excited about that dog.
See the difference? Where there’s smoke there is fire. Even if you can’t see it. Don’t wait until you have a full-fledged forest fire and your house is burning down.
Love the show? Sign up to access our new exciting Xtra content! This content is unique and is ONLY available to our paid subscribers.
Subscriptions are only $3/month! You can also just sign up to make a small donation monthly if you want to support the podcast. Or, if you can’t do that right now, just hit subscribe in your favorite app and tell a friend about the show!
Any support in any form from our listeners is sooo appreciated! We count on listeners like you to help us keep putting out content. Visit the link below to subscribe or donate.
I want to hear from you! Email me directly to ask your questions and suggest topics for the podcast.
Visit our website where you can purchase our online course for only $99 and get started with e-collar training today! Work at your own pace. This is a very beginner friendly course. You can also sign up for training with Kati and Joyce, visit our shop for our branded merchandise and purchase E-collar Technologies collars.
Visit our social media for free training videos and to connect with us!
https://www.facebook.com/diamondk9dogtraining
Minute-by-Minute Breakdown
- 00:00 – Kati opens by urging listeners to subscribe and teasing a trigger-warning style training discussion.
- 01:00 – She says she keeps seeing the same dog-training mistake despite repeated explanations across her content.
- 03:00 – She argues people often miss how to implement training because they don’t know what the behavior should look like.
- 04:00 – If you can’t address an issue in the moment, she says to recreate it later and handle it repeatedly.
- 05:00 – She explains commands are useful, but only half the equation in dog training.
- 06:00 – Ignoring a dog’s state of mind means losing at least half of effective training.
- 07:00 – She introduces the door example as a way to show why arousal matters before the behavior happens.
- 08:00 – At the door, she wants dogs to wait calmly without being repeatedly told what to do.
- 09:00 – Repeated excitement at the door teaches dogs to be more autonomous in their arousal.
- 10:00 – She says dogs become truly under control only when they learn to regulate their own excitement.
- 11:00 – Over-arousal makes dogs struggle with decisions, so ignoring it undermines training goals.
- 12:00 – She says she will define the kind of door behavior she actually wants corrected.
- 13:00 – A tense, jumpy dog at the door is already deserving of correction, even before moving through it.
- 14:00 – She warns that a dog winding up at the door becomes a spring-loaded dog.
- 15:00 – Leash restraint can hide the problem, but the dog may still explode when the leash is off.
- 16:00 – She says dogs should not dictate when excitement happens or how intense it gets.
- 17:00 – High-arousal moments include coming home, feeding, leaving, car transitions, and guest arrivals.
- 18:00 – Correcting early can change a dog’s emotional chemistry and teach calmer responses to triggers.
- 19:00 – She promotes the affordable subscription while warning that unmanaged arousal leads to bad behavior later.
- 20:00 – She rejects the idea that this training is micromanagement because the standard should become habitual.
- 21:00 – Your correction needs enough intensity to match a dog’s level of excitement.
- 22:00 – She says happy greetings still require self-control, and you may need firmer correction than praise.
- 23:00 – Most owners mistakenly pile on attention or commands, which makes the arousal worse.
- 25:00 – She says yelling commands at an overexcited dog is useless because the dog can’t process them.
- 26:00 – The goal is not to flatten dogs, but to reduce nervous, jumpy overarousal.
- 27:00 – Dogs should get excitement only when it’s safe, not around doors, traffic, grandma, or other dogs.
- 29:00 – Once a standard is consistent, dogs start controlling arousal on their own.
- 30:00 – Even with her dog, she still occasionally corrects early signs of excitement like cat-chasing interest.
- 31:00 – She says to focus conversations on state of mind, not only the worst physical behavior.
- 32:00 – Correct when the dog is too wound up or spring-loaded, regardless of whether it’s food, doors, guests, or dogs.
- 33:00 – Her place-trained dog stays controlled at the door and is released only when she decides.
- 34:00 – She says place alone cannot fix door reactivity; it needs a correction for the emotional state.
- 35:00 – If the dog is bubbling over, the place command fails because the underlying arousal was never corrected.
- 36:00 – After a correction, give the dog a few seconds to settle before repeating it if needed.
- 37:00 – She believes many dogs could improve dramatically if owners applied this approach consistently.
- 38:00 – Owners who tolerate mild overexcitement are letting the problem grow before it becomes obvious.
- 39:00 – Unchecked stimulation can escalate into nippiness or aggression, so arousal must be shut off early.
- 40:00 – She closes by saying this approach creates real change, where the dog stays with you instead of being managed.