Hi {{first_name}} ,

Some dogs have it. They show up to work every single day with the same energy. The same drive. The same push toward you. Those dogs are a gift.

And then there are the dogs who had it and lost it. Same genetics, same training, same handler. But somewhere along the way the want drained out. If you have been around dogs long enough you have seen it happen. Most people miss exactly when it starts.

In This Issue

Reading time: 4 minutes

Top trainers spend decades producing world champion dogs: breeding, training, selection, competing. The thing they keep returning to is simple: the dog has to want to. You play a big role in building that want. You can shape it, protect it, strengthen it. But the day the dog decides he is done, no amount of training brings it back the same way.

I have watched this in shelters for over 20 years. A dog that shuts down under pressure is communicating something. A dog that stops offering behavior, stops engaging, goes through the motions, that dog is telling you something has changed. Most handlers read it as a training problem and push harder. That is the exact wrong move.

Danny Craig worked Malinois for thirty years. He titled ten dogs across his career, working most of them from puppies. One of them was a female named Brogan, who earned her SchH1.

He took her to that title and stopped there.

He could see what was happening before it fully arrived. She was going through the work but the joy was leaving. His style runs impatient and direct, and Brogan was starting to brace for it rather than drive through it. The let's go energy was gone. He retired her and she spent the rest of her life as a family dog.

A lot of people say they will do this and do not. The dog stops enjoying it and they keep pushing. They keep going to the club, keep asking for the same performances, keep telling themselves the dog just needs more time. The dog either shuts down or breaks.

That is not training. That is not even fair.

I said it at the club before I knew it was going to happen. The day Goofy stops having fun with this is the day I leave. When that day came I kept my word.

Watch for it before it arrives. The dog who used to explode out of the car now walks to the gate. The one who used to drag you toward the field has to be encouraged forward. The one who used to bark and push now waits to be told. Those are not training problems. Those are the dog telling you something.

The want drains slowly. The signs are small. You have to be watching the dog to see them, and most people are too focused on what they want the dog to do to notice what the dog is already showing them.

Most of the damage gets done here. You walk into a club. Someone is the expert. The other members believe it. You are new and you do not know better, so you follow along. By the time you understand that something is wrong the want is already gone.

The only way to know before you commit is to see the person train their own dog. Their dog, not a client's. Watch what the dog looks like working. Is he forward? Is he offering? Is the body language open and loose or is he just going through motions?

A trainer's own dog tells you everything. If that dog looks like he is somewhere he would rather not be, leave.

Danny spent thirty years teaching AP Economics and AP Psychology, and coached wrestling on top of that. He made an observation about skill that I think about with dogs constantly: some people can learn the mechanics of something and execute them technically. But when it comes to reading what is actually in front of them in real time, some people just see it and some people are always one step behind.

With dogs that gap shows up when something changes. The dog shifts and the handler misses it. The moment passes. Do that enough times and the want starts to drain.

You can get better at reading dogs. But the ones who do it best are not thinking about it. They are just watching.

The dog is always telling you something. In sport, in shelters, with the family dog on a walk. The want to is visible. Its absence is visible. You just have to be paying attention to the dog in front of you instead of the picture in your head of what you want him to do.

Shorter sessions. More wins. Less repetition of what is already not working. Listen to what he is showing you before you ask again.

The dog has to want to. Your job is to make sure he still does.

1. Free Training Content on My Website

If you work with shelter dogs or you're evaluating a dog for adoption, I've put together detailed guides on behavioral assessment, what to look for in an evaluation, and how to read dogs under stress. No email required. Head over to [ROBERTCABRAL.COM] and dig in.

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If you want to go deeper on any of this, everything is inside my membership. 250-plus lessons, over 85 hours of instruction, organized so you can find exactly what you need. Right now for only $29/mo. [BECOME A MEMBER]

3. Puppy Training Course: My 30-Day Puppy Training Program gives you the structure and foundation every puppy needs. Whether from a breeder or a shelter.

Until next Tuesday,

- Robert