What’s something you used to overthink about training that turned out to be simple?

Great question. For me, it was leash pressure.

I used to overthink every correction and reward, worried about timing, angle, exact tension, whether I was “doing it right.” Once it clicked that leash pressure is just another language, pressure on means “try something,” pressure off means “you got it”, everything changed.

I stopped micromanaging and started communicating. The dog relaxed, I relaxed, and suddenly the whole relationship felt smoother.

Funny how most of the breakthroughs come down to realizing it’s not about control, it’s about clarity.
 
Malakai The Great said:
Great question. For me, it was leash pressure.

I used to overthink every correction and reward, worried about timing, angle, exact tension, whether I was “doing it right.” Once it clicked that leash pressure is just another language, pressure on means “try something,” pressure off means “you got it”, everything changed.

I stopped micromanaging and started communicating. The dog relaxed, I relaxed, and suddenly the whole relationship felt smoother.

Funny how most of the breakthroughs come down to realizing it’s not about control, it’s about clarity.
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That’s actually really reassuring to hear, leash pressure is one of the things I’ve been overthinking the most. I love how you explained it as a language instead of this super technical skill. “Pressure on = try something, pressure off = you got it” makes it sound way less intimidating.

It’s cool how once you relaxed, the dog did too. It really does seem like clarity matters way more than perfection.
 
For me it was an overall philosophical change over time, a lot of which happened because I train my dogs for SAR and help other handlers train their dogs. Once I moved to giving my dog choices whenever possible and started practicing No Attachment To Outcome, our training became much more efficient. I always try to meet my dog where they are - both as a dog and how they learn, as well as where they are in the moment. As an example, I go into most training sessions with a goal, but I'm not attached to that outcome because my dog may not want to work on that behavior right now or may not be in the headspace for it. Instead we'll shift to what she wants to work on. We've still accomplished training and because it's what she wanted to work on, we made progress faster. And when we come back later to work on the original behavior, she's more into it. Other times we just train to see what happens and not have any goal. I'll always learn something, whether it's something that doesn't work, a new way to do something, or she offers a new behavior. All of this leads to better communication between us as well.
 
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