Why Obedience Isn’t the Goal: Shifting Toward Welfare-First Dog Training
For decades, the dog training industry has sold us the same story: a “good dog” is an obedient dog. Sit, stay, heel, come. But here’s the hard truth—obedience is arbitrary, superficial, and unnatural. It has very little to do with what dogs actually need to thrive and everything to do with human convenience and control. And it’s not just outdated—it’s harmful. When we become obsessed with molding dogs into perfect little soldiers, we strip away their dogness. We ignore their natural instincts, silence their communication, and call it “success.” Quite frankly, it’s disturbing how fixated humans have become on manipulating dogs to fit an arbitrary mold of what society says a “good dog” should be. A dog who is seen but not heard. A dog who immediately complies to our requests without question. A dog who is not allowed to be a dog nearly as much as they should be. Barking, pulling, jumping, digging, chasing critters, even counter surfing—these aren’t “bad” behaviors. They’re nat...