One of the biggest lessons I’ve learned in my dog training career is this: much of what actually works with dogs can feel counterintuitive at first.
Want your dog to stop barking? Teach him how to bark on cue.
Want him to stop jumping on people? Give him appropriate opportunities to jump on you.
Want a dog who is social rather than aggressive? Allow him to engage in appropriate, structured play—even letting him win in games like tug.
Want a soft mouth? Teach him how to bite with intention.
Want a powerful bite? Teach softness and control.
Want a reliable recall? Your dog has to understand going away and coming back are connected! (And going away again, and so on and so forth)
Want a solid stay? Your dog needs to learn how to connect and build engagement with you.
At first glance, this can seem backwards. But when you look a little closer, it starts to make sense.
Most behaviors exist on a spectrum—they’re two sides of the same coin. Barking and quiet are connected. Coming and going are connected. Softness and intensity are connected. When a dog learns one end of the spectrum with clarity, it actually improves their understanding of the other end.
So instead of trying to suppress a behavior outright, we can often make more progress by developing its opposite. In doing so, we give the dog a fuller understanding of the behavior as a whole.
This can be frustrating, especially because we naturally want to apply human logic: “Just stop doing that.” But dogs don’t operate through language and reasoning the way we do. Their primary language is body-based—it’s movement, posture, timing, and energy.
That’s where a somatic approach becomes so powerful.
For dogs, everything is movement. Even stillness is simply controlled movement—preparation for what comes next. A down-stay isn’t the absence of action; it’s organized, contained energy. A recall isn’t just running toward you; it’s the expression of connection and intent.
When we train through movement, we’re speaking the dog’s native language. We’re not just teaching isolated commands—we’re helping the dog develop a full range of expression within a behavior. Over time, they learn how to move fluidly along that spectrum, rather than getting stuck at one extreme.
Each behavior is part of a larger system, like pieces of a complex puzzle. As those pieces come together, the dog becomes more balanced, adaptable, and confident.
And that’s both the challenge and the beauty of dog training: progress isn’t always linear, and the answers aren’t always obvious—but when it clicks, it’s incredibly rewarding.