Scott Linden Outdoors

I think there’s a school of philosophy (or should be) advocating for a minimalist approach to life: spare surroundings, few material needs, uncluttering the mind. For all I know, there’s also a religion.

I get it. And when it comes to dog training, I get it times two.

In my experience, young dogs – heck, all dogs – tire of the same old, same old, a lot faster than we do. Miniscule attention spans and maximum distractions tug at a dog’s mental capacity.

So, what have I learned from learning that? Shut up, for one thing. A run up the mountain and back requires some direction by human to dog … but not a constant dialog. Periodic “here’s” and change of direction commands, when delivered strategically, have their desired effect – they remind Flick what he learned in the yard and keep him on track. But yell too many commands and they start losing their desired effect.

So I save my words for critical points in the field when they are really needed.