16/08/2026
On my way to Newport Beach, California for the IACP Conference.
After all these years in dog training, one thing I know for sure is this — continuing education isn't about looking for people to confirm what you already believe.
You aren't going to IACP to have your existing beliefs confirmed.
You're going there to learn.
If something challenges what you believe, good.
If something makes you rethink something you've been doing for years, good.
If you disagree with something, also good.
That's continuing education.
Because otherwise, we're not really learning. We're just travelling around looking for people who already agree with us, And this brings me to something I have been thinking about.
Like, for those so-called “cross-over” professionals, claiming that the way they used to train was so negative and aversive that it made them want to find a new, better way.
What exactly were they doing before they crossed over?
The question is: why was their previous training experience so negative, abusive and aversive to begin with?
If someone's previous training was abusive, unnecessarily aversive and negative, does that tell us something about professional training itself — or does it tell us something about how that individual was training?
Because this is so, so far from the truth. People never bother to find out the real truth, when the real truth is out there. Internationally, competent professional trainers don't train like this. Such a negative training approach is not what competent professional training is about at all.
Go out there. See it. Learn. Ask questions. Watch good trainers work.
Then make up your own mind.
And be willing to change it too.