Occasionally an owner will say to me, "We’ve just purchased a new puppy, and it is so sweet and easy to live with that I just don’t think I want to do a training program, because I don’t think it’s fair to pick on a dog that just hasn’t given us any trouble."

I say to them, "If you had a child and it was the sweetest, most adorable little thing and never gave you any problems, would you say ‘I don’t want to give this child an education because I don’t think it’s fair to make it learn all this stuff when it’s never done anything bad or caused us any problems?’"

That’s the reason you educate young things––human and animal. It equips them with the skills needed to survive, and modern society can be even more dangerous than the wilderness.

You teach children not to play in the street, before a car hits them, not after.

You teach a young dog not to be destructive or noisy or aggressive before it devours your furniture, barks and disturbs neighbors, or bites someone––not after.

If you think training is not fair, take a trip to your local animal shelter (where most of the animals that misbehave end up) and see what happens to the ones that don’t get adopted. See how fair you think that is.

If you don’t love your dog enough to train it and be a good "parent," maybe you shouldn’t have it!