Wellness Nexus: The Lifestyle

The art of dog training begins with an examination of your dog's baseline and making the proper lifestyle adjustments to set them up for the greatest possible success. Before anything else, it's worth considering the aspects of your dog's health that are outside your control and may not be visible to you. Have you ever had a sore back? It affects your entire day — your mood, your focus, your patience. As humans, we can stretch, communicate our pain to others, and take medication if necessary. A dog, however, is stuck in whatever discomfort they feel, with no way to tell you about it. Most dogs won't show visible signs of pain until it becomes truly overbearing. For this reason, a thorough examination by a trusted veterinarian should be conducted before training begins to ensure your dog is in the best possible health. This is especially important if you've noticed a sudden change in their overall demeanor. Pain and irritability alter behavior in ways that training simply isn’t designed to address.

Once you've addressed what you can't see, the next step is to examine the four primary aspects of your dog's health that are within your control: diet, sleep, exercise, and environment. By feeding your dog the best diet possible, you fuel their mind and body and prepare them to meet the demands of training. By ensuring they get enough sleep, you allow them to recover, process new information, and develop properly. By providing appropriate exercise, you strengthen them mentally and physically, fulfill their internal drives, and cultivate a calmer, clearer, and more receptive state of mind. And finally, a careful audit of your home environment will reveal what your dog is being exposed to daily — and how that shapes the dog standing in front of you. Each of these pillars is covered in the sections that follow. Work through them in order, and you'll be giving your dog every possible advantage before a single behavior is ever taught.