Dog training has entered a new era.

The field has moved past coercion - not because coercion failed to change behavior, but because it failed to meet modern standards of welfare, reliability, and risk.

That part is not controversial anymore.

What is happening now is a lag between where the science is, and what people still see online and at their local training facilities.

There, dogs are somehow still being shocked, yanked, physically manipulated, traumatized, and pushed through behavior under pressure, without the ability to freely learn.

In practice, training today is evaluated on different criteria than it was 20 years ago.

Professionals today look at emotional durability.

We look at stress recovery.

Does the dog generalize?

What are the long term outcomes of our efforts?

We're not looking at whether or not the behavior just stopped, but whether the dog actually learns something that holds up across environments, because dogs don't perform behaviors in isolation.

They bring their nervous systems with them, they bring their history with them, and they bring context with them.

And when we account for that, certain approaches simply do not age well.

That's why the modern version of behavior change emphasizes skills that survive pressure - skills that don't depend on constant management or tools to function.

It's also why the conversation has shifted away from ideology, and towards application.

How do we build responses that remain intact under stress?

How do we actually reduce fallout, instead of managing it later?

These aren't philosophical questions anymore. They're operational ones.

So when people frame this as an ongoing “method war” they're usually arguing with a version of the animal training field that no longer exists at the top.

The work now isn't convincing institutions. It's translating what institutions already agree on into everyday training that people can actually see and use.

That's where we are, and the needle has clearly moved.

And now it's time to do the work that comes next.

Join the Dog Training Revolution and learn more at zakgeorge.com

Thank you so much to our incredible friend Shelby Dennis for joining us in this episode! Shelby is an inspiration to Bree and I - make sure to follow her everywhere: https://milestoneequestrian.ca/shelby-dennis

https://www.youtube.com/@Milestone-Equestrian

https://www.instagram.com/sdequus/

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Learn more at zakgeorge.com

What is going on at the American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA)?

The lack of awareness and professionalism coming from this organization is becoming impossible to ignore.

Here are just some of the mounting concerns:

• A president publicly endorsing shock collars contradicting AVMA’s own stance, the global behavior science consensus, and basic animal-welfare principles.

• A refusal to acknowledge the One Health catastrophes in Gaza, Sudan, and Congo, even while claiming One Health as a core value.

• Silence on the disappearance and killing of Dr. Mu’ath Abu Rukba, one of Gaza’s last surgical veterinarians (see previous episodes of this podcast for the full story!)

• Routine deletion, hiding, and restriction of comments from members and the public raising legitimate concerns, and censorship of their own members and speakers within annual conferences.

• Posting trivial “awareness” content while ignoring mass suffering of humans, animals, and entire ecosystems.

• A PAC aligned with lawmakers who support militarism, environmental destruction, and policies directly harmful to people and animals.

• A documented history of systemic issues, including the controversy with Tuskegee University, the primary producer of Black veterinarians.

This is dysfunction, denial, and dereliction of duty. @avmavets appears disorganized, unaware, and unprofessional at a moment when moral clarity is needed most.

Why is a dog trainer on the internet having to point out the hypocrisy and misinformation of the world’s largest veterinary medical association?

If it’s on me, and all of us, to hold this organization accountable, then something is profoundly wrong inside that institution.

This is about restoring truth, ethics, and public trust in a profession that desperately needs it.

Veterinarians and the public deserve better leadership than this.