66 Positive & Motivating Quotes About Dog Training

Sometimes when you’re in the thick of it, you need some uplifting and positive quotes about Dog Training. Dedicating time and energy to training a dog can be incredibly rewarding, but frustration can easily trickle in without the right set of tools and mindset.

Although we don’t offer an online course: Dog Training 101, we do have 66 quotes about Dog Training that can get you to the confident, positive, and go-getter mindset you and your pup deserve and need to have a terrific training experience.

Get your hydration on and take your mind through a cruise of these quotes about Dog Training before you hit the training field!

Quotes About Dog Training

Get ready to gain some deep and meaningful insight from these pros and their quotes about Dog Training! Please do remember to take some breaks in between reading these quotes to allow yourself time to process them; we don’t want you to feel overwhelmed. Better yet, perhaps during this read-through, you can jot down bullet point notes of tips and quotes that resonate with you!

• “People who think they need high-pressure methods or tools—pinch collars or electric appliances—to train a dog have no clue how to train a dog well. Training, both as a hobby and as a profession, should be pleasant for the dog and the handler. It should be a successful learning process that yields progress for both parties. If training becomes a torment for the handler or the dog, then both parties are on the wrong track.” -Resi Gerritsen, K9 Schutzhund Training: A Manual for IPO Training through Positive Reinforcement
• “Don’t make your out command a signal for war.” -Michael Ellis
• “Tell me and I forget. Show me and I remember. Involve me and I understand.” -Chinese Proverb
• “The more positive reinforcement an animal has in its life, the better able it can adapt to new situations and stress, and ultimately the better its quality of life.” -Lisa Desatnik
• “We have to use exercise, discipline and affection every day. Most of the time people share affection, affection, affection, and that creates frustration. In a powerful breed, that’s going to lead him into aggression. So exercise and discipline play a big role in balance.” -Ceasar Millan
• “Revenge and temper tantrums have absolutely no place in dog training — you must not let training turn into a spectacle of one dumb animal hurting another.” -U.S. Department of Defense, U.S. Military Working Dog Training Handbook
• “If you want your dog to be engaged and focused, you’ve got to be engaged and focused first.” -Megan Karnes
• “Assertive behaviors are often associated with “dominant” dogs but are, in fact, often used by dogs who are extremely insecure or under-socialized.” -Brenda Aloff, Aggression in Dogs: Practical Management, Prevention & Behaviour Modification
• “Training often fails because people expect way too much of the animal and way too little of themselves.” -Bob Bailey
• “To chase a dog is merely to teach it to run away.” -Eric Knight, Lassie Come-Home
• “If you don’t train me, don’t blame me.” -Unknown
• “If you want the dog to stop fighting the leash, stop using the leash to fight the dog.” -Chad Mackin
• “Great dog trainers have broad skills, not inflexible ideologies.” -Ralf Weber
• “Training is a loop, a two-way communication in which an event at one end of the loop changes events at the other, exactly like a cybernetic feedback system; yet many psychologists treat their work as something they do to a subject, not with the subject.” -Karen Pryor, Don’t Shoot the Dog!: The New Art of Teaching and Training
• “Mental exercise tires a dog physically more than physical exercise does.” Dr. Ian Dunbar
• “This is the magic secret of dog training — lose control over yourself and you at once lose control of the dog. Your strongest and most irresistible weapon is iron patience.” -Albert Payson Terhune, Gray Dawn
• “Stubborn is a good thing. If they are doing the wrong thing they are stubborn. If they are doing the right thing they are ‘committed’ … just get them stubborn on the right thing.” -Chad Mackin
• “The reason that I do not typically use the command word “stay” during training is because it is redundant. If I instruct you to sit, I should not have to tell you to stay sitting. What value is a sit without the stay? Sit implies stay. Once I have given the sit command, the assumption is that the dog should remain in that position until told otherwise. That’s the standard. The sit command can be considered the warning that it’s unacceptable to get up. However, if you want to offer the additional information, you may say “stay” once the dog is sitting. Then, that becomes the warning. Only say it once. That is the message that tells the dog of your expectations. A warning should be delivered one time. If the dog does not heed the warning, then the consequence must be delivered. Otherwise, you will create a dog that will simply wait for the second or third or fourth warning word before changing his behavior.” -Tammie Rogers, Dog Algebra: When Positive Reinforcement Fails To Solve The Problem
• “The dog must always have hope.” -Bart Bellon
• “Training is a way of developing our ability to communicate with our dogs.” -Suzanne Clothier
• “Your dog is not being a problem, your dog is having a problem.” -Chad Mackin
• “When I’m training a dog, I develop a relationship with that dog. He’s my buddy, and I want to make training fun.” –Dr Ian Dumbar
• “Whenever you are training an animal who just simply is not doing what you want him to do, know that there is always a reason. And it is not that your animal is dumb or stubborn. As your pet’s teacher, step back and think through what you can do to make the lesson plan easier, more clear … and definitely more fun!” -Lisa Desatnik
• “Dog training is a never-ending process of evolving.” -Ivan Balabanov
• “Every trainer I spoke to, though advocating methods as contradictory as Koehler and pharmacological behaviorism, agreed on four basic principles. They are magic principles, and so important that training may not help dogs living without them, while some dogs living with them require little formal training. • Magic principle #1: Don’t be nuts! • Magic principle #2: Puppies are baby dogs • Magic principle #3: Exercise your dog • Magic principle #4: Give your dog a job.” -Donald McCaig, Mr. and Mrs. Dog: Our Travels, Trials, Adventures, and Epiphanies

Quotes About Dog and Man

Training a dog is so much more than teaching it commands and manners; it’s bringing your relationship even closer together and understanding one another on a whole other level. What better way to achieve that than to remind yourself of all the whole and lovely reasons why having a dog in your life is the best?! These quotes about dog and man will spark an abundance of sweet memories and moments in your mind; you’ll want to hug your dog and never let go!

• “Dogs are our link to paradise. They don’t know evil or jealousy or discontent. To sit with a dog on a hillside on a glorious afternoon is to be back in Eden, where doing nothing was not boring–it was peace.” -Milan Kundera
• “The bond with a dog is as lasting as the ties of this Earth can ever be.” -Konrad Lorenz
• “It’s just the most amazing thing to love a dog, isn’t it? It makes our relationships with people seem as boring as a bowl of oatmeal.” -John Grogan, Marley and Me: Life and Love With the World’s Worst Dog
• “Be the most interesting human your dog has ever met.” -Ralf Weber
• “Petting, scratching, and cuddling a dog could be as soothing to the mind and heart as deep meditation and almost as good for the soul as prayer.” -Dean Koontz, False Memory
• “Not only was [her dog] a good companion, he was also like a permission slip to be more present in the world.” -Andrea Lochen, Versions of Her
• “The greatest pleasure of a dog is that you may make a fool of yourself with him, and not only will he not scold you, but he will make a fool of himself, too.” -Samuel Butler
• “There are no bad dogs or bad humans, just inappropriate behavior.” -Shannon Riley-Coyner The Evolution of Dog Training: From choke chains to clickers, uncovering the secrets to having a well behaved dog
• “A dog is the only thing on earth that loves you more than he loves himself.” -Josh Billings
• “Everyone is taught that angels have wings, but the lucky ones of us find they have 4 paws.” -Unknown
• “You can usually tell that a man is good if he has a dog who loves him.” -W. Bruce Cameron, A Dog’s Journey
• “After years of having a dog, you know him. You know the meaning of his snuffs and grunts and barks. Every twitch of the ears is a question or statement, every wag of the tail is an exclamation.” -Robert R. McCammon, Boy’s Life
• “Never underestimate the therapeutic power of talking to your dog while having a glass of wine.” -Unknown
• “I’m suspicious of people who don’t like dogs, but I trust a dog when it doesn’t like a person.” -Bill Murray
• “People leave imprints on our lives, shaping who we become in much the same way that a symbol is pressed into the page of a book to tell you who it comes from. Dogs, however, leave paw prints on our lives and our souls, which are as unique as fingerprints in every way.” -Ashly Lorenzana
• “I like dogs. You always know what a dog is thinking. It has four moods. Happy, sad, cross and concentrating. Also, dogs are faithful and they do not tell lies because they cannot talk.” -Mark Haddon, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time
• “The little moments you have with your dog mean the world.” -Anonymous
• “You can say any fool thing to a dog and the dog will just give you this look that says, ‘My GOSH, you’re RIGHT! I NEVER would’ve thought of that!” -Dave Barry
• “I can’t do everything I want, but I can put a smile on my dog’s face. Making him happy makes me happy.” -Oliver Markus Malloy, Inside The Mind Of An Introvert
• “Once you have had a wonderful dog, a life without one, is a life diminished.” -Dean Koontz, A Big Little Life: A Memoir of a Joyful Dog

Learn from Dogs Quotes

Sure we can teach am old dog tricks, but are we missing the bigger picture? That’s right, turns out the real teachers have been wagging in front of us the whole time! Read through these witty and loving learn from dogs quotes, and you’ll see exactly what we’re talking about.

• “The dog is a gentleman; I hope to go to his heaven not man’s.” -Mark Twain
• “Those who teach the most about humanity aren’t always human.” -Donald L. Hicks
• “She watched Sprocket rolling in the grass on his back with joyful abandon. That was why people loved dogs. Dogs embraced life and savored every second of it, no matter if it meant looking like a total dork.” -Andrea Lochen, Versions of Her
• “Dogs do speak, but only to those who know how to listen.” -Orhan Pamuk
• “Dogs ask for so little but deserve so much.” -Unknown
• “A person can learn a lot from a dog, even a loopy one like ours. Marley taught me about living each day with unbridled exuberance and joy, about seizing the moment and following your heart. He taught me to appreciate the simple things-a walk in the woods, a fresh snowfall, a nap in a shaft of winter sunlight. And as he grew old and achy, he taught me about optimism in the face of adversity. Mostly, he taught me about friendship and selflessness and, above all else, unwavering loyalty.” -John Grogan, Marley and Me: Life and Love With the World’s Worst Dog
• “The average dog is a nicer person than the average person.” -Andy Rooney
• “Aggression in a dog is similar to aggression in a human. We’re both scared of what we don’t understand, and our need to protect leads to aggression. Changing that aggression in a dog is more complex because the dog doesn’t speak English, so I had to learn to speak dog.” -Andre Gatling, Penelope’s Bully
• “The only creatures that are evolved enough to convey pure love are dogs and infants.” -Johnny Depp
• “All his life he tried to be a good person. Many times, however, he failed. For after all, he was only human. He wasn’t a dog.” -Charles M. Schulz

• “Apparently dogs are the answer to all life’s problems.” -Abby Jimenez, Life’s Too Short
• “Be the person your dog thinks you are.” -J.W. Stevens
• “If you pick up a starving dog and make him prosperous he will not bite you. This is the principal difference between a dog and man.” -Mark Twain
• “A dog can never tell you what she knows from the smells of the world, but you know, watching her, that you know almost nothing.” -Mary Oliver, Dog Songs
• “Discipline isn’t about showing a dog who’s boss; it’s about taking
• responsibility for a living creature you have brought into your world.” -Cesar Millan, Be the Pack Leader: Use Cesar’s Way to Transform Your Dog . . . and Your Life
• “A bone to the dog is not charity. Charity is the bone shared with the dog, when you are just as hungry as the dog.” -Jack London
• “I believe in integrity. Dogs have it. Humans are sometimes lacking it.” -Cesar Millan
• “If a dog will not come to you after having looked you in the face, you should go home and examine your conscience.” -Woodrow Wilson
• “What I have observed about humans and animals so far: 90% of humans around me are LUSTY, SELFISH, EGOISTIC, CUNNING, MONEY-MINDED, ARROGANT, THANKLESS, UNEMPATHETIC, FAMILY & SELF OBSESSED, SOURCE of IRRITATION & TENSION, and last but not least, they SUCK. WHEREAS 99.9% of the animals around me are SELFLESS, SATISFIED, STRESSBUSTERS, LOYAL, SOURCE of SELFLESS LOVE, and INSPIRATIONAL. REST 0.1% of animals might’ve hurt or shown aggression to someone due to ILLNESS, INJURY, HUNGER, CRUELTY, FRUSTRATION, and last but not least, FEAR CREATED by so-called HUMANS. Conclusion: ANIMALS are better than HUMANS.” -Kartik Kaushal

Feeling the motivation coarse through your veins? We guarantee your pup can feel that new-found positive energy, and that’ll soak into their vibe and confidence as well!

Remember to remain patient with yourself and your precious pup, and that every practice run, every trial, error, and triumph are all a part of the learning process, and it’ll all be worth it. Give your pup treats for their hard work, and give yourself small rewards as well!