The Day Training “Stops working”

(And Why That Was Actually the Turning Point)

Training “stops working” right after dog owners finally commit to training their dog.

And for a brief, terrible moment, everything gets worse.

In response:

• The dog barks louder.
• Jumping is relentless.
• Whining feels calculated and defiant.

This is the moment most dog owners give up. Not because they don’t care, but because in their mind dog training isn’t working.

What almost no one tells dog owners:

Escalation may be the clearest sign that learning has actually begun.

This pattern is something we see not only in dogs, but in ourselves.

Here is an example:

You get into your car and press the ignition button. Pressing the button always produces the same outcome (the car starts). Until one day, it doesn’t. Most of us do not walk away after the first try.  

We try harder. Repeat the behavior.

When the car still doesn’t start, we increase the intensity. Press the button harder or rapidly.

Dogs do the exact same thing. When a behavior that once paid off suddenly stops working, the dog doesn’t immediately abandon it. Instead they test it. They push it. They escalate. This response isn’t stubbornness, nor dominance or manipulation.

It’s learning under uncertainty.

This behavior has a name

In learning theory, this phenomenon is called an extinction burst.

It occurs when a reliably reinforced behavior no longer produces the expected result. Before the behavior fades, it often spikes, temporarily, in frequency or intensity.

Please understand that:

The dog isn’t “getting worse.”

Dogs are asking a very clear question:

Are you sure this behavior doesn’t work any more?

Why do these moments feel so personal?

Extinction bursts are emotionally hard for humans because they tend to happen when you are:

• tired
• frustrated
• thought you were “doing it right”

Now the dog is pushing back.  But here’s an unpopular truth:

This is the most important moment in the entire training process.

Whatever happens next teaches the dog exactly how persistent they need to be in the future.

If the old behavior works even once during this escalation period, the dog learns that escalation works.

Why Do So Many Good Training Plans Fail At This Point?

Extinction doesn’t fail because it is ineffective. It fails because it is misunderstood.

Dogs don’t abandon behaviors that sometimes work. They abandon behaviors that never work, when something better is consistently available.

For this to work, it requires:

• clarity
• consistency
• time
• a replacement behavior the dog finds worth choosing

All of which are effective.

The real shift isn’t in the dog

When extinction works, the visible change is in the dog’s behavior. But the real shift happens when the owner “understands.”

It is when owners realizes:

• Why the behavior existed
• What was reinforcing it
• Why it escalated when the rules changed.

Only now does dog training stop feeling like a power struggle and start feeling like communication. This is when real progress becomes possible.