Train Like it’s a Video Game: What Dog Training Taught Me About Setbacks

Dog training isn’t a straight line—it’s a video game. When things fall apart, you’re not starting over. You’re just reloading the last level with new information. Here's why that mindset keeps me (and my dog) moving forward.

There’s this moment that happens in almost every video game. You’re deep into a mission, dodging fireballs, collecting coins, doing whatever your heroic pixelated self is supposed to be doing—and then suddenly, things go sideways.

You miss a jump. You mistime an attack. You get flattened by the flying robot duck boss.
Whatever the reason, you're out.

But here’s what doesn’t happen: you don’t go back to the beginning of the game.
You don’t lose everything. You don’t erase your progress.
You just reload that level.

Same with dog training.

There’ve been so many moments in my own training—both with my own dogs and with client pups—where it feels like things are finally clicking.
The leash is loose. The recall is snappy. Calmness is showing up in places it never used to.
You feel like, “Yes! We’re there! This is it!”

And then—bam. Something crumbles.
The dog loses it over a squirrel.
They regress into old patterns.
They act like they've never even heard the word “sit,” let alone practiced it 500 times.

And in those moments, it’s so easy to think,
“I blew it.”
“We’re back to square one.”
“It’s like starting over with a brand new dog.”

But here’s what I’ve learned, both as a trainer and as a guy who’s definitely panicked in front of his own misbehaving Dutch Shepherd:
That’s not true.

You’re not starting over.
You’re not back at level one.
You’re just at this level. This new challenge. This specific scenario is where things got tricky.

And what you’ve already built—your dog’s trust in you, the reinforcement history, the moments of success—that doesn’t vanish.
It’s still there. You’re just being asked to adapt, to problem-solve, to try something a little different.

Like in a video game, you take that failure and say:
“Okay, that strategy didn’t work. Let’s try another route.”
“Maybe I need more distance here.”
“Maybe we’re not ready for this environment yet.”
“Maybe today we play the calmness game instead.”

That shift in thinking—that it’s not a failure, it’s just feedback—has saved me more times than I can count.

I actually talk more about this idea in a short video I made called Train Like a Video Game.
It’s just a couple minutes long, but it gets to the heart of why I believe this mindset can be a total game-changer—pun fully intended.

It helped me when I was working with Roo and she hit a phase where she shut down when overwhelmed.
It helps me now when Bags gets overstimulated and turns into a pogo stick on leash.
It helps my clients when their dog has an off day and they’re tempted to throw in the towel.

Because here’s the truth:
Training a dog isn’t about perfection.
It’s about persistence.
It’s about taking what happened, learning from it, and stepping back into the game—with a little more knowledge than you had last time.

So the next time your training feels like it just “crashed,” remember:

You’re not starting over.
You’re just reloading the level.
You’ve still got all your skills, all your progress, and all your heart—and that’s more than enough to keep going.