Zeus is 7 now — what changed in how I see "obedience" over the years
Seven years with a German Shepherd has shifted how I think about obedience entirely. In year one, obedience meant compliance — sit when told, stay when told. By year seven, I realize the real goal was never compliance, it was partnership. Zeus doesn't follow commands because he's afraid of consequences, he follows them because we've built seven years of mutual trust where following my lead has consistently worked out well for him. That's a completely different relationship than the one I thought I was building at the start. If you're early in training a working breed and obedience still feels like a battle of wills, it usually means the trust layer underneath isn't built yet — the commands will click once that's solid.
42
This is a very meaningful way to think about it, thank you for sharing, Marcus. I am still early with Storm and sometimes feel frustrated when things do not go as planned. I will try to remember that this is part of building trust, not simply a failure of training.
This tracks with the behavioral science on this — dogs trained primarily through trust-building and positive reinforcement show more reliable behavior under stress and novel situations than dogs trained primarily through compliance-focused methods. What you're describing as a "shift in understanding" is actually the more durable training outcome, even if it takes longer to get there initially.
Agreed completely, and it applies even more with Malinois. Blitz will do almost anything for me now, but that took years of consistent, fair leadership, not just repetition of commands. The dogs that struggle most as adults are usually the ones where compliance was forced early without that trust foundation.
Bien dicho. Took me about three years with Diablo to really understand this distinction. Compliance is fast, trust is slow, but trust is the only one that holds under real pressure — off leash, around distractions, in an emergency. Worth the patience.