Why cookie cutter advice doesn't always work; AKA sometimes google isn't the answer!

I am a HUGE fan of the internet. Even though it can sometimes be a cesspool of misinformation and bad attitudes (hellooooooo social media!), it can also be a wonderful source of unlimited information that we would never have imagined having access to 20 years ago (helloooooo google scholar!)! Remember card catalogs? I do! I even consider myself the self proclaimed queen of google with my super power being that I can find information within seconds of a question being asked (ask my fiancee, Phil, I'll often have the answer before he even finishes asking the question!)

HOWEVER. There are several things we need to consider about getting information from the internet. It's one thing looking up one of the supporting actors in Titanic or what the number one song on the day you were born was, it's a whole different ball game asking google something like "why is my dog growling?" or "is my dog dominant?" (I'll save you the google search on this one and give you the short answer: no, he's not). Dog behavior is fluid and doesn't fit neatly into boxes like other facts do.

Just one example is with my dog Regis. When I first started training as a hobby I would look up advice on how to train polite leash walking. Regis was a MEGA puller. Some dogs are sensitive to leash pressure and when they hit the leash naturally stop or move back towards you; Regis did not do this, especially if there were prey animals around. He continued to lean into the pressure of the harness, digging his feet into the ground as hard as he could and somehow managing to choke himself despite the fact that the leash wasn't attached to a neck collar. This was easily the most difficult behavior I had to work on with Regis.