There are moments in life where we become obsessed with arriving. Getting the promotion. Buying the house. Winning the title. Starting the business. Finding the relationship. Making the first million.

We convince ourselves that happiness is waiting just beyond the next milestone.

"If I can just get there..."

A few weeks ago I was working with Arya on one of the most important exercises in dog training: the long down. If you're unfamiliar with it, the concept is simple.

Tell your dog to lie down. Walk away.

Your dog remains exactly where they are despite duration, distance, and distractions. It sounds simple. It isn't.

I put out a short last week where I said,

"If it isn't clean, clean it up."

If you watched the video, Arya came into heel position almost perfectly. To most people, it looked great.

Almost.

She was slightly out of position. She didn’t recognized, but I did. I had her adjust, and cleaned it up. To the untrained eye, it seemingly wasn't a big deal.