No matter the age or stage of our dog, these are four common mistakes we don't want to make. Remember, mistakes are only mistakes if we keep making them, rather than learning from them.

One of the things we can overlook and/or neglect when raising and training our dog(s) is the power of distractions. When we ignore the power of distractions, we most likely negatively impact our dog's ability to "win" and reach the desired goal we have for them. When we recognize distractions and tap into their power, we can help our dog more consistently accomplish the behavior we have in mind.

If we focus on pace over distance can distract or, even worse, cripple us. The old adage is, "If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together." We will sacrifice too many great things if we choose speed over span. If we let our reasoning be "wanting it now," we will likely miss moments we'll regret.

No matter the reason, when we allow the gap between our actions and our habits, responsibilities and goals to increase, we'll struggle to overcome our fears, laziness and busyness. We'll struggle to do what we know we should be doing.

There is a lot to consider if you're thinking about breeding your dog. The cuteness of puppies and the possibility of some extra cash can cloud our vision. Before we make the big decision to expand our dog's genetics, there's a handful of questions we need to answer.

Comparison doesn't have to cripple us. It can produce some really good fruit. Too often we see social media posts, read stories or see other people's dogs and we start to compare our dog to theirs. Our comparison starts to snowball and we start to believe myths, become jealous, get negative and even doubt our abilities. Rather than letting comparison cripple us, we can flip the coin and let it cause curiosity.

Training starts the moment we pick up our puppy. Building an obedient dog is like building a house, you always start with the foundation. In addition to our planned training sessions, there are many moments we can take advantage of to capitalize on routine foundation work with our pup. Patience and consistency are key anchor points we need to maintain as we train.

Sometimes we have limited amounts of time when we can train and or a limited amount of locations we can train at, nonetheless, we can still train with variety. When we combine the variables the forecast provides us with and the variables our terrain offers us, we have more variety than we might have originally thought.

Excuses wreak havoc on our goals and productivity. None of us are exempt from them, but we need to stop giving excuses a seat at our table.

Whether we're talking about life in general or we're talking about training our dog, intentionality matters. Without intentionality, we're likely to live in chaos and create confusion.