One of the dogs I remember most from my early twenties was a Pit Bull mix named Bruno.

Bruno belonged to an older woman who was having a very difficult time managing him. He was extremely protective of her and, as far as he was concerned, just about everyone outside of her was a potential threat. He was aggressive, suspicious, and intimidating. People couldn’t simply walk up to him, and even normal interactions around his owner could trigger a reaction.

At first, Bruno wasn’t interested in being trained. In fact, he wasn’t particularly interested in me.

And I wasn’t going to force it.

Instead, I started by simply spending time around him. I watched him. I paid attention to his body language and tried to understand what he was communicating. I didn’t challenge him just to prove that I could. I wanted him to figure out that I wasn’t there to threaten him or take anything away from him.

Little by little, I started to earn his trust.

There was a point when his attitude toward me began to change. He started allowing me closer. Then he started looking to me differently. Eventually, I could interact with him without getting the defensive response I had seen in the beginning.

That’s when the training could actually begin.

Once Bruno trusted me, I could communicate with him. I could introduce structure and expectations, and he became willing to work with me. The dog that initially seemed determined to keep everyone away eventually became a dog I could train and handle successfully.

Bruno taught me one of the most important lessons of my career:

You can’t always train a dog until you understand the dog.

Trust doesn’t mean letting a dog do whatever it wants. Quite the opposite. Once a dog trusts you, you can establish boundaries, introduce expectations, and teach the dog what you want it to do.

But if all the dog sees is pressure, confrontation, or someone trying to overpower him, you’re often fighting the dog instead of training the dog.

Bruno also taught me that behavior has a reason. What looked like a “mean” dog on the surface was a dog with a tremendous amount of protective behavior and a very limited ability to trust people outside his inner circle.

That experience stayed with me.

Today, when I evaluate a dog displaying aggression, fear, or reactivity, I’m not interested in simply labeling the dog aggressive or bad. I want to understand why the dog is behaving that way, what the dog is communicating, and what it will take to change the behavior safely.

Bruno was one of the first dogs to really drive that lesson home for me.

And honestly, he probably taught me something else that has served me well for decades:

Sometimes the first step in training a dog isn’t teaching it anything at all. It’s convincing the dog that you’re worth listening to.