From the practice
The blog
The specific questions owners ask, answered in the method's own terms. Each piece links up to the full guide underneath it.
How to calm a reactive dog
Why is my dog reactive? Causes and triggers
Owners come to me with the trigger: he hates other dogs, she loses it at bikes. The trigger is the last link in the chain, not the cause. The cause is the baseline the dog lives at.
6 min readHow to calm a reactive dog
Fear-based reactivity in dogs: Bodhi's story
Bodhi could barely get past the corner. That is not an aggressive dog, that is a scared one. The distinction sounds obvious, but it changes almost everything about how you work with the dog.
7 min readHow to raise a calm puppy
Before you get a puppy: the real questions
Most people who end up needing a trainer did not plan to. They planned to get a puppy and arrive at a calm companion. What they did not plan for was the year in between.
7 min readReading your dog
Resource guarding in dogs: why dogs growl
A dog guarding food, a bone or a person is not turning on you. It is telling you, in the only language it has, that it is worried about losing something it values.
6 min readHow to calm a reactive dog
What not to do with a reactive dog
The fastest way to keep a dog reactive is to do what instinct tells you in the moment. Here are the moves that make it worse, and what to do instead.
6 min readHow to calm a reactive dog
A dog with a bite history: Ella's story
Ella had bitten two trainers before me. A silent assassin, her owners said, no build-up before the lunge. Frame by frame, she gave plenty of warning. They just had not been trained to read it yet.
8 min readHow to calm a reactive dog
How to calm a reactive dog's nervous system
Everyone wants the thing to say or do when the dog is mid-reaction. But a nervous system running hot all day cannot be talked down at the trigger. The calm is built in the quiet hours.
6 min readHow to calm a reactive dog
Why some dogs lose it at passing cars
Benzi had volcanic reactions to any car on any street. The fix was not the car. His arousal was already near the top before they left the house. We worked on the recovery first.
7 min readA leash-reactive dog
How to walk a reactive dog
Walking a reactive dog well is hard to do on your own. But there are a few things you can do in the meantime that keep your dog under control and, just as importantly, do not make the reactivity worse.
5 min readHow to raise a calm puppy
Why walking your puppy more backfires
"A tired puppy is a good puppy", so you walk it more. By the time the family calls me, the puppy is sleeping less, biting harder and ignoring more. The walks are not working. The walks are part of why.
7 min readHow to calm a reactive dog
Can reactivity be trained out of a dog?
Honestly, it is managed and reduced, not erased. A well-managed reactive dog and a so-called cured one look identical. The difference is only that you know the tendency is still there, and you keep the conditions right.
6 min readHow to stop a dog barking
Alert barking that never stops: Figgy's story
Figgy barked at sounds his owners could not hear. A dog running that level of vigilance never properly switches off, so the baseline stays high, and it takes less and less to set off the next bark.
6 min readHow to calm a reactive dog
Is my dog's reactivity my fault?
Mostly, no. The guilt you are carrying is real, but it is pointed at the wrong thing. And a handler who is ashamed is tense and inconsistent, which the dog reads. So setting the guilt down genuinely helps.
6 min readThe adolescent stage
FOMO reactivity in a teenage dog: Herne
Herne would lose his hearing the moment a dog appeared. He was not reactive in the aggressive sense. He was reactive in the FOMO sense: every other dog was a potential friend and he was being denied the meeting.
7 min readHow to calm a reactive dog
Are Staffies aggressive? An honest answer
The breed is not the problem people think it is, and a Staffy will absolutely get you into trouble if you treat it like a smaller, calmer dog. Both things are true.
6 min readA leash-reactive dog
When your dog lunges and barks
There is a mindfulness skill called urge surfing: you feel the urge rise, notice it, and let it crest and fall without acting on it. It is almost exactly what I ask owners of reactive dogs to do. Except I ask two of you to do it at once.
5 min readHow to raise a calm puppy
The handover gap: puppies after week 8
The calls every good breeder dreads come at around six months. The family did everything they could think of, and they wonder if it is the breeding. It almost never is. It is the gap.
6 min readFind a trainer
How to find a good dog trainer
The names blur together. They all sound qualified, they all have five-star reviews. None of that tells you whether they can actually help your dog. Here is what does.
6 min readThe methodology
Force-free vs relationship-first dog training
Half the field leads with "force free". Where I agree with it, where building a dog on relationship rather than food makes me work differently, and why I would rather not be defined by my tools.
5 min readYour dog's body language
Reading your dog before the bark: Gibbs
Gibbs had a tail that told you exactly what he was thinking. Once his owner could see the tip flick, she had a two-second window. On the lunge, you are responding to history. Two seconds before it, you are responding to a signal.
7 min readHow to calm a reactive dog
Which dog breeds are most prone to reactivity?
Breed is only half the story, and it is the smaller half. In fifteen years and more than 3,000 dogs I have worked with reactive dogs of every breed and calm dogs of every breed.
5 min readThe methodology
Dog training rules explained: 3-3-3 and 7-7-7
The popular dog rules are memory aids, not laws. Almost all of them ask you to follow a number instead of the dog in front of you. Here is which ones hold up.
6 min readThe reading is a head start. The change happens together.
Train with me
Tell me about your dog and I will match you to the right starting point, online from anywhere or in person in Melbourne. Not sure yet? The free two-minute assessment is a good first step.