Confession: I'm not a dog trainer

"Um.. Stephanie, you've literally trained my dog? What are you talking about?"

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A dog trainer...

Trainer noun (PERSON)

a person who teaches skills to people or animals and prepares them for a job, activity, or sport."

Okay, sure.. I do that.

I teach people & their dogs the skills to get through life together..

but the word trainer doesn't quite encapsulate my daily work when I'm hired to work with a dog and their guardian..

You see, there are a lot of dog trainers out there.. And boy, are they good.

They're really good at getting your dog to DO things..

if that's what you're focused on.

I used to be a dog trainer too..

I could program any dog to do any thing, really.

Is your dog barking? Yep, let me de-program barking.

Your dog isn't listening to your every word? We can re-program that!

Now?

It's not that simple.

In fact, the narrow lens of focusing on "behavior" gives me......... the ick.

So, how am I still working with dogs as a "dog trainer" as my full time successful career and still helping struggling pet parents get the results they're looking for?

I've shifted my focus.

I used to care about changing your dogs

behaviour.

Then, I thought I was addressing the root cause by addressing your dogs emotions directly.

That's good, but that's not enough.

You see, I see your dog as a complex system made up of many parts.

Allow me to borrow Kim Brophey's game-changing model that best reflects my views and ethics as your "dog trainer"..

LEGS

Learning

Environment

Genetics

Self

Your dogs "LEGS" categorizes the parts that make up the system of your dog.

When looking to help a dog, you have to consider their LEGS.

You may think..

"My dog will be great because I will raise & train them. And anything that they do wrong, must be something I did wrong along the way."

But that only considers part of the dogs LEGS - their L(earning) & E(nvironment).

Not to mention, your dog is also learning from other dogs, from strangers they interact with, from their environment, from the accidental things that we teach them..

But what about your dogs G(enetics)?

Some ways to begin considering how your dogs genetics may be influencing their behaviour is first, consider their breed & what tasks that breed was curated to do & feel initiated by.

For example, if your dog has any terrier in their family tree (btw - many bully breeds have terrier lines), your dog likely has a high prey drive, may be willing to bravely overcome adversity to pursue what they want, like to bark when aroused & may be prone to territorial behavior.

& your guardian breed (think, German Shepherd, Rottweiler, Cane Corso) may struggle living in a condo and that may manifest as barking at noises in the hallway from your unit and struggling to share common areas such as hallways and elevators - as they may see it as their turf to protect.

This may surprise many people when they look into their breed history to see that their cute little wiener dog has been bred to be courageous enough to go face to face with honey badgers - one of the most fearless animals on the planet.. no wonder your little Dachshund is so spicy!!

These considerations do not need to be excuses to not work on teaching your dog alternative - but have grace, as it is a part of the package that you welcomed into your home. And they are not bad for demonstrating these behaviours, but remember that they have hundreds of generations of reinforcement history telling them that they are meant to behave the way that we now see as problematic.

Simply put, most pet dogs were not designed to be living in homes as pet dogs and thus, these "behavioral challenges" we see, are just maladaptive repercussions for trying to fit a round peg in a square hole.

A dogs S(elf) may come into play when you have a Golden Retriever that seems to act more as a Doberman, for example. Although their breed may give us clues into their tendencies and motivators, we have to look at each dog as an individual.

I factor this into my training plan by arranging opportunities for each dog to do what sets their soul on fire, as often as possible..

while still balancing adequate quality rest and calm outings as well.

A dog with a strong motivation to pursue one of their drives (ie. prey drive), is like a shaken bottle.

When you go for your mundane leashed neighborhood walk, you've just opened that cap and your dog is explosive with all of their behaviour problems (excessive pulling, barking, unable to focus).

Providing a dog with regular outlets for their natural drives is like easing the cap on a shaken bottle — it helps release the built-up pressure.

The easiest way for humans to relate to this is considering our own sex drive.

When sex drive is repressed or treated like something bad, it often ends up coming out in unhealthy or even unsafe ways - not because the drive itself is wrong, but because there wasn’t a natural, appropriate outlet for something totally normal.

Instead, we create rules and boundaries around how that drive is expressed - things like consent, context, and setting - which help keep it healthy and balanced.

Similarly to dogs - they have natural drives too - such as prey drive - and instead of suppressing them, we can provide safe outlets and set clear rules for when and how they can be expressed.

To add another layer of complexity to genetics - is your dogs epigenetics - inherited from their parents and grand-parents lived experience.

There’s a well-known study in the world of epigenetics where researchers worked with male rats and the smell of cherry blossoms.

In the study, the rats were exposed to the scent of cherry blossoms while receiving mild electric shocks. Naturally, they developed a fear response to the smell. That part isn’t surprising. What is surprising is what happened next.

The offspring of those rats — who had never been shocked, and had never even smelled cherry blossoms before — also showed a fear response when exposed to the scent. Even their grand-offspring reacted the same way - for up to 5 generations!

This suggests that the trauma experienced by the original rats left a mark on their genetic expression — not by changing their DNA sequence, but by changing how certain genes were turned on or off. That’s epigenetics.

So what does this have to do with dogs?

A lot.

Dogs can inherit more than just looks or temperament from their parents — they can also inherit fear, stress sensitivity, or hypervigilance based on what their parents or grandparents went through.

A dog who reacts strongly to certain stimuli (like a sound, smell, or situation) might not just be “quirky” or “stubborn”.. There could be an inherited sensitivity rooted in something ancestral — especially if their lineage includes trauma, neglect, or chronic stress (like from puppy mills, hoarding cases, or under-socialized environments).

This doesn’t mean the dog is broken — but it does mean they deserve patience and support.

Just like us, dogs carry histories in their bodies. And those histories can show up in their behavior.

Remember, this all started in me sharing how I am not a dog trainer.

Because the term training seems limited to focusing on developing skills - such as obedience and tricks.

But there is an entire depth to your dogs world that we need to take into account before simply thinking that the dog needs training.

What I've discussed above is mostly considerate of your dogs welfare & desires - which needs to be addressed before trying to simply stop Tulip from digging up your garden.

Before we part ways for now, I want to drop a few other ideas for you to explore that may be influencing your dogs behaviour..

• Health - if your dog has any allergies or pain, I can almost promise you it is effecting their behaviour.. in fact, their behaviour may be the only indicator that they're in pain - as it's not advantageous by the laws of Mother Nature to let others onto your weakest parts - that makes you an easy target.

  But instead, pain may make you quite defensive or reactive..

• Rest - this is foundational for quite literally everything.

  If your dog isn't getting 18 hours of deep uninterrupted rest.. it may not actually be a training problem, but an over-tired problem.. effecting their ability to regulate & feel safe, to process information methodically, to retain information and progress & to make sound choices.

So next time you are looking at your dog and wondering why their behaviour isn't training despite your best efforts ("I've told my Potcake dog to stop eating everything outside & from our counters 1000 times - he know's he shouldn't be doing it!").. consider that, you might be needing a more holistic approach, considering the many beautiful intricate parts of the animal in your home.

Feel free to leave your thoughts in the comments below. I'm always happy to continue this conversation at kissmymutttraining@gmail.com

*Pardon any typos in my blogs - I will catch them over time. If you caught anything major, let me know!

Happy "training"!