Robynn Harris, CCFT, The Wandering Shepherd

08/23/2026

❌ MYTH: "My dog is just slowing down because of old age-they don't need prescription pain relief."

✅ FACT: "Old age" is an age bracket, not a medical condition. When a senior dog sleeps more, hesitates at the stairs, takes longer to get out of bed, or lags behind on walks, they are showing behavioural adaptations to joint discomfort, not simply "getting old."

Dismissing these mobility and mood shifts as inevitable ageing allows chronic joint inflammation to progress unmanaged.

When dog guardians work with their veterinary team to introduce targeted pain management, they are often amazed to see their dog regain playfulness, curiosity, and zest for life. Pain relief isn't just about extending longevity; it's about protecting daily quality of life.

08/23/2026

What makes a dog resilient?

Some dogs handle change, noise, and new situations with ease. Other dogs really struggle. It's tempting to think it's all down to personality, but the research points somewhere else.

A (small) 2022 study measuring physiological stress in dogs found that dogs with a secure attachment to their owner showed lower cortisol levels after a stressful test than dogs with an insecure attachment, along with a tendency toward a lower heart rate. Their bodies handled stress better because they had a reliable source of support in their owner.

This fits with a broader pattern researchers have observed in dog-owner attachment: dogs who feel secure with their owner tend to cope better with stress and show fewer behavioural problems, and that security seems to come largely from how sensitive and responsive their owner is to their dog's needs.

Resilience, in other words, isn't a trait some dogs are born with and others aren't. It's a byproduct of the relationship.

Photo ref: Martha with German Shepherd Dog Welfare Fund waiting for her new home.

Refs: Schöberl, I., Wedl, M., Beetz, A., & Kotrschal, K. (2016). Psychobiological Factors Affecting Cortisol Variability in Human-Dog Dyads. PLOS ONE, 11(2), e0150347.

Riggio, G., Borrelli, C., Campera, M., Gazzano, A., & Mariti, C. (2022). Physiological Indicators of Acute and Chronic Stress in Securely and Insecurely Attached Dogs Undergoing a Strange Situation Procedure (SSP): Preliminary Results. Veterinary Sciences, 9(10), 519

08/20/2026

Dog doesn’t want a stranger touching them: “Needs socialisation.”

Human doesn’t want a stranger touching them: “Reasonable boundary.”

Dog doesn’t like every dog they meet: “Not friendly.”

Human dislikes approximately 74% of the people they meet: “Good judge of character.”

Dog barks because someone unexpectedly walks into their house: “Territorial.”

Human hears a noise downstairs at 2am: Turns on every light in the house and investigates while holding an object that was absolutely not designed for self-defence.

Dog gets overwhelmed at a busy café full of people, children, dogs, food and noise:
“He needs to learn how to behave.”

Human gets overwhelmed in IKEA on a Saturday: Completely understandable. Possibly grounds for medical leave.

Dog growls when uncomfortable: “Dominant.”

Human says “DON’T TOUCH ME”: Clear communication. Boundary successfully established.

Dog has one bad interaction and remembers that type of dog forever: “Reactive.”

Human has one bad experience with a cat: Hates all cats forever.

Dog loses their mind because the postman comes every single day and somehow STILL refuses to learn his lesson: “Problem barking.”

Human watches the same neighbour park slightly over the line every day: Has been documenting it photographically since March and is “just keeping a record.”

Dog doesn't immediately come when called because they're halfway through smelling something interesting: “Stubborn. Knows exactly what he's doing.”

Human hears their name being called from another room: Remains completely silent in the hope that whoever it is will solve the problem themselves.

Dog gets nervous at the vet after previously having something unpleasant done there: “He knows there's nothing to be scared of.”

Human has one uncomfortable dental procedure in 2009: Hasn't been back since.

Sometimes dogs aren't the weird ones

08/18/2026

This is a great message and I want to emphasize one aspect of it: Stop Asking Your Dog to Sit All The Time!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Repetitive motion causes injury. We know this. Pitcher’s elbow. Carpal tunnel syndrome. Gamer thumb. Smartphone pinky. Find a repetitive action and you’ll find diagnoses and colloquialisms that go along with it, whether it’s sports, play, or typing on a keyboard all day for work. Repetitive motions cost humans time and money not to mention emotional toll of being in pain.

Dogs, and all living creatures with muscles, are the same. So why do we think having our dog sit a hundred times a day, every day, for the majority of their short lives, would be any different? 😢

Yes, teach your dog a properly positioned sit. Yes, put it in your fitness plan. And yes, ask for it when it’s necessary. But please, stop asking for sits for no good reason. When you catch yourself asking for a sit, stop, and ask yourself, “Is this sit important?”

Most dogs are euthanized due to pain and trauma associated with osteoarthritis. OA happens the longer we’re alive on this planet. But we CAN find ways to mitigate it. Less sits may mean your dog will live longer. Or as the Canine Arthritis Management education I received says: Your Dog More Years.

~RH

How many times has this happened to you?

You're at the pet store and the clerk offers to give your dog a treat and this happens:

Them: Can your dog have a treat?
Me: Of course!
Them, holding a treat (to the dog): OK, sit!

Hold up...you asked if you could give them a treat, not force them to work for it. Why are people so held up on getting dogs to sit?

When we had Boo I would interject and say "She's 15 with bad hips - she's not going to sit for your treat. You can give it to her but don't ask her to sit."

Advocate for your dog. Also, it's perfectly OK to give them a treat for nothing. They don't have to work for every little morsel of food or your attention!

Read more in this week's post.

https://rescuedbytraining.com/2026/08/17/from-the-archives-quit-the-sit/

08/17/2026

🎉🎉🎉

08/16/2026

Aggression Is Not a Moral Failure

I wish more people understood this: punishing a dog for aggression doesn't solve the problem; what it often does is suppress the warning signs while making the underlying fear, anxiety, or frustration worse.

Growling, lunging, snapping, and biting are distance-increasing behaviors. They occur when a dog perceives a threat and is trying to make the threat go away.

The dog isn't being “mean,” and the aggression isn't necessarily about disliking the person at whom the aggression is directed. In fact, fear is the most common cause of aggressive behavior. A dog who's frightened, overwhelmed, conflicted, or trying to create distance isn't necessarily intent on doing harm.

If a fearful dog is punished for growling, he will learn to bite without warning. While we may have successfully eliminated growling, we will have done nothing to address the underlying emotion—and are likely to have only made it worse. In effect, we will have removed the warning signs without removing the danger.

Not using punishment to modify aggression isn't some trendy, “soft,” or permissive approach to dog training. It's behavior science.

It just isn't as simple as correcting misbehavior. For punishment to be effective, the delivery must be perfect— including factors such as timing, intensity, and consistency. Humans are generally incapable of applying punishment with the precision and consistency required for it to be effective without causing unintended consequences.

Too often, the use of punishment gives the illusion of success due to the immediate suppression of behavior, and it continues because the individual doing the punishing is reinforced.

Consequently, the underlying reason for the behavior remains unaddressed, the emotional state of the dog worsens, and the problems associated with the use of punishment pile up, problems such as fear of the punisher, increased anxiety, inhibited learning, the need to use more and greater degrees of punishment.

Shaming a dog doesn't teach a moral lesson, either. Rubbing a puppy's nose in its urine or f***s, or hanging a dead chicken around the neck of a dog that killed a chicken doesn't teach the dog a moral lesson. It creates confusion, fear, and distress.

A 2009 University of Pennsylvania study of 140 dogs with behavior problems found that confrontational methods didn't simply “correct” behavior—they frequently elicited aggression. Forty-three percent of the dogs responded aggressively when hit or kicked, 41% when their owner growled at them, 39% when an item was forcibly removed from their mouth, 31% after an “alpha roll,” and 30% when stared down. The researchers concluded that these techniques can provoke fearful or defensive aggression and may increase the risk of owner-directed aggression.

So when a dog growls, lunges, or bites, the answer isn't to respond with aggression to show the dog who's boss or to force the behavior to stop.

Ask why the dog feels threatened. Keep everyone safe, and address the underlying emotion.

Do this under the guidance of a qualified professional who uses humane, evidence-based best practices in behavior modification—practices such as systematic desensitization, counterconditioning, antecedant arrangement, differential reinforcement of incompatible alternative behaviors, classical and operant conditioning, and more.

If anyone tells you they can fix aggression quickly, this is a red flag, and that trainer or behavior consultant should be avoided. Mental health conditions in people are not fixed overnight, and they aren't in dogs either. Just like you wouldn't punish a human for an emotional illness, it's no more appropriate to punish a dog.

Cindy Ludwig, MA, BS, RN, KPA-CTP, CPDT-KA
Owner, Canine Connection LLC Willard, Missouri
Serving southwest Missouri and beyond

08/13/2026

Dogs may understand our emotions more deeply than scientists realized. Brain scans show that happy human faces activate regions in dogs linked to higher-level processing and reward, suggesting that smiles carry special emotional significance for them.

08/13/2026

YES! 💯

Once while traveling with Schatzi we had a hiccup in our schedule and we weren’t sure if we had brought enough homemade dog food with us. Schatzi didn’t eat kibble because it upset her GI system. 💩💩💩 Fortunately she did eat just about everything else her humans ate so we joked that we couldn’t go buy her kibble from the local pet store but we could get her a hamburger from any fast food joint. 🤦🏻

I get it - feeding kibble IS easier.

But many of us want our dogs to eat something “healthier.” There’s no need to go 100% kibble free. (Unless your dog really does have a health issue!)

Kibble should have all the nutrients your dog NEEDS to be healthy. If you’re not supplementing with the same nutrients you could easily miss something vital to their longevity.

An easy solution is to “displace not replace.” (I love this phrase!) Pay attention to calories but you can easily serve slightly less kibble and add some frozen, or fresh, peas and carrots. Cooking veggies for your dinner? Toss some into your dog’s bowl before you cook the rest for yourself. Are you willing to share your steak? Be aware of how you cook it but you know your dog would love their own steak and kibble bowl. 🥩

You always want to be vigilant about toxic foods but try “human” foods with your dog as much as you want. Some foods might give them diarrhea so you’ll want to go slow introducing new things. Some foods (veggies even) may create “silent but deadly” doggy farts that their systems may adapt to in time, or may not. You’ll want to pay attention (write down) to new foods you’re trying and how their bodies respond.

Stick to non processed foods to get the most benefits. (Twinkies are just as bad for them as they are for us.) Allowing dogs to eat healthy food in addition to kibble is good for their brains and their bodies.

Displace instead of Replace. 💜

~RH

08/13/2026

We often hear that dogs live in the moment. There's some truth in that phrase, but scientifically, it's far too simplistic. Dogs absolutely remember. They learn from previous experiences and they form powerful associations.

So a dog who had a frightening experience six months ago can absolutely behave differently today because of what they learned six months ago. But there's an important distinction between what shaped a behaviour and what triggered a behaviour right now.

When I'm investigating an apparently sudden aggressive response, one of my most important questions is:

What happened immediately before it?

In behavioural science, we often describe this as the antecedent (the event, stimulus or change that precedes the behaviour).

A dog doesn't generally spend the afternoon thinking:

"I was annoyed by something at 9am, so I'm going to bite someone at 4pm."

Instead, something happening now pushes the dog's nervous system beyond its threshold. That "something" might be obvious. A hand reaches towards them. Someone tries to remove an object. Another dog approaches. A child hugs them. Someone bends over them. They hear a particular noise. They are prevented from moving away. But sometimes the trigger is extraordinarily subtle. It might be a change in someone's posture. A particular smell.

Someone approaching a part of their body that has previously been painful. The anticipation of being handled. A noise we haven't even noticed. Or it may be something happening inside the dog's body: pain, nausea, gastrointestinal discomfort, itching, fatigue or another unpleasant physical sensation.

But what about something stressful that happened earlier that day? This is where trigger stacking comes in.

Continued tomorrow....

08/12/2026

🎉🎉🎉

LET THEM SNIFF!!! (But we really do need to get back home for dinner on time. 😜🤣)

If we practice OUR breathing exercises alongside our dog(s) when they sniff for a bit we will regulate TOGETHER. Brain waves and heart rates will start to sync. What an incredibly bonding experience. 💜 💜💜

So take your time, don’t rush this beautiful time together. You and your canine partner/teammate/best friend deserve self care on a daily basis and doing together is the best.

~RH

When a dog lowers their head, slows down, and starts working their nose, there's a shift happening beneath the surface.

The olfactory bulb, the part of the brain that processes scent, sits right next to and communicates closely with the limbic system, the brain's emotional and stress-regulation centre. That wiring means scent processing has a genuine influence on how a dog feels, not just what they learn about their surroundings.

Research backs this up. Duranton and Horowitz (2019) gave one group of dogs two weeks of nosework and another group two weeks of heelwork. Afterwards, the dogs who'd been sniffing showed a measurable shift toward optimism on a cognitive test, approaching an ambiguous situation faster and with more confidence than before. The heelwork dogs showed no such change.

Anxious or overwhelmed dogs often stop to sniff. It gives them a way to gather information, and reduce uncertainty in a world that suddenly feels unpredictable, and all of that can support emotional regulation.

Sniffy walks are one of the few genuinely evidence-backed ways to actively support a dog's emotional state.

Let them sniff. It’s much more important than we often think.

Photo ref: Little Luna looking for her new home with German Shepherd Dog Welfare Fund

Reference: Duranton, C., & Horowitz, A. (2019). Let me sniff! Nosework induces positive judgment bias in pet dogs. Applied Animal Behaviour Science, 211, 61–66.