A Dog Centred Care approach invites carers and dog professionals to explore the emotional experience that drives dog behaviour and move beyond the usual judgements, expectations and labels that can often hold us back.

Dogs share many of the emotional and physiological responses we do. Like us, their behaviour will be driven by how they are ‘feeling’, and the only way they can communicate that emotional need is through their behaviour. The need to feel safe is a primary driver. Often the dog is seeking some form of ‘relief’ to feel differently. This may be relief from physical pain or discomfort or emotional or social pain or discomfort. 

When we understand these emotional and physical care and support needs, we can move away from the traditional emphasis of arbitrarily creating/changing behaviours. Instead, we can find ways to offer the dog the safety and relief they seek, and support behaviours that are innately useful to them and that aid self regulation. 

This is the power of a Dog Centred Care Approach.

To read more about the essence of a Dogc Centred Care Approach click here

 You will find lots of my work on this page where I have shared my thoughts about working in this way with dogs and supporting their caregivers.

If you would like to host me for talks, podcasts, conference or other media appearances, please use the contact form at the bottom of the page.

We all (our dogs included) share a lot neurologically, physiologically and biologically. This is where science is very helpful in understanding the way these systems work, how they are connected and their probable function. However, how we ‘feel’ about the sensations and feelings these systems create, and how we process their meaning, value and importance, is a very personal thing.

This is the essence of the individual lived emotional experience.

To read more about the emotional experience click here 

How we feel, what we feel and why we feel are all important aspects of our own individual lived emotional experience. Our genetic makeup, our life experiences (social, physical and environmental) and the influence of others (personally, socially and culturally) all help form our belief and value systems : A unique combination that creates our ‘truth’. Whilst we might experience something in a similar way to someone else, how it affects us, what it means it us and how it informs our future self, can be a very individual experience. This outlook helps define our personal safety needs and forms part of our own survival story. The same applies in many aspects to the dogs we share our lives with.

Understanding the individual emotional experience is key to supporting the mindset shift we need when seeing behaviour differently - not just in dogs but also in ourselves. This why I set up Dog Centred Care and Your Safe Space - to consider what this mindset shift is all about.