The high-pitched screech of the “L” train hit before I saw it — metal on metal so piercing I slammed my hands over my ears and squeezed my eyes shut without thinking. When I opened them, the train was gone, but the leftover ringing persisted, along with the rest of Chicago carrying on beneath it: traffic, horns, music from a nearby shop, a siren two blocks over, someone yelling at no one.

Later that evening, my friend and I surfaced from the subway — after a loud concert and a loud bus ride home — into a wave of sound. There were multiple restaurant speakers blasting different songs, motorcycles revving, the industrial groan of a parking garage fan. My chest tightened and my breath went shallow. I was already moving faster toward the hotel before I consciously decided to.

Once inside, I stood still for a minute to recover and just breathe, my hand over my chest to calm my system.

I was visiting Chicago recently to see Rosalía perform and hadn’t spent that much time in a major city in a very long time. I forgot just how loud cities can be.

I live in a town of 10,000 people surrounded by nature an hour away from a major city. I was no longer accustomed to this noise.

If that weekend taught me anything, it’s that noise isn’t just annoying — it’s physiologically destabilizing.

According to the World Health Organization, after air pollution, noise is the second-highest environmental cause of physical and mental health problems.

Chronic exposure to noise activates the HPA axis — the brain-body stress highway — which triggers fear and anxiety responses and causes inflammation. It raises blood pressure, impairs memory and concentration, and, according to the WHO, interferes with speech and language development. The world is simply louder than our nervous systems were built for.

Noise pollution also increases the risk of heart disease, primarily due to elevated blood pressure. Even in quiet places, constantly switching from low to high noise levels, like say from a nearby fire station, can raise blood pressure.

Further, the WHO found that aircraft noise impaired well-being and motivation, interferes with speech and language development, and decreases concentration, hinders memory retention.

And this isn’t happening to just humans. It’s also happening to our dogs who are living in the same world, experiencing the same noise, with even fewer ways to escape it.

There are a handful of reasons dogs end up with reactivity or anxiety:

• Inadequate physical activity — thanks in no small part to [restrictive leash laws]

• A lack of structure and clear rules, both at home and on leash

• Insufficient outlets for drive, which means dogs invent their own (rarely the outlets we’d choose)

• Learned avoidance of stress and fear rather than learning to work through it

But environmental noise is its own category. And unlike the others, it doesn’t always have a clean fix.

Some dogs are simply genetically predisposed to noise sensitivity. Dr. Melanie Uhde explains in a YouTube video that a dog’s tolerance depends largely on whether they get the chance to recover from a stressful sound — stress spikes in the moment, but if the dog can return to baseline, the brain and body find homeostasis again. When stress stacks on top of stress without that recovery window, you’re building trauma.

A study surveyed over 3,000 Finnish dog owners found that the single largest environmental factor for noise sensitivity and separation anxiety wasn't breed, age, or living situation. It was a lack of daily exercise.

Unsurprisingly, the study found that the largest environmental factor for noise sensitivity and separation anxiety was a lack of daily exercise.

My Border Collie Alpine couldn’t care less about noise. He’s from a great breeder and I raised him from 8 weeks old with a lot of focus on sound tolerance. Today, that nut bucket lies down and sleeps while I vacuum, sometimes so deeply that I have to bump him with the machine to get him to move. Only then does he proceed to relocate about six inches away before closing his eyes again.

Sitka, however, is a different story.

My Red Heeler hates motorcycles, diesel trucks, skateboards, gunfire, fireworks, and thunder.

I adopted him at three years old from a family who kept him tied up in the yard to react to every sound as he saw fit, never having the opportunity to recover. I inherited the result of those first three years of daily practice.

I learned about his noise sensitivity the first night I brought him home. I was staying with a friend who lived directly under an airport flight path. Every time a plane passed overhead, Sitka erupted — a bark so sharp and sudden it made me jump and scream, which only created a noise feedback loop.

I’ve put serious work into counter conditioning his response to specific sounds. Every single garbage day, without fail, I’d jolt out of bed at the first rumble of the dump truck, pour his kibble into my treat pouch, and head outside to await the green monster round the corner onto our street.

We’d follow that truck around the neighborhood block by block while I worked him for his food. He did well most of the time. He could function and respond to commands. He’d take his food enthusiastically, but it didn’t solve his aversion to sound.

We can navigate the offensive sounds in the moment. He still barks explosively and brays like a donkey when he hears sounds he doesn’t like. His recovery is much faster than when I first adopted him, but I can hold him in a down stay while motorbikes pass us on trails, and he’ll run with me through distant gunshots without falling apart, but the environmental sounds have never become neutral, and I doubt they ever will.

After Chicago, I think I finally understand why.

While I will never learn to tolerate the sound of sirens, revving cars, or blaring horns, I can at least manage my own auditory experience by plugging my ears or popping in my Loop earplugs. Sitka can’t do that. He just has to experience the sounds at full volume. All I can do help him manage as best I can in environments I can't fully predict or control.

So what do we actually do about it?

We can’t soundproof the world or turn down the volume on a city.

But we can work on helping our dogs recover faster and give them tools for when the world gets loud.

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I hear the word “stubborn” regularly when I meet with new clients.

My dog is so stubborn, they never listen to me!

She knows what I’m asking, she’s just stubborn!

They’re just a stubborn breed.

I don’t like to use the word stubborn to describe a reluctance to do as asked.

What’s actually going on is that there is a communication gap between the handler and their dog.

What happens when there is a gap is that:

1. The dog is going to do what they think is correct (i.e. herd the children or chase the cat)

2. The dog is going to do what is reinforced (pulling on walks, ignoring you when people pet them)

3. The dog does is confused and does not understand what you want and don’t want because there is no consistency.

A lack of clear and inconsistent communication leads to the disconnect I see between owners and their dogs. It’s what I experi…

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I call Alpine my broken Border Collie. I can put him in a pen of sheep and he couldn’t care less. He has zero interest in the sheep and looks to me with anticipation, wondering what game we’re here to play.

Perhaps I trained him too well to not pay attention to the external environment, or maybe he’s really just not keen on herding.

Regardless, it means that I don’t have a herding dog. It’s fine, but disappointing because I love nothing more than to watch a dog do what they were bred to do.

Luckily for me, a couple of the Border Collie puppies I’ve raised are keen on herding, and my clients have become good friends, so I go watch them on occasion.

Most recently, I joined them for a workshop with some renowned herding trainer from the East Coast.

I was not able to attend the first day, but arrived on the second just in time to watch Nora start her first run.

Chuffed by my impeccable timing, my enthusiasm depleted almost instantly.

I heard it before I saw it. The trainer's voice, clipped and…

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Hey! Maple! Down!

She sits.

No, down.

She stays in sit.

No, down.

She stays in sit.

Argh. I go over to her, curtsy toward the floor, snap my fingers and tell her to down. It’s a non-negotiable.

She lies down.

I go back to preparing dinner for the five dogs I have in my custody when I hear nails tapping slowly across the floor, coming toward me. I know it’s Maple without having to look. The other dogs are all waiting patiently, pools of drool collecting on the floor where they lie.

Maple!

Rather than repeat the same pointless game from above, I grab a slip lead and lasso it over her neck like I’m some kind of cowboy, bring her with me and tell her to lie down.

She sits.

She’s ready to play chicken again. I’m prepared this time.

No, down, I say as I make a “J” shape with the leash and step on the curved part with my foot. I keep it there to enforce the down while I finish preparing the dogs’ food.

Maple is a 7-month old Border Collie puppy (and baby sis to Alpine) that I raised until she w…

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When Bad Bunny first announced that he would be performing the Super Bowl halftime show back in September, the Internet exploded. Comment sections filled with people who had never heard of Bad Bunny expressing their distaste, demanding someone who represented “America” and “tradition.”

I saw three main groups of people after the announcement:

1. The Latino community who celebrated the news, ecstatic for the biggest musician in the world, one who spoke their language, and who represented them would be performing on the world’s biggest stage.

2. Bad Bunny curious or music fans who rushed to listen to his albums and learn the words to the most popular songs hoping he’d perform them during the halftime show and they could sing along. (Big love to the Black community who seemed to be the most enthusiastic to learn Spanish).

3. The aforementioned tantrum throwers who were appalled that the NFL dare select a performer who doesn’t sing in English. They whined that it wasn’t “American.” Lots of these fol…

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A few months ago, I learned that Portland, Oregon was starting to crack down on leash laws. I no longer live in Portland, but I do go there semi-regularly, and while I wasn’t worried about how the crackdown would affect me, it did get me thinking about the ways leash laws contribute to a lot of the dog behavior problems I see in my work and in dog culture, in general.

Now, before you come at me about how leash laws prevent dogs from going up to other dogs and people, I want you to know I agree, and I still think that a different approach would benefit dogs and owners better.

Before We Dig in

I want to give a quick thanks to my partners:

• GUNNER Kennels keep my dogs safe in the car. I have zero worries about them should we ever get into an accident. They’re one of just a few crash-tested kennels available on the market.

• Canada Pet Care this is my go-to place when I need to purchase flea and tick meds or other expensive or prescription-required items for …

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I knew heated seats and a sun roof were non-negotiables.

I didn't want a reclaimed title.

I wanted to find something with fewer than 60K miles.

It needed to be large enough to accommodate Sitka and me for car camping.

My top picks were the Crosstrek or Outback, but I also knew they would likely be out of my price range given my requirements, and so I added the Forester to the list.

I drove all throughout the Seattle-area in search of cars.

I test drove an Impreza and liked how it drove. It was a newer car compared to what I could get with the other three Subarus, but it didn't have the clearance, and ya girl needs to go on pothole-filled dirt roads.

Pass.

I found a Forester nearby well within my budget. It had mold and was missing some important features, like a seat belt in the rear.

Hard pass—I'm not trying to die in a ditch because I wanted to save a few bucks.

I tried a Mazda CX-5 and LOVED it. But the car was pretty new at the time and used models were out of my price range.

Very reluctantly, pass.

Finally, after a few months, I found a Forester that checked all my boxes.

Sun roof? Check.

Heated seats? Check.

Under 60K miles? Check.

All parts intact and no mold? Check.

The following evening, I took my new companion out to camp near on a dusty, pot-holey road near Mt. Rainier. The car performed exactly as I had hoped and I knew we'd be in for many future adventures together.

Dogs Deserve the Same Research we Give to Cars

A lot of research and consideration goes into purchasing a car.

Buyers select cars based on their needs—is the car safe? Can it accommodate kids? Can it navigate bumpy roads? Does it get good gas mileage?

They pour over Consumer Reports rankings and test drive multiple cars in pursuit of the perfect car.

Yet, when it comes to dogs, we just fall for the first sob story we read on Petfinder.

I wish that people devoted the same kind of energy into getting a dog as they do into buying a car.

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I froze and started to panic, clinging to the wall 15 feet above the ground with the grip of a drowning swimmer grasping for a life raft. My arms burned, my breath came in shallow gasps, and my mind screamed at me to let go.

But I couldn’t. Not yet.

Breathe, I reminded myself. Just breathe.

The noise of the climbing gym faded. My heart pounded so loudly it was all I could hear. I was supposed to climb up and over the wall—not back down like usual. The only way out was up and over.

I pushed off my leg, reaching for the next hold. My fingertips grazed the edge, and I pulled myself up. One more move. I forced my hand upward again, finally hefting my body over the ledge onto solid ground.

Relief. Adrenaline. A rush of confidence.

The first time I had to climb up and over that wall, I was convinced I couldn’t do it. But after a few repetitions, my body learned, my mind adapted, and eventually, the fear disipated. What once felt impossible became routine.

Every single time I climbed up and over, …

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In November, I attended a five-day dog training school with a dog trainer in Portland who has a neuroscience background.

Cue the nerd alert.

I lapped up all of the studies she referenced while describing how they work in dog training.

I was at the edge of my seat as she discussed why we can’t eat when we’re above stress threshold.

My mind spun each time she explained why beings behave a particular way under certain circumstances and what we can do to change the behavior.

It’s fun to work with dogs and all, but my true love in dog training is the science behind it all (lemme say that a lil’ louder for all those in the back who claim that +R only is the real “science-based” dog training).

During my program, I learned about a fellow dog trainer named Dr. Melanie Uhde of Canine Decoded, who is also a neuroscientist.

As soon as I found her accounts, I naturally devoured them and immediately signed up for her newsletter. (which I actually read. I look forward to seeing her name in my inbox. If you…

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Just wanted to let you know about a live FREE webinar we’re hosting tomorrow, June 6th at noon that goes over the foundations of our training system.

We'll be talking about the three main pillars that we start with when we train any dog that comes through our boarding program or private 1:1 lessons.

In this webinar, we'll discuss: 

What we’ll discuss:

• The reasons you’re not seeing results with your training

• The three components you need for training success

• Why you don’t need to spend hours/day training

If you're ready to join us, hit the button below to register 👇 

Register here

Hope to see you there!

Cheers,

Jen

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Register Here

I spent the first four or so hours of my 10-hour drive from eastern Idaho back home to the Columbia River Gorge listening to a podcast called Sold a Story.

The podcast investigates why so many schoolchildren around the world, but particularly in the US, are poor readers.

The reason, according to the creator, education journalist Emily Hanford, is because for an entire generation, educators had bought into a reading method that didn’t work. In fact, this method made it more difficult to teach children to read, yet the authors of the program did a hell of a job selling the idea.

She pointed out that she believed that the authors didn’t mean any harm, that they truly believed in their method, however, there was never any real evidence that the program worked.

It wasn’t until the pandemic, when parents were able to join their children’s lessons, that they started to realize that there was something strange about the way their children were being taught to read.

For decades, parents had thoug…

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I started this newsletter with intentions of writing weekly, however, just about when I began this project, the opportunity to work with a dog trainer located an hour away from where I was living in Portland came about and I jumped on it.

I immersed myself deep into this business, decided to move to the region permanently, and let go of my own dog training business in order to become a partner at NWB Dogs based out of the Columbia River Gorge in Washington.

I met Matt, the owner of NWB Dogs at a seminar in Central Oregon the fall prior to my move.

During that seminar, my dog, Sitka, bit Matt.

He didn’t draw blood or break skin, but I was mortified and felt awful.

Sitka doesn’t exactly enjoy being touched by people he doesn’t know well, and this was a seminar all about touch.

What I didn’t realize is that other people would have to touch him during this seminar.

Play

Knowing how much time and dedicated work I had invested into Sitka, Matt offer…

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“Well,” he began, as he held steady over a particularly painful spot, “there’s a difference between hurt and harm.” 

“Tell me more,” I said, through clenched teeth, resisting the urge to kick him square in the face with my foot.

I wondered, if I did kick him, whether that would fall into the hurt or harm category. Probably harm. Don’t. Kick. Your. PT.

“I don’t enjoy hurting people, of course, but the pain ultimately makes them feel better and gets them back to their sport,” he explained. “Harm is intentional pain with no purpose.”

His words ignited my thoughts, momentarily lifting the pain that felt like a stick of dynamite exploding throughout my body.

There’s a difference between hurt and harm!

“I’m going to steal that for dog training the next time someone tells me how abusive e-collars and prong collars…

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My Dog Training Journey

It all began with a dog named Laila.

Laila wasn’t my first dog, but she was the first dog that I trained. Or rather, tried to train.

I never even wanted her in the first place, but my ex-husband badgered me into agreeing to adopt her.

He’d train her, he promised. He’d do all the work, he assured me. I’d not have to do a thing.

Nevermind that I didn’t want a puppy, or more importantly, that our other dog, Sora, was dying from cancer.

After a recent fourth surgery to remove a recurring nerve sheath tumor in her right leg as well as rounds of electrochemotherapy and three weeks of radiation therapy, I had promised Sora that we were done.

With the propensity at which the tumor recurred, I knew that our time together was very limited.

The last thing I wanted was a puppy to take me away from the thing I love…

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I used to be an asshole.

I didn’t mean to be. I thought I was doing what I was supposed to be doing.

I felt entitled and it made me defensive.

Now, I know better and have repented for my sins with thousands of dollars invested in dog training.

Now, I train dogs dog owners for a living and write about what not to do in hopes of preventing well-intentioned assholes like I once was from leaving the house with their untamed dogs.

I was one of those dog owners who allowed their dog off-leash or allowed my dog to greet other dogs despite a lack of reliable recall and a dog who had a penchant for lunging at other dogs who had the audacity to exist.

After far too many rude encounters with other dogs, I started to realize that maybe this wasn’t actually working out so great. I felt like shit every time my dog sank her teeth into yet another dog at the park and certainly didn’t like being yelled…

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