The Reactive Dog Reset

Diona The Trainer

I'm Diona, a Melbourne dog trainer and behaviourist. I came to this the long way: fifteen years across zoos, wildlife reserves, and assistance dog programs, with a degree in Veterinary Science and a Master's in Early Childhood Education behind it. The turning point was my previous dog, Kirin. She was trained for assistance work, beautifully obedient, and that was exactly the problem. A dog that only behaves when you give it a cue falls apart the moment you can't give one in time. So I started asking a different question: what does a dog that doesn't need to be told look like? Murphy, my current dog, is the answer, and teaching that is what I do now. Most of my work is with reactive and anxious dogs, and I teach owners to read their dog before they command it. Reactive dogs are not broken dogs. They are dogs sitting too high on their baseline, and once you can see that, everything changes. My goal is to do for dog ownership what changed parenting: move it from control to understanding. Almost every owner I work with says the same thing by the end. I wish I'd known this sooner. That is why these courses exist.