“Dog is home - a familiarity I can’t quite put into words.”
I’M JACQULENE
a canine behaviorist - or relationship-based dog trainer, meaning, I approach dog training from the perspective of dog psychology and behavior. I focus on the relationship between the dog and its’ human(s) in order to modify or mold behavior of the dog. I invest myself in the everyday dog owner, empowering them with knowledge, tools, and techniques to help them become the leader that their dog needs. During my private sessions, members of the household and I work together, hands-on with their dog(s), putting to practice tools and techniques and have open discussion so they understand the dog psychology and behavior ideas that influence the tools and techniques we work on. This is the only way that I have discovered training to be long-lasting and manageable for both dog and owner — to understand why a technique/tool is impactful and how to execute is imperative for the success of the dog and their humans. I believe wholeheartedly that a well-behaved, fulfilled dog will broaden your world, affording you both opportunities that would otherwise not be possible — behavioral challenges in a dog limit your joy, their happiness, and the quality of both your lives.
I am proud to say that I have spent the last 15 years developing my skillset through personal experiences with dog, my skills at this core have been intuitive. I have had the privilege of honing my skillset and expanding my breadth via another mentor of mine, world renowned dog behaviorist and first-ever Head Trainer under Cesar Milan, Cheri Wulff Lucas. In the same way that I continue to learn from the dogs and people whom I work with every day, I continue to seek opportunities to learn from other canine behaviorists and balanced trainers across the country via workshops, literature, collaboration, etc.
Jac’s Foundational Philosophy
Dogs are different from humans - they don't have the ability to reason and thus, we can't expect them to understand what we want from them if we don't communicate expectations in a clear, direct way. Unfortunately for us, dogs also don't speak our language. In fact, the entire concept of verbal communication is foreign to dogs, which is why we need to guide them.
How does structure help us guide our dog? Being pack animals, dogs begin to seek direction from birth through the end of life - from who? The mother is the first source of direction that the puppy relies on until they are weaned from feeding on breast milk. A mother dog is teaching her puppies socialization skills through spatial pressure, eye contact, energy, physical corrections, body language - she is enforcing rules, boundaries, and limitations every day all day. Once weaned, the rest of the pack begins to play a more significant role in the puppy's development, teaching the puppy how to survive - everything from socialization to hunting and feeding. The puppy is reliant on the experienced members of the pack and those who are naturally above him in the hierarchy if he wants to survive, this is why the puppy follows. The pack leader isn't going to bribe a puppy with food or a toy to get him to follow (and neither should you!), the pack leader doesn't care if the puppy follows. The puppy follows the pack’s leader due to necessity, their animalistic inherent need for survival and the leader proves that their indispensable worth through:
1. Set expectations through rules, boundaries, limitations, and structure — puppies learn about survival, socialization, and so much more from the leading members of their pack
2. Enforced expectations through clear direct communication (guidance) via spatial pressure, body language, energy, eye contact, physical corrections
The Language of DOG
As humans bringing domesticated dogs into our homes, even though we have the best of intentions and people have been doing this for centuries, we are still being disruptive to nature. It's our responsibility to learn how the mind of our dog works if our goal is to share in a mutually beneficial relationship with our dog. It's almost selfish of us to expect the opposite - for our dogs to learn and adapt to our innate needs and communication methods when we choose to force them into a life that contradicts nature. This is why I educate people to better understand their dog for the animal he is and equip you with the tools and techniques to best communicate with your dog in a language he understands (pressure/release in its many forms - spatial pressure through body language, psychological pressure through eye contact, leash pressure).
Pressure is how dogs communicate and the pressure/release is the language of the dog (canidae - wolf, fox, domestic dog, etc.) and most any animal in the animal kingdom! They put pressure on each other through various means (eye contact, squaring off with body language - broadening their stature, etc.) in an effort to elicit a specific behavioral response. When the sought-after response is received, the dog who initiated the communication will take pressure off of the other dog and carry on with their business. Dogs do not bark at each other to communicate — they are silent in their communication, they are not auditory learners!
Let me paint the picture for you! Bear with me.
Visualize a dog happily chewing on a high value bone when another dog walks up to them — one of two things will happen ~assume we are dealing with two neutral dogs~ — the dog chewing will stop, lean their head/chest over the top of their bone, narrow their eye contact toward the approaching dog, close their mouth, stiffen a bit and hold their eye contact with the other dog… if the approaching dog continues to move forward, the chewing dog may stand up or lean further toward the approaching dog or even escalate their communication with a snarl all while holding their body language and eye contact. The approaching dog would likely turn away at this point to avoid further conflict and when that happens, the dog with the bone will loosen all of his body language, and go back to chewing. THIS is a conversation!! This is pressure and release — once you know what it is, it’s amazing to see it in every day life and it becomes easy for you to speak in the same language, which means your dog will understand you far more than any amount of treats or clickers or commands and hand gestures would ever allow them to.
Still Curious About Me? Read on, friends.
I was born with a propensity to learn and understand the animal that is dog - you can read a bit into my inherent magnetism to dog right below this blurb. Basically, I grew up with dogs in my life, part of our family - two parents, three kids, and a chaotic schedule of extra-curricular activities. My parent’s prioritized the kids and their needs (of course) and so the dogs, from a behavioral perspective suffered unbeknownst to any of us. We had a lab that jumped all over everyone who entered the house, at the shrubbery, followed every scent he got hooked on and could care less to acknowledge commands from any family member if he wasn’t in the mood. We loved this dog. Buster also had territorial aggression toward strangers. This was a problem. My parents considered rehoming him to a ‘farm’ on numerous occasions. I was 13. I had already spent years watching Cesar Millan’s series on Animal Planet and Nat Geo Wild. Everything Cesar practiced came so naturally to me, which I attribute to the years I spent growing up, paying close attention to the nuances in my dogs, family members dogs, strangers dogs - every dog that crossed my path. I began to implement what I learned to try and modify Buster’s behaviors, in an effort to keep him part of the family and avoid a rehoming. Fast-forward about a year and Buster was suddenly manageable around strangers, able to walk loose lead, engaging with us even when his prey drive was through the roof. I had done what my parents thought was the impossible - I had rehabilitated our family dog, I had become the pack leader, I had gained relevancy, trust, and believability. I alleviated stress and chaos from my family’s every day life - because anyone in a similar situation can attest, dealing with behavioral issues of any kind is a daily battle and it’s exhausting for everyone.
The behavioral modification and rehabilitation of my family dogs as a young teen snowballed into a need to help anyone else I saw struggling with their dog. People at the vet, family members, strangers at sporting events, eventually in college I began volunteering at the local animal shelter. I got the majority of my experience in terms of breadth of behavioral issues during those three years. I was the only person at the facility who would work to rehabilitate the insecure dogs, the dogs who displayed ‘aggression’ at face-value — I got these dogs adopted. I worked with them to earn trust, show them that some humans are worth following, some humans are believable. This is when I knew for certain that my ability to understand the dog in ways that didn’t come naturally to the average person was a gift, a special gift.
Fast-forward 11 years later when I got the first puppy to truly call mine - Rizzo, the black English Labrador Retriever. He saved me in more ways than I can even put words to, but one thing is very clear — he reminded me who I am and that I have an incredible gift that would be wasted if I weren’t to share it with others. This is why I put all fear aside and trusted my heart setting out on this beautiful adventure, Jac’s Pack. I want to help families and individuals to become their dog’s pack leader, to fulfill their needs by understanding them in the way mother nature intended us to - as a dog.