Understanding the dog in front of us

I have spent nearly 20 years working with dogs and their people in Melbourne, helping families understand behaviour and build relationships based on trust and clear communication. As our understanding of dogs has grown, so has my work. Dogs are sentient individuals shaped by learning, environment, genetics, health, emotion, relationships and experience.

Care comes before the task because how a dog experiences learning matters. I pay attention to how they are feeling and adapt when needed.

The L.E.G.S.® Model and Family Dog Mediation® help me consider the whole dog and what may be driving behaviour. My work is also informed by current canine behaviour science and the Five Domains Model of animal welfare.

Suzanne Clothier’s Relationship Centered Training has also been an important influence on my approach.

Dogs do not live or learn in isolation. Their environment, relationships and the people around them influence what happens next. Guardian coaching is central to my work, helping people read their dog more accurately, recognise what they need and respond effectively in everyday life. Recommendations also need to work for the household. I want both the dog and the guardian to be heard.

A lifetime of learning from animals

My connection with animals began long before Pet Pursuits. As a teenager, horses were a huge part of my life. For years I spent almost every spare hour at a riding school, where I rode, helped train and condition horses, and travelled to shows with the owner.

Those times taught me to pay attention to the individual animal and to how much can be communicated without words. I learned about observation, timing, patience and trust, but also about the responsibility that comes with asking another animal to work with us.

Animal welfare has remained central to who I am, not only professionally but in the way I live with and care for animals. I have always found something quite magical about sharing my life with another species. The love and joy can be enormous, but so can the worry. There is laughter, frustration, compromise and sometimes heartbreak, all while learning to recognise that the animal beside us has their own needs, preferences and way of experiencing the world.

My own dogs have made this very real for me. My first dog as an adult was a Belgian Shepherd Groenendael named WolfCub. Living with his epilepsy meant navigating chronic illness, uncertainty and ongoing care. Boo later developed Addison’s disease, while Phoenix, now in his senior years, has given me first-hand experience of supporting a dog through anxiety, particularly his sensitivity to noise and flies.

Boo passed away nearly a year ago, and I still feel his absence deeply. WolfCub died nearly nine years ago, yet he remains very much with me; he left an indelible mark on my life. Losing them has shown me just how enduring these relationships are, long after an animal is gone.

Caring for them through different stages of life has meant adapting when circumstances change, questioning my own expectations and making decisions around what each dog needs. It has given me, from the carer’s side, a deeper understanding of what it feels like to love a dog while trying to make good decisions about their health, behaviour and quality of life.

All of this has reinforced something I bring to every case: there is always more to an animal than the behaviour we see on the surface.

And when I’m not working with dogs…

I’m a photographer. Photography is another way of looking closely at the world: noticing expression, movement, light and the small details that can completely change what we see. All of the photography throughout the Pet Pursuits website is my own, with the exception of the photograph of WolfCub and me, and the photograph of me with Gyro, the first horse who stole my heart.