Read your dog
Body language and arousal. Learning to see what is happening before it lands.
Field notes
Read Your Dog
A short library of pieces on the everyday work of living well with a dog.
Three pillars
Understand your dog
Frameworks for how a dog's day, brain, and household actually function.
Live with your dog
The practical work of routine, structure, and the moments owners cave on.
Updated weekly. Written by Diona Chu and the Hachi Way trainers.
Featured · Read your dog
How to read your dog's body language
The full picture, part by part. Ears, eyes, mouth, tail, paws, and the five states a dog moves between. Learn to see what your dog is saying before it turns into something.
All pieces
Read your dog · 12 min
How to read your dog's body language
The full picture, part by part. Ears, eyes, mouth, tail, paws, and the five states a dog moves between. Learn to see what your dog is saying before it turns into something.
Read your dog · 5 min
The waterline
Every dog has a baseline. Some live at high tide. Some live at low tide. Learn to see the waterline, and the rest of the training reads itself.
Understand your dog · 6 min
The four modes
Most household dog problems are a mode problem. PLAY, ANCHOR, CALM, EXPLORE, and what happens when the modes blur.
Live with your dog · 6 min
Cycles, and what comes after
Cycles aren't the permanent unit of a dog's day. They're how the dog and the handler both learn what the modes mean.
Read your dog · 7 min
The first 90 minutes
People sometimes ask what we do in an initial consult. The short answer is that I spend most of it reading the dog and teaching the owner to start.
Live with your dog · 5 min
Eye contact and the three Ts
Eye contact, and the three Ts, talk, touch, treat. For a behaviour you do not want, give none of them, and answer the feeling underneath, not the action on top.
Understand your dog · 6 min
Bonding over obedience
What it actually means, why obedience-first training hits a ceiling, and how a sit can hide the real problem instead of fixing it.
Live with your dog · 4 min
The right tool for the two of you
There is no best harness, lead or collar. There is the right tool for this dog and this handler, and the skill is knowing the difference.
Live with your dog · 4 videos
How to PLAY with your dog
When you throw the ball, you are not playing. Four short films of PLAY done properly: two with a puppy, one with a grown dog, and one on how the toy actually moves.