Dogs simply react to the environment we create for them. We assign them rules and behaviors we believe are correct. Every owner wants the best for their dog, just as we want the best for our children.
At the end of a dog’s life, we often see how successful we were in that intention, or how much we struggled. That final “reflection” of our love brings back everything the dog has lived through, and that is what frightens us and hurts us the most.
Lessons We Learn Through Caring for a Dog
The choices we make are rarely wrong because we wanted them to be. More often, we simply did not know better. However, the problems and challenges that arise become more intense over time, and the responsibility carried by the dog’s owner becomes greater.
How Supporting Dogs Can Transform Their Experience
Through attention, proper nutrition, and understanding their emotional needs, we can reduce a dog’s stress and offer them a healthier and calmer life. Supporting dogs through nutrition and daily care is not just an act of love. It is also a form of education for the owner, a chance to understand how our decisions affect them and how we can correct our mistakes.
Bone broth for dogs: A natural recipe to support joint health and immunity.
Separation anxiety: Understanding why a dog cries when left alone and how to build their confidence.
Modern challenges: A dog in an urban environment is a symbol of how city life affects canine wellbeing.
Dogs live through our choices and carry the weight of our environment.
Nutritional Support as the Foundation of a Healthy Life
When we understand that supporting dogs through nutrition directly affects their immunity, behavior, and resilience to stress, we realize that food is not a small detail. It is the foundation of their stability. If we want to truly be their sense of safety, it is essential that we show that care through the way we feed them, offering what their body and mind genuinely need.
At Integrative and Holistic Grooming Education, we believe that communication is felt, not forced. We teach you how to listen to your dog’s soul instead of just commanding their body. Explore our philosophy: Linktree Sasha Riess
The prong collar — a metal collar with pointed links — divides the dog training world into two camps. While some defend its use, Sasha Riess makes his stance clear: “It’s not a tool — it’s a symptom of our misunderstanding of dogs.” This discussion goes beyond training — it questions the very essence of the human-dog relationship.
What Is a Prong Collar and Why Is It So Controversial?
The prong collar, also known as a “pinch collar,” tightens around a dog’s neck when pulled.While some trainers claim it’s an effective tool for quick correction, others see it as an instrument of fear that damages trust. Ivan from Super Dog Academy explains that, used properly, it can prevent bigger problems. However, Sasha Riess points out that many countries have already banned it — and not without reason.
Sasha Riess: “There Is No Such Thing as Justified Cruelty”
Sasha poses an ethical question that cuts deep: “Can there be such a thing as a little abuse, a little slap, a little pain?” He emphasizes that dogs don’t misbehave to provoke us — they act out to communicate. When we pull them with a prong, we teach them to fear their own instincts.
“The problem isn’t the dog — it’s the human who can’t control their own emotions.”
The Effects of the Prong Collar on Dogs
Research and practical experience show several potential consequences:
Physical pain and neck injuries.
Increased stress and anxiety.
Loss of trust in the owner.
Suppressed reactions that can later develop into aggression or fear.
“If the Dog Suffers and the Human Feels Powerful — That’s Not Training”
As Sasha Riess concludes: “If a tool works by making the dog suffer while the human feels stronger — that’s not training, that’s therapy for the human.”
The prong collar is currently banned in over 20 countries, including Austria, Switzerland, Norway, and Sweden.These bans reflect an evolving understanding of animal welfare. Even where it remains legal, the world is moving toward more humane training methods like positive reinforcement, redirection, and emotional awareness.
The Final Thought
The prong collar is more than a training tool — it’s a mirror of our relationship with dogs. True strength in a trainer lies not in control — but in the trust they build. The more we understand dogs, the less we need extreme tools.
At Integrative and Holistic Grooming Education, we believe that communication is felt, not forced. We teach you how to listen to your dog’s soul instead of just commanding their body. Explore our philosophy: Linktree Sasha Riess
There was a time when dogs died peacefully in their sleep — without clinics, diagnoses, or “final visits to the vet.” They passed quietly at home, beside their humans. They didn’t have medical charts thicker than novels or endless appointments with specialists. The dogs of our grandparents lived and died with dignity — simply, as dogs.
The Judas Kiss at the Last Heartbeat
Today, dogs are consumed by diseases that have become the new normal — tumors, epilepsy, autoimmune disorders, and chronic inflammation. Instead of facing the truth of how our choices brought them there, we choose euthanasia. We call it “mercy.” But it’s not mercy. It’s helplessness — and hypocrisy.
Dogs no longer die suddenly and quietly. They die slowly — day by day, month by month — not because their time hasn’t come, but because they feel us. Their hearts keep beating even when their bodies have already given up — because they are still bound by our love, our fear, and our inability to let go.
Loyalty and the Right to a Dignified End
They stay because they believe it’s their duty to be there for us. They stay through pain and exhaustion because we’ve never freed them from the idea that they are our “angels” or our “only joy.” We never gave them permission to be simply — dogs.
We hold them back because it hurts to imagine life without them. And when that pain becomes unbearable, we choose to kill them — calling it “release.” But the truth is harder: We do it because we can’t bear to face what their final days reflect — the reality of what we’ve become.
The Hypocrisy of Our Lives
Isn’t it hypocritical? We work jobs we hate, share beds with people we no longer love, and stay in relationships that drain us. And so, when faced with pain, we choose what we’ve already chosen for ourselves — death as escape. Only this time, not for us — but for them.
The Other Way: Love and Freedom
There is another way — a life lived in love and harmony, where we learn that death isn’t an ending, but a transition. Where we can look our dog in the eyes and say: “You can go now. Your mission is complete. I’ll stay until my time comes. Thank you for every moment of love and service.”
When those words finally come from the heart — they understand. And then, they can go. Quietly. Freely. Without injections, without the “ceremony of goodbye.” They simply lie down and drift away because we released them.
When our pain becomes unbearable, we choose to kill them.
Euthanasia Is Not Love
Euthanasia is not love. Love is letting them go when their time truly comes — without fear, without control, without disguising weakness as compassion. As our hand trembles above their body, we call it “mercy,” but what we give is often a Judas kiss — an act that appears gentle, yet carries the mark of betrayal.
We owe them the right to a dignified end — the same dignity they offered us every day of their lives. From the very start, they must know they are free — never bound to stay longer than destiny allows. Love doesn’t hold. Love releases.
At Integrative and Holistic Grooming Education, we believe that communication is felt, not forced. We teach you how to listen to your dog’s soul instead of just commanding their body. Explore our philosophy:Linktree Sasha Riess
Stray dogs are not just a problem on the streets; they are guardians of order and a mirror of our society – showing how deeply we understand the nature that surrounds us.
I know this column may bother some people, but I have no other way to write it. My view of this phenomenon isn’t neutral. Street dogs are neither just a problem nor a solution. They are a reflection of the world as it truly is – overflowing, filled with hungry eyes, and with traces we leave behind but refuse to see. For me, a dog is not merely a stray; it is a guardian of order we never learned to respect. If it disappears, a part of our defense against the chaos we create will vanish too.
This truth has no price for me
In the midst of new laws, proposals, pressures, and actions from shadowy figures – in a time when conspiracy theories always find their place – a question hovers over us, painted with the color of our empathy: What will we do with the dogs on our streets?
As the world divides between regulations and emotions, between politics and daily life, the issue of stray dogs becomes more than a communal concern. It becomes a mirror: how much do we really understand nature, and how much do we simply want to sterilize it into an image that doesn’t disturb our sense of order?
The Western „Solution“
While “northern dogs” in Canada await execution because they are supposedly a public health risk – even though they are perfectly healthy – a new initiative emerges: the random killing of dogs. And we act surprised, though it’s been part of the Western “solution” for decades. In the United States alone, about two million dogs are euthanized each year – healthy, unwanted, and without necessity.
Behind all this lies one deeply ingrained idea, almost taken as truth: overpopulation. Back in the 1990s, scientist Ray Coppinger estimated that there were around one billion dogs on Earth. If we follow the growth of the human population and ecological trends, that number today likely approaches one and a half billion.
According to Wikipedia (Free-ranging dog), only about 20% of the world’s dogs live under human control. The vast majority are free-ranging – the dogs we see on streets, in villages, in the peripheries, and the ones we never even notice. In other words, when we speak of dogs, we are really talking about a planet populated mostly by dogs without leashes.
The Mirror of Human Excess
And here’s what most people don’t realize: these dogs didn’t appear just because of “irresponsible ownership.” Of course, some were abandoned, but in relation to the global dog population, that number is tiny – a drop in the ocean. By focusing only on “discarded pets,” we miss the forest for the trees.
Free-ranging dogs are not an anomaly of modern times – they are a natural canine form as old as civilization itself. They have always lived at the edges of human settlements, near landfills and fields, feeding on our excess. Their history is woven with ours – but never completely under our control.
The dog has become what no other animal is – a mirror of human excess. A dog exists where there is surplus. Where we throw away food. Where we leave traces. Where we consume too much. The dog is a symbol of what could be called human hunger – not for food, but for love and wholeness.
Lesson from Yellowstone: Removing a natural regulator always invites chaos.
When the street dog disappears — who replaces it?
We always ask: How do we remove dogs from the streets? As if they’re the only surplus in our society. But nature doesn’t tolerate a vacuum. Remove the dogs, and other animals take their place – usually rats.
Rats have lived beside us since ancient times. They didn’t just bring noise; they brought disease. The plague that wiped out a third of Europe’s population in the 14th century spread through fleas carried by rats. We may think removing dogs means safety – but history says otherwise. Dogs are not the problem; they are part of the defense against chaos. When they disappear, silence fills the space – and in that silence, the rats multiply, carrying diseases we cannot foresee.
The Ecological Cascade of Yellowstone – a Lesson on Absence
Nature already showed us what happens when we remove just one link from the chain. When wolves were eradicated from Yellowstone National Park in the early 20th century, people thought it would bring balance. Instead, it triggered an ecological cascade that became a catastrophe. Only when wolves were reintroduced in 1995 did balance slowly return – the trees, the bees, the birds, even the rivers came back to life.
What happened in Yellowstone can happen in any city if we remove street dogs. They are our “urban wolves” – not predators, but regulators. Their presence keeps other opportunistic species at bay. Their absence invites a quieter, more dangerous kind of chaos.
The Dog as Guardian of Order
A dog is not just an animal living beside humans – it’s a symbol of order. In mythology, dogs guard thresholds and gates. Even today, street dogs stand between our world and nature’s disorder. We dislike their presence because they remind us of failure – that we tamed and then abandoned. They show us we cannot control what we once invited into our lives.
But in that discomfort lies truth: A dog is our indicator. It shows where we waste, where we overconsume, where nature returns balance to our excess.
Why not sterilize all rats and pigeons?
When we say, “We should sterilize all dogs,” it’s worth asking: why not do the same with rats or pigeons? They are just as opportunistic, just as problematic. But we don’t see them as “ours.” The dog is too much ours – and not enough. It’s both family and foreign. That’s why we punish it more severely – under the mask of empathy and “mercy.”
Can Dog Populations Be Stable?
Maybe the question isn’t how to eliminate them, but how to coexist within order — without chaos. Perhaps the answer begins with something simple: stop throwing away food. Our waste is not just trash – it’s a signal. It invites nature to expand, to reclaim, to remind. Dogs are here because we call them – they are proof of our insatiability.
The Pain of These Words
This column won’t please everyone. Those seeking solutions, sterilizations, removals, and euthanasia will say I exaggerate. Dog lovers may say I’m too harsh. But the truth is simple: dogs reveal our world. When we see them on the streets, we aren’t looking at them – we’re looking at ourselves.
If they disappear, we won’t find peace – only emptiness. An emptiness soon filled with rodents and disease. Cities without barking but filled with the faint scratching of rats behind the walls. And history will remind us: pandemics always rise from that silence.
The dog is a symbol of human hunger – a mirror of the excess we refuse to see.
Dogs are the guardians of our order not because we tamed them, but because they show us the limits of how much we can consume and waste. They are witnesses to our excess – and our unwanted allies. So next time you see a dog on the street, remember – it isn’t just a “stray.” It is a sign. A symbol. A mirror. If we remove it, we remove our subconscious alarm. And nature will answer – quietly, relentlessly – through sickness, through rats, through the invisible plague that always waits in the dark.
At Integrative and Holistic Grooming Education, we believe that communication is felt, not forced. We teach you how to listen to your dog’s soul instead of just commanding their body. Explore our philosophy: Linktree Sasha Riess
The English Bulldog would not survive in nature. Few people truly ask themselves which dogs would not survive in nature and what that means for us who choose to breed or adopt certain breeds. Once a human steps into canine genetics and begins deciding what will be combined, they take on enormous responsibility for the life that is created. Nature is simple. It does not forgive weaknesses and it does not preserve mutations that make survival difficult.
Which dogs would not survive in nature and why
Some breeds were created as a result of human choice rather than natural selection. This means that without humans they would not be able to survive even for a few days.
The most well known examples include:
English Bulldog: Cannot breathe properly, cannot run, has difficulty regulating body temperature, and often cannot give birth naturally.
Dachshund: Extremely short legs and a long torso would make it an easy target for predators. In the wild it could neither escape nor defend itself.
Pug, French Bulldog, Pekingese: All brachycephalic breeds suffer from breathing difficulties, problems with heat regulation, and limited physical endurance.
In nature, natural selection would simply remove such individuals.
The Dachshund and short legs as a genetic mutation
The Dachshund is an example of a breed whose short legs represent a genetic trait that would be a serious handicap in nature.
Genetic mutations like short legs would make survival in the wild nearly impossible.
Genetic mutations: what happens when humans help nature
Genetic mutations occur in all species, but in nature only those that enable life survive. In domestic dog breeds, the problem arises when humans take a mutation such as short legs or a flattened nose, consider it cute, and then deliberately breed that same mutation further. The result is dogs that would not be able to survive even a few hours without our care, medical assistance, and controlled environment. At that point, the breeder must be extremely responsible, because they take on the role of nature itself.
Why mothers sometimes reject puppies with mutations
In the wild, a mother immediately recognizes which puppy will not survive. This is not cruelty. It is biology. If a puppy has a severe mutation, difficulty walking, inability to nurse, or congenital diseases, the mother will not care for it. She knows what humans often do not want to see: that puppy is not capable of life. But when a human intervenes and saves every puppy without reflection, the mutation is preserved and passed on.
Which dogs would not survive in nature and what that means for us
Breeds such as the English Bulldog, Pug, Dachshund, and many others would not be able to survive in nature. They survive because of us. That means the responsibility lies entirely with humans:
To understand genetics.
To avoid breeding dogs with severe mutations.
To care for what they themselves have created.
If we create life, we must be ready to protect it.
At Integrative and Holistic Grooming Education, we believe that communication is felt, not forced. We teach you how to listen to your dog’s soul instead of just commanding their body. Explore our philosophy: Linktree Sasha Riess
Dogs are more than loyal companions — they are bridges between the world of the living and those who have passed. Through them, we often feel the presence of those we’ve lost, because the love we carry inside doesn’t end with a physical goodbye. It simply takes a new form — a warm gaze, a gentle wag of the tail, a closeness that can’t be explained by reason.
Dogs Reflect Our Souls
There is a special connection between a person and a dog — one that goes beyond feeding, walking, and play. A dog recognizes in us what we often forget we have — quiet sorrow, tenderness, and a longing for peace. When we lose someone dear, a dog often becomes a channel through which we learn to love again, to embrace, and to believe that nothing in the universe truly disappears — it only changes form.
Love Beyond Presence
I can love you even without you. Love isn’t about possession — it is a state of being. When a dog enters our life, it doesn’t seek to replace what’s lost; it reminds us that love is always there, within us, needing no physical presence to exist. Through our dogs, we often embrace our memories— a parent, a child, a friend — and for a brief moment, all pain fades away.
A man and a dog share a moment of silence and understanding – a bond that knows no words.
Dogs Connect Us with the Souls We Love
It’s not uncommon that through our bond with a dog, emotions we’ve buried rise to the surface. Dogs sense grief, loss, and unspoken pain. When we lean into their warmth, it’s as if we are holding those who are no longer here. They become bridges between worlds — and that’s why their presence carries such healing power.
The Dog as a Spiritual Guide
When we open our hearts to a dog, we are actually opening the door to our own soul. A dog does not judge, ask, or demand — it simply loves. And within that simplicity lies the deepest spiritual truth: love is eternal. Dogs teach us to love without condition, without fear, and without end.
At Integrative and Holistic Grooming Education, we believe that communication is felt, not forced. We teach you how to listen to your dog’s soul instead of just commanding their body. Explore our philosophy: Linktree Sasha Riess
Dogs Bring Happiness and Peace When the Relationship Becomes a Daily Practice
Dogs bring happiness and a sense of peace when the relationship with them does not remain only a possibility, but becomes a daily practice. A dog does not come into our life to solve problems instead of us, but to lead us toward facing them. That is why people often find peace with dogs that they are unable to find anywhere else.
How Dogs Bring Happiness and Peace into Everyday Life
Many people say that dogs bring happiness and a sense of peace because, with them, they stop running away from themselves. With people, we are constantly negotiating. With children, parents, partners, colleagues, and authorities. In those relationships there is history, expectations, power, and disappointment. A dog does not carry any of that. A dog reacts to what is, not to what we wish we were. That is why meeting ourselves through a dog is often more honest and less painful than through relationships with people. A dog does not pretend. A dog does not manipulate. A dog does not rationalize. A dog shows the consequence of our inner state.
Why Happiness with Dogs Comes Through Presence and Responsibility
People often believe they would feel calmer if only a certain problem disappeared. If only this situation, this person, this job, or this responsibility were gone. In that belief, happiness is projected into something in the future. A new object, a journey, a relationship, an experience.
Disappointment usually happens twice. The first time when it is not there. The second time when it arrives, and we realize it did not bring what we expected. Neither a new relationship, nor travel, nor possessions bring lasting peace. They only briefly shift attention.
A dog brings us back to ourselves, without judgment or demands.
Emotional Stability and Dogs: How a Sense of Peace Is Created
A dog does not come as a distraction. A dog comes as a mirror. Through a dog, we cannot escape ourselves, but we can calm down in the presence of a being that does not ask for explanations, but for consistency. The peace people feel with a dog does not come because the dog is positive or therapeutic. It comes because the dog brings us back into the present moment. Into routine. Into responsibility. Into the simplicity of relationship. That peace people feel with dogs is not accidental. Dogs bring happiness and a sense of peace through relational stability, not through excitement. This is not an escape from problems. It is a meeting with them, without drama.
Dogs Bring Happiness: Why External Things Are Not Enough
True peace does not arrive when the external world changes, but when we stop believing that external things will save us from inner restlessness. A dog helps in this process because it constantly brings us back to the essentials. Care. Presence. Responsibility. Dogs do not give happiness. They create the space in which happiness can appear.
At Integrative and Holistic Grooming Education, we believe that communication is felt, not forced. We teach you how to listen to your dog’s soul instead of just commanding their body. Explore our philosophy:Linktree Sasha Riess
Shelters are meant to be places of hope, but for many, they are places of silent suffering. While we often talk about cold kennels and the lack of human contact, there is a quieter, more dangerous problem: the poor quality of dogs in shelters nutrition.
Very often, shelter food consists of expired kibble—stale, spoiled, and filled with chemicals. What the label calls “food” is often just industrial waste that the industry cannot sell to humans.
Poor Nutrition: The Invisible Source of Suffering
A shelter dog is already at the edge of its strength, battling anxiety and a weakened immune system. When we add low-quality food, the consequences are devastating:
Poor conditions and low-quality food further endanger dogs in shelters.
The System, Not the People
This is not an accusation against shelter workers. Shelters are overwhelmed and underfunded. When a truck of expired food arrives, it looks like salvation. But in reality, this food often contains mold and toxins that directly poison an already exhausted system.
What Can Be Changed?
Food is the foundation of survival. When a dog receives clean, nutritious food, it gains a chance to heal. While shelter problems cannot be fixed overnight, the conversation about the quality of what they eat must begin today.
At Integrative and Holistic Grooming Education, we believe that health starts from within. A dog’s coat and spirit are reflections of their nutrition. Learn more: Linktree Sasha Riess
When it comes to our lives with animals, we must ask ourselves: is it dog training or a relationship of love? Training often reduces dogs to mere points in a program, but a real connection begins only when we stop training and start feeling.
Training as a Continuation of the Circus
The way dog training is understood today has never represented a relationship to me — it’s merely a modern form of the circus. Once, people used elephants, tigers, or lions to demonstrate power and entertain crowds. Today, the stage is smaller, the method refined — but the essence remains the same.
Trust is not commanded; it is built through presence, understanding, and love.
When I see dogs performing “tricks,” I don’t see freedom; I see limitation. The dog becomes a number in a show — a tool for our amusement, not a being that feels and breathes.
Zoos and “Positive Therapy”
In zoos, the same principle continues. Animals are taught to accept examinations, open their mouths, and take medication. While it’s called “positive therapy,” the essence hasn’t changed — it’s still about the human adapting the animal to themselves.
The True Essence of Relationship
No one in this process enters the animal’s soul or inner world. The focus remains on shaping behavior for human convenience, while the animal’s need is forgotten. A dog didn’t come into our lives to perform, to entertain, or to validate us. Its presence carries something much deeper — a call to relationship.
True trust doesn’t need a command; it only needs your presence.
Relationship, Not Domination
A true relationship isn’t built on dominance, but on trust, belonging, and sincere love. When we choose a relationship of love over dog training, we stop taking away who they truly are.
True Companionship, Not a Circus
When I understood that, I discovered something else — that only then does the bond with a dog stop resembling a circus and start resembling a real community. That’s the moment when both human and dog become what they were always meant to be — partners in life.
At Integrative and Holistic Grooming Education, we believe that communication is felt, not forced. We teach you how to listen to your dog’s soul instead of just commanding their body. Explore our philosophy: Linktree Sasha Riess
Dogs don’t suffer because something is missing — they suffer because they’ve lost their essential connection with humans. In a world where we have everything, the dog is left without the one thing it truly needs — a stable, present, calm human.
I don’t mean physical presence, but energetic and emotional presence. Everything else — food, accessories, cosmetics — becomes meaningless when connection is gone.
How Caring for Dogs Became a Consumer Identity
The modern dog owner lives under the pressure of an industry that convinces us we can’t be responsible owners unless we constantly buy things. Dogs and consumerism have become so intertwined that caring for a dog has turned into a matter of image, not relationship. Shopping is no longer functional — it’s become a moral duty. We feel inadequate if we don’t buy regularly, and when we can’t afford it anymore, we start believing we no longer deserve our dog.
When Money Disappears — the Illusion of Love Crumbles
When the illusion of consumption collapses due to job loss or personal crisis, people often decide to give their dog away. They think they can no longer care for it, not because they can’t feed it, but because they can’t participate in the expensive „system of care.“ This is the result of a distorted message: that love for a dog depends on money.
What a Dog Truly Needs — Simplicity and Presence
A dog doesn’t need a lavender pillow or a spirulina supplement. It needs stability, clarity, and contact. It needs to know who leads and who stays, even when everything changes. No purchase can replace that.
A Personal Story — Betti and the Illusion of Perfection
I was once part of that system. Betti was a Bichon whose owners followed every „professional standard“—weekly grooming, perfect white coat, show results. But they eventually gave her away, believing they weren’t „good enough“ for her anymore.
Betti ended up with their cook—a woman with no money but a priceless advantage: she had no need to prove anything. She trimmed Betti’s hair with kitchen scissors and never tried to turn her into a trophy. For the first time, Betti could simply be a dog.
A dog doesn’t ask for luxury; it asks for the presence of a human who understands.
The Responsibility of Professionals
Experts, trainers, and groomers shape the idea of a “good owner.” When we raise that bar so high that it depends on money and perfection, we share responsibility for every abandonment caused by guilt.
Returning to Simplicity — Returning to True Love
If we pause, we’ll see how simple it is to give a dog what it truly needs: a human who understands it. Someone who knows that silence sometimes matters more than another toy.
The Pure Love and Harmony approach teaches that a relationship with a dog isn’t a luxury. You don’t need special equipment or a perfect home. You just need yourself—not as a buyer, but as a human who stays when everything else fades.
At Integrative and Holistic Grooming Education, we prioritize the bond over the brush. True care is about being present, not just providing products. Explore our philosophy: Linktree Sasha Riess
