by Sasha Riess | 31.05.26. | Behaviour
The dog and the present moment show us how life truly unfolds here and now. A dog is not here to be “fixed,” nor to correct our behavior. It connects us with ourselves and with the world around us. Within that lies its strength and its role in our lives.
A Connection That Cannot Be Pretended
When you work with a dog, you are not learning what you should do, but what you are doing right now that leads the dog to behave exactly as it does. A dog responds to your presence, tension, absence, focus, or distraction. It does not read your promises, plans, or intentions. It reads you. Now.
The Dog and the Present Moment: The Body as the Only Voice
A dog does not think about how it looks or what others might say. It lives in the dog and the present moment, within a body that feels pain, discomfort, tension, or relief. Topics such as ear cropping are questions of projection—moments when a human stops listening to the dog and instead listens to their own need for control.
On the other hand, when we speak about health, the dog shows the way. Its body clearly signals when support is needed, especially in states of stress or joint strain. This is why the role of vitamin C in dogs is vital for maintaining connective tissue and immunity.
A dog brings us back to where life truly exists – the present moment.
Self-Discipline Through the Dog and the Present Moment
Through simple actions like walking or guiding on a leash, self-discipline develops. The dog and the present moment bring you back to your body, your breath, and your step. If you are absent, the dog shows it; if you are present, the dog settles. This is not training—it is a mirror.
Why Our Dogs Teach Us to Live in the Now
A dog does not try to change the world. It simply is. Through the dog, we learn to stop projecting fear and begin living where life truly happens: Here. Now.
At Sasha Riess, we honor the natural state of being. Embracing the dog and the present moment allows us to move away from control and toward pureloveandharmony. Connect with your dog’s true nature: Linktree Sasha Riess
by Sasha Riess | 13.04.26. | Emotions
There was a time when we truly lived. Breathed. Existed as part of a world that didn’t ask us to prove love, worth, or meaning through what we own or achieve. Today, in an age of performance and self-promotion, it seems we have lost the ability to love simply, without needing to see ourselves reflected in the eyes of others.
Life Then and Now – When We Knew How to Feel
In the past, we relied on one another, in both pain and joy. We knew that not everything had to be easy, and that true connections were not always pleasant, but they were real. Today, however, we run away from conflict, uncertainty, and everything that reminds us of our vulnerability. In that silence, in that escape from ourselves, a dog often appears.
The Dog as a Substitute for Human Closeness
That is why today, more and more often, a dog sits across from a person in a restaurant. The dog listens, does not interrupt, does not judge. It asks for no explanation. It is easy to love such a being, one that never says no, never demands reciprocity, and never sets boundaries.
Anthropomorphism – When a Dog Becomes “Human”
In anthropomorphism, the process through which we assign human qualities to animals, lies the essence of our modern relationship with dogs. The dog becomes our emotional extension, the one through whom we live everything we cannot express ourselves. It becomes our child, our partner, our therapist.
The Dog Did Not Come to Be Your Pet, It Came to Change Your Life
A dog does not set boundaries. It does not force us to change. That is why it is the perfect companion for a generation that runs from pain, imperfection, and unpredictability. Our society functions more and more as a space where emotions are treated as discomfort to be avoided, not lived.
A dog’s gaze revealing the connection between a person and their emotions.
Loneliness as the New Norm
Loneliness has become a lifestyle. People work, communicate, and love through screens, while the dog becomes physical proof that we are not alone, at least on the outside. In its eyes, we seek the peace we cannot find in human relationships.
Perfect Relationships with Dogs – The Instagram Illusion
On Instagram, the dog wears a birthday hat, surrounded by balloons and cakes. On TikTok, it “talks” about its feelings. The dog becomes the main character in our emotional marketing, and we become the audience to our own lack of connection.
Dogs Take On Our Emotions
Dogs increasingly show symptoms that are not their own: anxiety, depression, stress. These are not their problems; they are reflections of ours. They become mirrors, our emotional extensions, carriers of everything we do not know how to process.
When the Dog Becomes Our Shield from the World
They enter places that are not theirs—airplanes, hotels, restaurants—not because they want to, but because we no longer know how to be alone. The dog becomes our protection, our boundary, our excuse, and our comfort, all in one.
How to Break the Cycle
So what now? How do we escape this circle of emotional dependency? Not by loving our dog less, but by learning to love ourselves more, sincerely, vulnerably, and without hiding behind someone’s unconditional love.
The loneliness of modern humans through the eyes of a dog.
Small Rituals That Restore Presence
That is why we created a guidebook, not as an absolute truth but as a tool. Small rituals that bring us back to presence: shared breathing, silence without words, a gaze without the need for validation. In those moments, the dog stops carrying our pain and becomes what it truly is—a being that reminds us what it means to be alive.
Presence as Medicine
Presence is not a state, it is a practice. Every day, the dog reminds us that everything we are searching for already exists within us. When we realize that, our relationship with the dog is no longer an escape from the world but a return to it. This is the path of the human dog relationship.
Silence that connects – a moment of sincere presence between a human and a dog.
At Integrative and Holistic Grooming Education, we believe that true love doesn’t hide behind a leash. It faces the mirror of the soul. Find your balance and return to presence: Linktree Sasha Riess
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