by Sasha Riess | 05.02.26. | Behaviour
Dogs Are Not Trained but Understood Through Relationship
Dogs are not trained because a dog is not a machine, nor a program that needs to be “fixed”. A dog is a living being who enters into a relationship with a human, responds to the context in which it lives, and mirrors the state in which we exist. When we understand this, the need for training disappears and real work with the dog begins.
Why Classical Training Does Not Work
Dogs do not function through training because training implies control, commands, and correction. Understanding implies relationship, presence, and human responsibility. And this is where the difference arises that changes everything.
A dog living in an apartment is not the same dog as one living on the street. A dog living in a yard is not the same dog as one living inside a family. That is why there is no universal technique, no universal command, and no universal method for working with dogs.
Dogs Are Not Shaped by Commands but by Context
A dog is not “disobedient”. A dog responds to the circumstances in which it lives. When a dog pulls on the leash, barks constantly, refuses food, or shows anxiety, this is not disobedience. It is a message.
The dog is showing how it feels within the relationship, the space, and the structure provided by the human. Dogs are not trained to fit into our life; they are understood so they can be stable within it.
A dog always responds to the context in which it lives.
Learning Through State of Being, Not Words
A dog does not learn from words. A dog learns from a state of being. That is why a dog may “listen” to one person and completely ignore another. Not because it is stubborn, but because with each person it experiences a different relationship, a different sense of safety, and a different level of trust.
The boundaries a dog respects are not the ones we say, but the ones we live.
Dogs Are Not Projects nor Household Appliances
A dog is not here to fulfill our need for control, success, or perfect behavior. A dog is not a project. A dog is a companion. The more we try to “train” a dog, the more we distance it from ourselves. The more we learn to understand the dog, the more behavior changes naturally—without force, without punishment, and without trauma.
Dogs are not trained to be good. Dogs are understood so they can be stable.
This understanding of a dog’s emotional and physical state is at the heart of everything we do. At Integrative and Holistic Grooming Education, we teach people how to apply these principles of stability and care in their everyday lives with their dogs, helping create calm, healthy, and happy results.
by Sasha Riess | 01.02.26. | Behaviour
It is not crucial whether you adopted your dog or bought him, how old he is, or which breed he belongs to. When we ask why dogs bite, the problem is almost never in the dog, but in the fact that the human does not understand the language the dog speaks.
A dog does not speak Serbian, English, or any human language. His communication is entirely behavioral. If we do not understand that behavior, we easily enter a relationship filled with misunderstandings, fear, and loss of trust.
A Dog Bites Because He Is Speaking and We Are Not Listening
A dog’s behavior is his only way to communicate with us. A bite is not an “attack without reason,” but a message that appears after all milder signals have been ignored. Understanding why dogs bite starts with recognizing these signals:
When these signals go unnoticed, the dog intensifies the message. The bite then becomes the last level of communication, not the first.
The Problem Is Not Aggression, but Misguided Closeness
One of the most common mistakes is developing a sentimental emotional bond between human and dog. Out of a desire to “give everything to the dog,” a person:
The dog does not receive security from this, but confusion. This confusion is often the root cause of why dogs bite, because a dog that does not feel structure does not feel trust.
Without structure, a dog cannot develop trust.
Why a Dog Bites Even When We Are ‘Good’ to Him
Paradoxically, a dog may bite the very person who rescued, fed, and loved him. Not because he is ungrateful, but because he does not see the human as a stable figure and feels he must control things himself. In that moment, the dog does not bite out of hatred, but out of insecurity.
A Dog Does Not Seek Emotion, He Seeks Structure
Dogs do not ask for excessive empathy or emotional fusion. They seek:
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Clear rules
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Consistency
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Predictability
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Calm leadership
When these are missing, the dog tries to establish order on his own. The bite then becomes an attempt at control, not an attack.
How to Prevent a Dog from Biting
The solution is not punishment, but changing the relationship. To address why dogs bite, we must:
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Learn the dog’s language instead of imposing yours
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Set clear boundaries
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Take responsibility for leadership
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Reduce emotional confusion
A dog who trusts his human has no need to bite.
by Sasha Riess | 30.01.26. | Behaviour
There is one thing I often have to repeat: I never said that dogs have no soul.
The problem appears when long reflections, conversations, and explanations are reduced to a few seconds of video. In that process, the message is easily pulled out of context and receives a completely different meaning from what was actually said.
How Short Video Formats Change the Meaning of What Is Said
Reels and short formats follow the rules of attention, not the rules of understanding. People who edit content often try to preserve the essence, but the message can become:
Honestly, with some clips, even I do not recognize how they ended up in the final version.
Algorithms Choose Provocation, Not Explanation
Social media rewards what provokes a reaction. That is why the part mentioning a dog’s soul is what gets highlighted—it triggers strong and divided opinions.
An algorithm creates a false conclusion, making it seem like a provocative statement rather than an in-depth explanation. It makes it sound as if I said something I never actually said.
The Dog as a Conscious Being, Not an Object of a Method
My entire work, my life, and my relationship with dogs rest on one fundamental principle: the dog is a conscious being.
From this consciousness comes the dog’s ability to:
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Understand the world it lives in
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Find its place within it
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Experience fear and insecurity
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Experience joy, calm, and contentment
When I speak about this, I am not entering philosophical debates to provoke. I am explaining why working with a dog can never be mechanical.
When a message is pulled out of context, its meaning changes.
What Changes When We Stop Seeing the Dog as a “Problem”
When we see a dog as a being, not a „malfunction“ to be fixed, all key questions change: how we feed them, how we guide them, and how we react when something “does not work.”
The dog stops being a symptom treated by a method. The dog becomes a relationship built through understanding.
What Was Actually Said
A sentence pulled out of context does not represent a standpoint. If we speak about dogs, their behavior, emotions, and needs, then we must speak holistically.
Understanding a dog does not begin with technique. It begins with listening to the whole, not just a fragment.
