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Preface

Let me tell you something I have learned after more than thirty-five years of sitting on living room floors with pet parents who feel like they have tried everything. Somewhere across from me is a dog. Maybe they are pacing a groove into the hardwood, maybe they are frozen under a table, maybe they are barking nonstop, eyes wide, tail high, and thrashing. Or maybe, and this one still punches me in the gut, they are quiet. Shut down. Not aggressive, not reactive. Just…not there. Checked out. And beside them? A human who loves them more than anything. Who has Googled every training hack, who has had three different trainers come through and suggest a prong collar, or an electronic collar, or some half-hearted version of "just show them who’s boss." Someone who has spent nights crying because they are out of options and scared of what that might mean.

I have been in that moment more times than I can count. And I have come to believe that when nothing else seems to work, it is not because the dog is broken. It is because we are speaking the wrong language. That is what this book is about. Not quick fixes. Not obedience tricks. And definitely not control. It is about giving dogs a way to regulate themselves, on their terms, using the one sense that has shaped their evolution more than any other: their nose. You know, we tend to forget how different dogs are from us. We live through our eyes. They live through scent. While we are busy pointing and talking and showing them what we want, they are picking up the emotional residue left behind by last week’s visitor, the chemical whispers of fear on a cushion, the faint trace of a squirrel that passed the window two hours ago. That world is invisible to us. But it is everything to them.