I am so lucky that my guest today moved to Santa Fe, New Mexico last year and now I get to hang out with her on a regular basis. Kelly Engel had years of involvement with dog shows, rescue, and animal control before opening her business, Know Thy Dog in Montana. Her facility offered real-world lifestyle training and behavior counseling. Kelly excelled at helping challenging dogs live more fulfilling lives with their families. Currently living with 17 dogs of various shapes and sizes, Kelly believes in the healing power of a pack of dogs and outdoor adventure to bring dogs back to balance. Kelly shares great stories, wisdom from training aggressive dogs for many years, and her thoughts on the challenges dogs and their humans face and how to help them. She also has a Venn diagram for the ultimate balance of skills for dog trainers. With experience, one realizes we can only learn the tippy-tip of knowledge about another species and why it is important to be aware of the many grey areas in dog training.

While taking a five-year sabbatical from training, she delved into feral dogs when she moved to New Mexico. This is when Kelly and I came up with the idea of a joint immersion workshop with feral dogs. Find out more information on this 2 and 6-day workshop at my website www.hart2heartcanine.com/store

Kelly is opening a new business in Santa Fe in 2025. This area can really use Kelly's expertise and I am excited to see her business succeed. When she launces her website the address will be www.kellyengel.com

Martha Hoffman shares her depth of knowledge and insights about dog temperament, especially when evaluating for hearing dogs, dog behavior, and observations from living in Bali and observing the Bali Heritage Dogs. This one is not to be missed!

To learn more from Martha:

Her book is Lend Me an Ear: Temperament, Selection and Training of the Hearing Ear Dog

Martha's Patreon is https://www.patreon.com/c/faunabotanica/posts

Facebook is https://www.facebook.com/martha.hoffman2

The dog photos on the promo for this track are Bali Dogs taken by Martha Hoffman

Anyone that has trained dogs and their people for over 40 years has to have lots of wisdom for us newbies and dog owners. Trish Wamsat of Homeschooled Hounds in California shares her successful mindset, training programs, and what she learned by working at a veternarian's office for over 15 years. Trish and I also talk about challenges of navigating an "always and never" dog training mentality and how it feels to be a moderate. Trish has tried not to stand out by being a tall blade of grass until now. I am honored to have Trish be part of my podcast and share her wisdom with you.

Renowned Attuned Horseman Warwick Schiller shares many insights about energy and attunement with animals and about his Principles of Training. Even though his book is about horses, it is so relevant to our relationship with our dogs, nature and each other. Join me for a Hart to Heart about the best info about dogs that is about horses, and life in general.

I highly recommend Warwicks's book "Principles of Training: Understanding the Relationship Between You and Your Horse, and Why Effective Training Works". Warwick's website is www.warwickschiller.com

Nelson Hodges joins me for part 2 of his interview where we discuss the depth of the Canine Human Relationship Institute courses and how changing perspectives can help us help dogs live better lives with humans.

Nelson Hodges joins me to talk dog behavior, his beginnings with Pato the Aggressive Duck, and how nursery rhymes have affected our views of our dogs close relative, the wolf. Nelson has been rehabilitating and training severe case dogs for over 40 years.

It takes a special kind of person to stay in dog rescue for 20+ years. My guest Lanya Androlewicz is a unique combination of compassion, stability, honesty and realism that has allowed her to not turn a blind eye to dogs in need. Listen in while we talk about our ethics of dog rescue, how we stay sane, spay neuter from a rescue standpoint, how we run the rescue People's Anti-Cruelty Association, and lots of fun stories intertwined in between.

LIMA (Least Intrusive Minimally Aversive) is a popular phrase describing a methodology and approach to dog training. Valerie Ann Erwin and I discuss LIMA & Cynopraxis dog training, what we learned by being in a LIMA workgroup, and how we are applying what we have learned from Mr Lindsay's books.

The challenges of running a rural shelter in New Mexico has not stopped Bea Gallegos, manager of the Las Vegas Animal Care Center in Las Vegas, New Mexico. Bea is intent on giving the dogs and cats in her care the best she can, but this is not always easy. Bea has also developed a method for rehabilitating feral dogs, which makes up about 10% of her shelter's population. Bea and her staff consistently defy the odds that surrounds them, all at the age of 26. Even though her job can be hard, Bea knows she is where she is supposed to be.

If anyone wants to learn more about the shelter, or get some amazing dogs for rescue or adoption, please follow the Facebook page Las Vegas Animal Care Center at https://www.facebook.com/share/1NLQ1pUi2LhX6GCw/?mibextid=LQQJ4d

The LVAAC website is https://www.lasvegasnm.gov/city-of-las-vegas-animal-care-center. Phone number is 505-426-3289

Trust is something I had to learn how to build by working with fearful and feral dogs. But building trust helps relationships and behavior concerns with ALL dogs. When we build trust with our dogs, we become partners and more relevant to them. This makes everything else we do with our dogs easier. To learn about my course offerings in how to build trust with your dogs, please visit www.fearfuldoghelp.org and click on "It's a Question of Trust" lesson or hart2heartcanineonline.uscreen.io/programs/trust