Read your dog
Body language and arousal. Learning to see what is happening before it lands.
Field notes
Read Your Dog
A short library of pieces on the everyday work of living well with a dog.
Three pillars
Understand your dog
Frameworks for how a dog's day, brain, and household actually function.
Live with your dog
The practical work of routine, structure, and the moments owners cave on.
Updated weekly. Written by Diona Chu and the Hachi Way trainers.
Featured · Read your dog
The waterline
Every dog has a baseline. Some live at high tide. Some live at low tide. Learn to see the waterline, and the rest of the training reads itself.
All pieces
Read your dog · 5 min
The waterline
Every dog has a baseline. Some live at high tide. Some live at low tide. Learn to see the waterline, and the rest of the training reads itself.
Understand your dog · 6 min
The four modes
Most household dog problems are a mode problem. PLAY, ANCHOR, CALM, EXPLORE, and what happens when the modes blur.
Live with your dog · 6 min
Cycles, and what comes after
Cycles aren't the permanent unit of a dog's day. They're how the dog and the handler both learn what the modes mean.
Read your dog · 7 min
The first 90 minutes
People sometimes ask what we do in an initial consult. The short answer is that I spend most of it reading the dog and teaching the owner to start.