Play
Full engagement between you and your dog. The bond is built here, and you become more interesting than the environment.
A way of living with your dog.
The Hachi Way is a methodology for understanding your dog through structure, not commands.
- 14 years
- In practice — zoos, wildlife, assistance dogs, and households
- 235+
- Five-star client reviews as Diona The Trainer
- BVSc · MEd
- Veterinary science and early-childhood education
The Hachi Way is a method for raising and rehabilitating dogs in normal households. It begins from a single observation: a dog whose needs are met and whose body language is understood behaves well without constant instruction. The work is teaching the human side of that relationship. The dog side comes more easily than most people expect.
The method, in two ideas
The waterline
Every dog has a baseline level of arousal, and triggers push it up. The work is not managing the waves. It is bringing the waterline down — and learning to read where your dog sits at any given moment.
PACE — the four modes
A dog’s day is built from four modes, each with its own expectation, cue, and boundary. They are held equally. When the modes blur, the household stops working.
Anchor
Structured walking, the dog’s attention on you rather than the surroundings.
Calm
Rest on your terms, where a dog learns that demanding behaviour gets nothing.
Explore
Being a dog within reason: sniffing, watching, pottering, switching off.
For owners
Work through it with a Hachi Way trainer.
Reading your dog is a skill you can be taught. The fastest way in is alongside a trainer who already lives in the method.
Private consultations
One-to-one work in your home, where the behaviour actually happens. In Melbourne, or virtually worldwide.
The four-week program
A structured month that calibrates your timing and hands the reading skill back to you.
Online puppy program
Nine weeks of foundations, set early, so the household works from the start.
Free assessment
Where is your dog’s waterline?
A short, structured read of where your dog sits today — arousal, recovery, and the modes that are slipping. You get a plain-language result and a place to start. No charge, no funnel.
The founder
The long way round
In 2014, my family’s Akita was put down. That is why I became a dog trainer. The methodology is named for him, and for the famous Akita who waited.
For trainers
Certify in the Hachi Way.
The PACE Intensive is the practitioner path: online theory paired with in-person shadowing in Melbourne. Learn to teach owners to read their own dog — and join a method built to outlast any single trainer.
Diona working with a mentee — PACE Intensive