The Dog Who Asked for More: Turning Dog Training Frustration Into a Deeper Relationship With Your Dog

You don't notice the changes all at once. It's the extra medication with breakfast. The slower trip up the stairs. The way your dog sleeps a little more than they used to. The way your daily routine quietly shifts around their needs until one day you realize just how much has changed. In this episode, I'm talking about a kind of grief that doesn't get discussed very often: the grief that starts be...

Have you ever felt like you're constantly chasing a new symptom with your dog? Maybe it's bad breath. Maybe it's itching. Maybe it's digestive issues that improve for a while, then come right back. You've changed foods, tried supplements, spent hours researching, and you're still wondering what you're missing. In this episode, I sit down with Kendall, co-founder of Kingdom, to talk about why some...

The noise has stopped. The holiday is over. But your dog is still jumpy, restless, reacting to things that normally wouldn't bother them, and you're starting to wonder if something is wrong. In this episode, Em explains what's actually happening inside your dog's body after a stressful event and why recovery often takes much longer than most dog parents expect. If you've been worried that your dog...

Being the only one who decides for your dog costs more than you think. You've stayed up at midnight researching food, training, or health decisions, wishing someone would just tell you that you're not getting it wrong. If you're the only one making every call for your dog, this episode is for you. The emotional weight of constant second-guessing, the financial pressure of getting it wrong, the exh...

What happens when the dog beside you stops being part of the job and becomes the one constant in your life? After years of dog training, deployments, Secret Service missions, and life-changing transitions, Paul Bourgeois discovered that his military working dog, Rroddie, was giving him something far beyond protection or performance. Through war, divorce, retirement, and the difficult transition ba...

You've played the soundtracks. Practiced the exercises. Done everything the training advice told you to do. And the fireworks start anyway, and your dog falls apart anyway, and you're standing there wondering what you missed. In this episode, Em shares why so many well-meaning dog parents end up here every year, and why fireworks may not be the training problem everyone assumes it is. Drawing from...

Your reactive dog, and it's not what you think. There are places you and your dog just stopped going. Not because you decided to. Little by little, your world got smaller, and you almost didn't notice until you did. In this episode, Em talks about the quiet kind of avoidance that happens when you're living with a reactive dog: the skipped walks, the places that stopped feeling easy, the moment you...

Getting there and getting there safely aren't the same thing. Most dog parents never think about car safety until they're faced with a close call, an accident, or the realization that their dog could be seriously hurt in a crash. We think about training, nutrition, enrichment, behavior. How our dogs actually travel rarely makes the list. In this episode, Em sits down with Reed from Ruffland Kennel...

Do you ever feel completely exhausted by your dog… and then immediately guilty for feeling that way at all? Some days it feels like your dog needs something from you every second:attention, movement, regulation, reassurance, management, patience, decision-making, and emotional energy. And when you’re already overwhelmed yourself, even small things can start to feel impossibly heavy. In this episod...

What do you do when you’ve tried everything for your dog… and nothing is working? In this deeply personal episode of The Dog Who Asked for More , Em shares the full story of Izzie — the dog she loved deeply, the years of management and escalating behavior, and the impossible decision she eventually had to make after everything finally fell apart. This conversation explores the emotional reality of...

Have You Ever Felt Like Helping Your Dog Has Turned Into A Research Project? You've saved the post. Bought the supplement. Tried the chew. Added another recommendation to the list. And somehow, instead of feeling more confident, you feel even less sure about what your dog actually needs. In this episode, Em sits down with Michelle Huey, founder of Shop.pet, to talk about why so many pet parents ge...

Have you ever spent hours planning enrichment for your dog… only to end the day wondering why they still seem restless, overstimulated, or unable to settle? Lick mats. Snuffle mats. Puzzle feeders. Frozen toppers. Scatter feeding. Training sessions. Walks. Rotations. DIY enrichment setups. A lot of dog parents are doing everything they’ve been told to do — and still ending up with dogs who feel mo...

Have you ever looked at your dog and realized they became so much more than a companion—they became the thing that helped you survive? For some people, dogs become far more than pets. They become routine, safety, stability, and emotional support when life feels overwhelming. In this deeply personal episode of The Dog Who Asked for More , Em shares the reality of surviving an abusive living situati...

What if your dog doesn't need more exercise—just a better way to use the energy they already have? Many dog parents are stuck in the same exhausting cycle: more walks, more fetch, more play, more activity... yet their dog still won't settle. If you have a high-energy dog, reactive dog, anxious dog, or a dog that constantly seems to want more, this episode may completely change how you think about...

Have you ever looked at your dog after a reaction, shutdown, growl, or stressful moment and thought: “Where did that even come from?” A lot of dog parents believe reactions happen suddenly. One second their dog seems fine… and the next there’s barking, lunging, freezing, growling, or biting that feels impossible to predict. But most dogs are communicating long before those moments happen. Most of...

Have you ever felt like your dog understands something one day… and completely falls apart the next? You practice. You repeat things. You try to stay patient and consistent. And still your dog seems overwhelmed, reactive, distracted, or unable to settle once real life gets involved. In this episode of The Dog Who Asked for More , Em shares the turning point she experienced with Fitz after realizin...

Losing your dog is hard. But losing the dog who changed you feels like losing part of yourself. In this episode of The Dog Who Asked for More , we’re talking about the kind of grief people don’t always understand — the grief that comes after a dog who shaped your routines, your identity, your healing, and the version of yourself you became because they were here. Because when you’ve loved a dog wh...

You’ve done the training. The walks. The management. The routines. The enrichment. And while some of it helps… your dog still seems anxious, reactive, unsettled, or unable to fully relax. In this episode of The Dog Who Asked for More , we’re talking about the connection between dog behavior and what may be happening inside the body — especially in the gut. Because many dogs labeled as “anxious,” “...

Do you ever feel like your brain is constantly running calculations about your dog? Is this walk too much? Did they get enough rest? Should we leave now? Will this trigger a reaction? Did I make the wrong call again? In this episode of The Dog Who Asked for More , we’re talking about the invisible mental load behind life with a dog who needs more from you than most people realize. Because when you...

You’ve changed the food. Added the supplements. Tried to do everything right for your dog. And somehow… they still don’t seem fully well. In this episode of The Dog Who Asked for More , we’re talking about a piece of dog health that almost nobody discusses: light. Joined by animal bodyworker and Animal Soul founder Jackie Jolie, we explore how modern indoor living may be affecting our dogs in ways...

You've probably seen it: a dog in a vest, barking nonstop, lunging, never quite settling. And even without saying anything out loud, some part of you thought, that dog doesn't look okay. In this episode, we get into the line most people don't realize they're crossing — the difference between a well-behaved pet and a truly task-trained service dog, what public access work actually asks of a dog's n...

Have you ever felt like you’re doing everything right with your dog… and things still feel unpredictable anyway? You’re training. You’re paying attention. You’re trying to stay consistent. But some days your dog feels more reactive, more sensitive, more unable to settle — and no matter how hard you try to figure it out, nothing fully explains why. In this episode of The Dog Who Asked for More , we...

Have you ever looked at your dog and realized something felt different… and suddenly started wondering how much time you really have left together? In this episode of The Dog Who Asked for More , we’re talking about the quiet reality of dogs getting older — the small changes most people don’t notice until they become impossible to ignore. A hesitation on the stairs. Sleeping a little more. Not jum...

At some point, walks stopped feeling enjoyable and started feeling like something you mentally prepare yourself to survive. In this episode of The Dog Who Asked For More , Em talks about the quiet reality many dog parents carry but rarely admit out loud: walks that feel tense, unpredictable, exhausting, and emotionally draining — even when you love your dog deeply. Because for many sensitive, reac...

You love your dog deeply… so why does it feel like you’re carrying the weight of everything all the time? In this episode of The Dog Who Asked For More , Em talks about the quiet burnout so many dog parents live in without realizing it. The constant watching. The overthinking. The pressure to prevent every reaction, manage every situation, and stay one step ahead so nothing goes wrong. Because whe...