Shane Hudson has volunteered at his local municipal shelter in Michigan for six years. It started with his own dog, Weller, a friendly 90-pound pit bull mix who became so reactive that Shane couldn’t take him anywhere. He’d been told never to correct a dog. He learned to reward everything and had no way to stop anything, until one afternoon in a friend’s backyard changed how he saw training.

In this episode of the Doggie Stoic Shelter Series, Andrew and co-host Ana talk with Shane about:

• Baby Ruth, the “unadoptable” dog who now loves crowds
• What really leads to a “bite case” label
• Whether any dog is truly unfixable
• Force-free vs. old-school compulsion: which does more harm?
• Puppies on SSRIs, and why Shane weans dogs off medication before training
• A live debate on telling a 4-month-old puppy “no”
• Why free clients fail, and how trainers can make training affordable

Follow Shane on Instagram at @useddogenthusiast.

Note: Windows Theory is Jay Jack and TWC certification is Ivan Balabanov

She’s fostered more than 500 dogs. Here’s what she’s learned about the ones nobody else will take.

The Shelter Series continues with Jenny, founder of Dog Gone Seattle, a foster-based rescue that usually has more than 100 dogs in care. Eleven years ago, Jenny saw how rescues can fail dogs and decided to start her own. Since then, her home has been a revolving door for the dogs that failed out of fosters, were returned by adopters, or were labeled “behavior cases” and left with nowhere to go. Andrew and co-host Anna talk with Jenny about building a rescue from scratch, why her crate rules aren’t optional, and what it costs to be open about using tools in a world that wants to ban them.

What happens to a dog after it’s labeled “aggressive”?

Welcome to the first episode of the Shelter Series on Doggie Stoic, a new series looking at where so many of the dogs we train come from, and why so many end up back there.

Andrew is joined by his new co-host, Anna, who has volunteered with shelter dogs across the US, Croatia, and Estonia, and by Noah from Canine Nexus. Noah spent years working in a Humane Society before starting his own training business. Together they look at what shelter life actually does to a dog, the labels that follow dogs for life, and what trainers and everyday dog lovers can do to change it.

In this episode:

• What 23.5 hours a day in a kennel does to a dog’s mind and body
• How a single stressful moment at intake can become a label that decides a dog’s future
• “Trashcan,” the dog whose life changed with one hour a few times a week
• Why some shelters turn away trainers who want to help
• The rise of behavioral medication in shelters, and what owners are rarely told
• Why can’t we tell a shelter dog “no”? Rewarding calm vs. stopping the behavior
• The pet corrector story that got Noah called into his manager’s office, and got a dog adopted
• Andrew’s beef with the “pup cup era”
• Why every new trainer should spend time in a shelter