Our Story

My Heartdog

My path to becoming a dog behaviorist started with that one dog, the one who surprised me, the heart dog who frustrated me and made me despair, but the one I also grew to love more than any other dog I ever had before. My Italian greyhound Fabel.

I saw him struggling and not doing well from day one. We picked him up at the breeders house, he was quiet and shy the first few days, when we arrived in my hometown Bergen he was already anxious and hypervigilant. He had been with the breeder until he was 6 months old, so in a way he was a rehomed dog, an adolescent, fearful dog coming to his first home already in his teens.

Aversion training and angry hikers

Fabel was constantly stressed and had bad anxiety, but I didn't know how to solve it or make him better. I Searched the internet, took courses, tried to do behavior modification, I sent him to doggy daycare, did clicker training, aversion training, balanced training at weekend courses, but nothing I tried helped and nothing felt good. After a weekend course with a balanced trainer putting a chain choker on him I felt absolutely terrible, I saw that Fabel got really depressed by the painful metal collar, so when we came home from the course, the choker went in the bin, and Fabel and I went back to the drawing board and left aversiveness in the rear view mirror.

I started to dread going on walks with him, dreaded the constant barking and lunging from the time we went out until we returned home, the talk from bypassers with and without dogs: "Get control of your dog", "you should've stayed at home", "look at that little, aggressive rat there". Walking became a duty that we just had to carry out, I was so uncomfortable and didn't know what to do. When we got home, the barking continued looking out the windows, barking in the air, on the door, he was constantly looking and listening to potential threaths, and couldn't relax for a second. - The neighbor got so angry and screamed at me to: "get rid of that bastard dog". I became more and more stressed myself, and Fabel, that poor boy, couldn't calm himself, and often fell asleep sitting in a chair, trying to stay awake, trembling with fear and exhaustion.

Sausages and Medication

The turning point was a visit to a dog school in Bergen to meet with a dog trainer recommended by our Vet. The dog trainer just threw bits of sausage at Fabel, we were sitting in a in a sterile cargo container, ice cold and very uncomfortable. Fabel stood in the corner, shaking and barking and didn't understand anything we were doing, neither did I. The dog trainer said that throwing sausages at him was the solution to the problems, but couldn't explain to me why, only THAT it was the solution. She then referred us to a certified dog behaviorist in Bergen for further evaluation.

We sat in the behavior therapist's garage, talked to her for about 30 minutes, after which she concluded that Fabel would never have a good life, we couldn't send him back to the breeder (never going to happen anyway), we couldn't make him "normal", and that our choices were either euthanasia or heavy medication for the rest of his life which would take away his impulse control, shorten his lifespan considerably (her words) but at the same time could make him stop barking. She said that since we seemed like great owners, there was no point rehoming him, since he'd be just as bad with someone else, so the best thing would be for us to euthanize Fabel.

I cried in the car all the way home. We were given a prescription for medication that would make him indifferent to everything he was afraid of. I stood with the prescription in my hand and knew I didn't want to medicate him, at least not yet - I knew I had to find another solution, there had to be something else I could do to help him, and euthanasia was not an option to me.

Puzzle pieces starting to fit

I grew up with dogs, and had a dog in my early 20s, but after I moved away from home and started studying at the University, I felt that part-time jobs and studies were not compatible with having dogs, so I waited until I felt I was able to give a dog what i felt they deserve. I had thought many times about education myself to become a dog trainer, but weekend gatherings and a lot of traveling never fit with school and part-time jobs, as the dog training schooI wanted to attend was not in Bergen. I completed other studies and got a job in the private sector, and I still felt that I didn't have enough time to give a dog a great life. I looked after other people's dogs, and trained with them.

During Covid-19 I finally got the chance, when much of the courses for the schools were changed to online training with webinars, self-studies, case assignments and video filming of clients and personal training - it was perfect for me. I finally got the education I had wanted to get for many years. From 2021 – 2023 I studied online and group-based with the Nordic Education Center and learned from the dog legend Turid Rugaas herself, as well as other renowned dog behaviourists and Vets like Dr, Amber Batson and the founder of Galen Myotherapy, Julia Robertsen

On by one, all the pieces of Fabels fear and anxiety fell into place. The techniques I learned felt good and right, the philosophy of Ethical training, no punishments, no cadaver discipline, just calmness, building trust, allowing for autonomy, listening and giving him space to think, breathe and be a dog. Fabel responded amazingly. We went from 90% reactivity and a wide range of triggers, to only a few triggers and 10% reactivity inside and outside on walks. No more barking at the window at home (almost), little barking at other dogs (GDS's, huskies, large black dogs and Jack Russel terriers still gets some barks). The intensity of his stress response went from high intensity barking for minutes, or even hours at a time, to measured, half-heartedly barking for a few seconds. Fabel started to relax during the day, sleeping at night and became much happier.

Fabel noticed a change in me too, he realized that I understood him better, that I listened to him in a new way, and he started to communicate with me in a way he had never done before. He showed me what he wanted, if he was bored, if he wanted to play or search, likes and dislikes, he was given the time to think, given options, distance and peace to just be a dog. So simple - and still so difficult.

The road ahead

My studies included compulsory case assignments with a lot of different clients, so I learned to work with other people's dogs in a new way too. To go beyond the traditional "dog training", no commands, no sits or training things just for the sake of it. Instead I learned to observe, to invite the dogs to communicate and respect what they told me with body language, signals, gait, posture and other gestures. I have a Master's degree in management and coaching, leadership development and change management, which is very useful when it comes to working with people. I have always been involved in training staff in different fields, this was very useful for me when I had to get to the bottom of the reasons for the various behaviours , family dynamics, and individual contributions to the dog's complex life. The relationship with the children, the relationship with the father, with the cat, with the bed, the car, the food, the surroundings - everything became important, and I learned to systematically analyze and reflect on the invisible, what lies beyond, all the things we don't always think about when we have a dog in front of us.

"I can share this with others"

I had never previously seen or heard of this way of "training" dogs. All the courses I had taken, everything I watched on TV, were all variations of controlling, dominating and suppressing what the dogs themselves wanted to say. I wanted to share this calm, quiet method with others, which was really nothing more than letting the dog be himself and be heard, while giving clients a framework to help their dog have a good life. I knew so many people who could benefit from this approach, and who had probably been in my shoes, been frustrated and sad, and known that something was off. Dog owners who had looked their dogs in the eyes and seen the disappointment and frustration the dogs have when we don't understand them, punish them, limit their lives to a minimum and make so many unconscious mistakes that our dogs just have to endure, live with and make accomodations for. Now that I had learned to understand dogs body language and other signals, interpret signs of pain and discomfort, really talk to the dogs on a whole other level, I felt that I had to share my knowledge with others and help the dogs to be understood. This is how Norwegian Dog trainer behavior consultant came about.

The last few years I've chosen to do more in depth studies, I just finished a one year specialization in Dog Aggression, and I am now doing a specialist course in Separation Anxiety as well as a course in Noise Phobia in dogs. Please check out my certifications and courses for more information on the courses and education I have completed.

Contemplations

running alongside bicycles, sprinting at high speeds with a runner, hiking all day with a mountaineer. They shouldn't beg, shouldn't be a nuisance, they shouldn't bark or make any noises when we don't want them to - when we have guests they should lie quietly on the carpet or in a bed, they should tolerate sleeping alone sometimes, but love being with us in a hotel room for a weekend trip, or in a camper van for three weeks in the summer. They must tolerate long car drives, lying on the ground for hours on an outdoors cafè, eat kibble every day for a lifetime, endure boring winter nights as well as high-activity summer days. Let's just say - they never disappoint.

---

Martine, CEO and manager of Norwegian Dog trainer