About a year after publishing Braveheart, someone who had read it asked me a question about something I’d written. I found that part in the book, and as I started answering, I caught myself thinking: “Hmm… I wouldn’t explain it like that now.” Then I went back through the book. There were a couple of things I’d changed my opinion on. Something I would explain differently. A technique I would now approach another way… And honestly? I was devastated. People had paid for this. They were following my advice. Some had told me it was the best dog training book they’d ever read. Others called it a bible for dog trainers. And here I was, thinking I could teach parts of it better. “Should I rewrite it? Should I tell everyone? What am I supposed to do now?” I talked to my friend Lila about it, and she said: “Alex, the bigger problem would be if you hadn’t changed anything about your training. This just means you’re growing.” That stayed with me. I’d spent so long trying to finish a book I could be proud of. Publication was delayed by about TWO YEARS because I kept tweaking things. Without the contractual obligations and my publisher getting really angry, I’d probably still be tweaking it today. 😂 I wanted it to be the best it could possibly be. But I hadn’t really considered what would happen when my own learning continued after publication. The book captured what I knew then. Publishing it wasn’t going to stop me learning. That’s the story behind the reel I’ve attached: Being a good dog trainer means realising how dumb you were 12 months ago. Every 12 months. 😂 You don’t need to reject everything you used to do. But being able to look back and say, “I understand this better now,” is something worth celebrating. For example, when I wrote Braveheart, I hadn’t yet developed my Play Formula into the Play with Purpose system I teach today. The structure, the detail and how I coach it have evolved since then. The way I approach confidence training and explain TBRR now is on a different level.

I've recently started the Heeling and Playing with Purpose courses and I'm really happy with how my dogs are starting to open up. I can already see a difference in the way we play, even though we've only just started putting some of Alex's advice and techniques into practice. Sharing a short highlight from one of my first sessions with my mal Karma. I'm planning to make a video of me playing with all my dogs too, partly to share my experience and partly to hopefully get some feedback on what I could improve. Something funny happened today actually 😂 I was out on the field where we usually train and play, and one of my Australian Shepherds randomly offered me some fancy prancy heeling without me even asking for it. That really surprised me because until now he's only ever done that for hot dogs 😂 I feel like changing the way I play with them is starting to change their mindset too, which I absolutely love. I've already been through Social Playing and Food Games, and now we're moving on to playing with toys, which I'm really looking forward to. This time I'm trying to take things slowly, spend more time actually practising with my dogs and keep going back to the courses to work on changing my own habits rather than rushing through everything. Still very early days, but I'm really enjoying the process and loving the courses so far. Thanks Alex

Just got back from teaching Play With Purpose in Poland. Amazing experience. We had trainers and handlers from completely different backgrounds all working together in one place: • reactive companion dogs• sport/reactive dogs• agility• search & rescue• pet dog trainers• protection sport dogs- people using different training systems and philosophies Different goals. Different methods. Different dogs. But all of them were focused on the same core thing: bringing the dog’s performance to full potential. Because no matter what you do with your dog — every type of training starts with: • motivation• confidence• relationship• emotional regulation And structured play is one of the most powerful tools to build all of it. That’s what we focused on during the workshop. Applying Play With Purpose to different real-life goals and challenges. With reactive dogs we worked on confidence and confidence around triggers.With search & rescue dogs we worked on building play as a high-value reward and confidence approaching people.With sport and working dogs we focused on engagement, clarity, emotional regulation and performance. Really cool to see one system adapted to so many completely different dogs and handlers. Also — sorry for the radio silence last couple of days. It was a very intense and busy trip. I’ll catch up with all messages, comments and replies today and tomorrow. Appreciate your patience.

I had a great question about chomping in the Kong Hand game that we use in Heelwork training. I did short video on how to resolve it and overall where we progress. Video added to the classroom in Introduction folder. I have to admit that I go through the stages 'constant food delivery' to finally 'nose touch without the food' in the movement during heelwork training. I presented it in static as it is easier to show what is happening- but that was the first time we did it this way. Normally once my dog can walk on the step 2 this is where I progress with the kong hand. ***With most dogs we don't have to get to the stage of nose touch without the food!*** we just move to the step 3. I much prefer intensity for the hand as this gives me a lot of control over the movement. eg. if my dog wants to push on the kong hand and I walk faster and raise my hand bit higher thats the recipe for more animation in the heelwork- video below.