What do you do when you feel like your dog just isn’t hearing you? All behavior is communication, so how your dog responds to you (or doesn’t respond to you) is a type of behavior that could be trying to communicate something. But it can be challenging not to take it personally when you feel like your dog isn’t listening to you at all. In this episode, Kathy shares how reframing your thoughts can transform how you interpret your dog’s listening skills and get you back to a place of trust. She also talks about how asking questions about what’s really going on can help you create a plan that prioritizes connection over correction. In this episode: How to reframe your thoughts about your dog’s listening Why role modelling can help you guide behavior How to create a plan for when you feel that your dog isn’t listening to you Quotes: “When we believe that our dog is not listening, what I would invite you to do is to reframe that into, my dog has a need that isn't being met.” “As Brené Brown says, clear is kind. Unclear is unkind.” “We want to strive for connection instead of correction.” Want More of Kathy? Brilliant Partners Academy Dancing Hearts Dog Academy Website Facebook Community 

Enlightened By Dogs with Kathy Kawalec

EBD179 Why Your Dog Won’t Listen

Communication is the single most powerful tool we have for connecting with others but are you aware of how you’re communicating? Any time you interact with your dog – or anyone you have a relationship with – you’re exchanging messages that can either lead to success or struggles. This might be conscious or unconscious, as both you and your dog speak to each other in ways that go far beyond verbal communication! In this episode, Kathy dives deep into what it means to communicate with your dog. She talks about why considering the intention behind your dog’s communication can help you understand them better, how you’re unintentionally communicating, and the two key components to the language of partnership. In this episode: What is communication? How to stop accidentally training your dog to ignore you! The conscious and unconscious ways to communicate with your dog Quotes: “When we dive into how to be a better partner, how to be the human that our dog needs us to be, things start to change. We start to feel better, enjoy life more, we're more resilient, and we can handle the things that life throws at us.” “Communication is the single most powerful and effective tool we have.” “If you consciously communicate with your dog, whenever you are interacting with your dog, you are in opposition to the first thing that happens, you're actually teaching your dog to be attentive and responsive to you.” “What’s the intention behind the communication?” Want More of Kathy? Brilliant Partners Academy Dancing Hearts Dog Academy Website Facebook Community 

EBD178 Communicating With Your Dog On Purpose

Trust and confidence are crucial ingredients to a loving, happy, and healthy partnership with our dogs. Our dogs trust us with a lot, so we need to be good leaders and worthy of that trust. This means we should try to avoid leaking trust and confidence with our dogs. When our dogs trust us to lead the way, they feel safer, more secure, and confident. If they don’t and we put them in stressful scenarios, they can become reactive and unhappy. In this episode of the Enlightened By Dogs podcast, Kathy shares insights into how easily we can leak trust and confidence with our dogs. She shares the three simple questions you should ask yourself before doing a new activity together. In this episode: What the right type of leadership looks like Why role modeling is so important How to stop trust and confidence from leaking Quotes: “It's really up to us to take responsibility for being the kind of human that our dogs love to follow and love to listen to and love to partner with.” “It's all about being able to inspire, to discover solutions to be solution-focused, not problem-focused.” “A leader is a visionary and leads by example.” “It's really natural for dogs, as socially intelligent animals, to learn through our role modeling.” Want More of Kathy? Brilliant Partners Academy Dancing Hearts Dog Academy Website Facebook Community 

EBD177 Stop Leaking Trust and Confidence with 3 Clarity Questions

How does your emotional intelligence affect your relationship with your dog? Your dog can teach you so much about how to be in the world, and one of the big things you can learn is how to step more fully into your innate, emotional intelligence. In this episode, Kathy explains why finding emotional balance is key to being a loving leader and how it can help you on the way to achieving your dream partnership with your dog. She also talks about how socially intelligent animals model emotional management through their “get back to grazing” response and what we can learn from this. Grab a pen and some paper, as this episode is packed with helpful advice that you can put into practice with your relationship with your dog. In this episode: How your emotional intelligence impacts your family group The five key elements of emotional intelligence How to approach fear, anger, frustration, and anxiety with emotional balance Quotes: “Socially intelligent animals use emotion as information to engage surprisingly agile responses to environmental stimuli and relationship challenges.” “As dog moms, it's so helpful for us to step more fully into our innate emotional intelligence.” “The more we develop our own emotional intelligence, the better our life is with our dogs.” “Our dogs are like models of emotional sanity. By collaborating with the nonverbal wisdom of their emotions and feeling their emotions, they conserve energy for true emotions.” Want More of Kathy? Brilliant Partners Academy Dancing Hearts Dog Academy Website Facebook Community To explore other episodes, click here.  

EBD176 4 Steps to Emotional Balance

In our busy lives, sometimes we need to just pause and reflect. How we are and how we act can have a huge effect on our relationship with our dogs. So, if you want to start working more on your partnership with your dog, it all starts with you. In this episode, Kathy walks through several simple exercises to help you explore who you are and who you want to be as a dog mom. These exercises will help you gain a clearer understanding so you can forge a stronger heart-to-heart connection with your dog. Grab a pen and paper and tune in to this episode to gain clarity on yourself and your partnership with your dog. Also, if you’re a struggling dog mom stuck at home, be sure to check out Kathy’s new free PDF guide: Stuck at Home "Survival Guide" for Dog Moms. In this episode: Kathy announces her brand new downloadable guide: Stuck at Home "Survival Guide" for Dog Moms Why who we are informs how we act Simple exercises to get clarity on your partnership with your dog Quotes: “At our core is our heart. And our heart is most directly connected to the essence of who we are.” “When you think about what you love, it generates a vibration in your body.” “What we do is directly informed by how we are being.” Want More of Kathy? Brilliant Partners Academy Dancing Hearts Dog Academy Website Facebook Community To explore other episodes, click here.

EBD175 Connecting Heart-to-Heart

What does it mean to be heard? Both you and your dog are social mammals and so have a deep need to be understood and cared for. Meeting this need can help you live the brilliant partnership with your dog that you dream of. In this episode, Kathy discusses how real listening can help you stay calm and connected to your dog and why it’s one of the four core daily practices from the Brilliant Partners Academy. She also talks about the relationship between listening and leadership and how to embrace being the loving leader that your partnership deserves. In this episode: Understanding what it really means to be listened to What true leadership is Why being a loving leader is a good thing What real heart-to-heart, mind-to-mind listening is How to listen mindfully ­– even in stressful situations Quotes: “To be heard means to be listened to without judgment about how we should be better or should be different than what someone thinks we should be.” “To be heard means to be loved, without condition.” “We're in some process of blossoming into the next iteration of who we are.” “Good leaders are good listeners.” “Our dogs are changing, we are changing. And yet, at each step along the way, we are already perfect.” Want More of Kathy? Brilliant Partners Academy Dancing Hearts Dog Academy Website Facebook Community 

EBD174 How to Be A Better Listener for Your Dog

Living with a reactive dog can be a frustrating experience, and as a first-time dog mom, it can be a confusing one as well. In this episode of Enlightened By Dogs, Kathy revisits a conversation she had with first-time dog mom and BPA member Paulina Grzesinska-Mrozek. Paulina was struggling with her dog Badi, who was very reactive to other dogs and people both in their apartment and on walks. After trying her luck with a behaviorist (who Badi wouldn’t even let in the apartment), Paulina tried the Brilliant Partners Academy. And she hasn’t looked back since! Today, their partnership is strong and built on trust and a mutual understanding. Hear about Paulina’s experiences and how she used the BPA partnership principles to achieve this complete transformation. In this episode: How Paulina initially struggled to understand Badi’s needs How Paulina and Badi have transformed their partnership together The partnership principles that Paulina found most useful How Paulina and Badi became role models for each other Quotes: “BPA had a big impact on me understanding Badi’s behaviors. Now when I just look at him, I know what he wants to communicate.” “Now I understand it so much better. I learned how to listen to him.” “I'm learning how to actually be there with him. When I catch myself […] going somewhere else with my thoughts, I'm like, no, no, no, we are here and now. Don't worry about other stuff, you are here and now.” Want More of Kathy? Brilliant Partners Academy Dancing Hearts Dog Academy Website Facebook Community To explore other episodes, click here.

EBD173 Lessons from A Reactive Dog with Paulina Grzesinska-Mrozek

Having one reactive dog can be challenging enough but imagine adding another one into the mix! In this Enlightened By Dogs episode, Kathy revisits a conversation she had with Ros Swallow, proud dog mom to two beautiful (yet highly reactive) Hungarian Vizslas. Ros had tried everything and had adapted her lifestyle to try and keep her dogs calm. Yet, she felt overwhelmed with anxiety whenever she took them out for a walk. People, dogs, bikes, and everything in between would always trigger panic and reactivity in her dogs. Ros eventually took a leap of faith and joined Brilliant Partners Academy to learn how to become a calm and confident role model. Hear her experience and how BPA helped to turn Ros and her partnership with Phoebe and Myrtle around. In this episode: What triggered Phoebe and Myrtle’s reactive and anxious behaviors The steps Ros took before joining BPA How BPA helped Ros transform her relationship with her dogs What Ros loves most about the BPA community Quotes: “The progress we have made is beyond anything I have ever imagined possible.” “What I really like about BPA and the coaching is that all I need is myself and my dog. And I don't have to think that hard about how I’m going to react in this particular situation because it becomes a habit.” “If you're willing to make a commitment, if you're willing to follow the program, step by step, the support really is there.” Want More of Kathy? Brilliant Partners Academy Dancing Hearts Dog Academy Website Facebook Community To read and explore other episodes, click here.

EBD172 From Reactive Dogs to Remarkable Partners with Ros Swallow

Do you have a clear vision and dream for the life you want with your dog? Staying committed to the partnership of your dreams begins with some clarity on what your dreams actually look like. This marks the final part of Kathy’s five-part blog and podcast series, “The Summer Series on The Power of Partnership.” In this series, Kathy has been sharing some simple partnership principles that will help you forge a much closer bond between you and your dog. In this episode, we return to Mary (an avatar client and proud dog mom), who has been tackling some tricky challenges with her dog Max. You’ll see how Mary has put each principle into action and how they have drastically improved her partnership with Max. If you’re new to this series, you can start with episode one. In this episode: Why staying connected to our dreams helps us stay committed Why you should create a flexible plan for your goals The four lessons to take from the commitment principle Read the blog post on this topic. Quotes: “Being focused and connected to our dreams and goals serves to keep us in the now.” “Staying connected to our dreams every single day is one of the things that helps us stay committed.” “Old habits and patterns can be challenging to overcome. But having a plan to work through that challenge makes it so much easier.” Want More of Kathy? Brilliant Partners Academy Dancing Hearts Dog Academy Website Facebook Community To read the blog post on this topic and to explore other episodes, click here.

EBD171 Part 5 of 5 - The Summer Series on The Power of Partnership

Part of living in a true partnership is to work towards some kind of common purpose. Yet, it’s something that a lot of us don’t think about when it comes to our dogs. Welcome back to part four of Kathy’s five-part series, ‘The Summer Series on The Power of Partnership.’ Over the course of this series, Kathy has been sharing some simple and highly effective partnership principles to help you forge the partnership you’ve always wanted with your dog. We’re returning to Mary and Max’s story. Mary’s a dog mom and avatar client who Kathy has been following along her journey as she puts these principles into action. If you haven’t already caught up with the previous episodes, check out the first three parts before continuing. Listen to the podcast episode for part one, two, and three, or read the blog post for part one, two, and three to catch up. In this episode: What a common purpose is and why it’s key to a successful partnership How Mary and Max found a common purpose 4 important lessons about finding a common purpose Read the blog post on this topic. Quotes: “When we approach that cooperation from this perspective of, we both want the same thing, auto-magically, you and your dog become teammates.” “You become partners that are working together toward a common goal, a common outcome.” “Living in partnership is so much easier if you and your dog both want the same thing.” Want More of Kathy? Brilliant Partners Academy Dancing Hearts Dog Academy Website Facebook Community To read the blog post on this topic and to explore other episodes, click here.

EBD170 The Summer Series on The Power of Partnership Part 4 of 5

Transitioning into a new way of being with your dog isn’t always like going from A to B. Sometimes there are a few bumps in the road along the way. But what do you do when you make a mistake? It’s normal to get knocked off-course when you’re moving towards something new. However, how you deal with those moments will determine how difficult it will be to get to where you want to go. This is the third of five installments in the ongoing blog and podcast series, “The Summer Series on The Power of Partnership”. In it, Kathy shares some simple – yet effective – partnership principles that you can start using in yours and your dog’s daily life right away. Once again, Kathy returns to Mary, a dog mom and avatar client, who’s tackling some challenges with her dog, Max. In each part, she looks at how Mary puts these principles into action and moves along in her partnership journey. Listen to part one here and part two here. In this episode: Why patience is the secret to partnership success How best to embark on your journey to complete partnership competence How to become better partners in the dance of life Read the blog post on this topic. Quotes: “Partnership competence is a journey not a destination.” “Give yourself permission to learn, permission to make mistakes.” “Partnerships are an ongoing learning experience.” Want More of Kathy? Brilliant Partners Academy Dancing Hearts Dog Academy Website Facebook Community To read the blog post on this topic and to explore other episodes, click here.

EBD169 The Summer Series on The Power of Partnership - Part 3 of 5

What’s the key to any successful partnership or relationship? That’s right. It’s all about communication! Communication is what ties your partnership with your dog together, so you’re both happy and healthy. This is part two of Kathy’s ongoing podcast series, “The Summer Series on The Power of Partnership.” In this series, Kathy shares some simple partnership principles that you can easily incorporate in your day-to-day life with your dog. Each episode will follow Mary, an avatar client and dog mom, who’s facing some challenges with her dog, Max. As Kathy shares each principle, you’ll see how Mary uses these lessons to build a solid partnership with Max. It’s a glimpse at what working together as a partner really looks like! If you haven’t already, you can catch up and listen to part one here. In this episode: Why dogs are so in-tune with our thoughts, feelings, and intentions How to engage in mindful dialoguing How to get your dog back into balance Read the blog post on this topic. Quotes: “There is no way to fool a dog. Dogs are masters at reading our intentions.” “Mastering this part of the partnership lifestyle formula requires that we learn to be focused, attentive, and clear as we interact with our dogs.” “Be a student and allow your dogs to teach you by observing their responses to your dialogue and your interactions with them.” Want More of Kathy? Brilliant Partners Academy Dancing Hearts Dog Academy Website Facebook Community To read the blog post on this topic and to explore other episodes, click here.

EBD168 The Summer Series on The Power of Partnership - Part 2 of 5

How much clarity do you have about you and your dog’s partnership right now? It’s easier to work out where you’re going once you know where you are. That’s why getting clear on which areas of your partnership could do with some work is a vital first step on your journey to a happier life together. In this first episode of a five-part summer series, Kathy introduces us to Mary, a dog mom facing some tough challenges. Kathy explains how Mary got clear on the issues she had with her dog Max, and shares the insights and takeaways you can bring to your own partnership. This series is a look behind the curtain at what learning to be together as partners really looks like – and just how far you can both come! In this episode: What getting clear on your challenges can do for your partnership How to encourage self-regulation Kathy’s key questions to help you gain clarity Read the blog post on this topic. Quotes: “Clarity leads to success.” “Everything else is possible, once we know exactly what we want, how we want to live, and what it is that we want our dogs to know about how we live together.” “What specific challenge with your dog could use your focus right now?” Want More of Kathy? Brilliant Partners Academy Dancing Hearts Dog Academy Website Facebook Community To read the blog post on this topic and to explore other episodes, click here.

EBD167 The Summer Series on The Power of Partnership - Part 1 of 5

Are you struggling to form a solid heart-to-heart connection with your dog? It could be a simple case of trying too hard or overthinking it. If we’re distracted, focused on other things, or too busy, this can affect the close partnership we all dream of having with our dogs.  Sometimes it pays to really step back and take some time to reflect on your perspective and how you role model for your dog. In this episode of the Enlightened By Dogs podcast, Kathy shares some of the simple things standing in the way of a real heart-to-heart connection and a peaceful partnership with our dogs. She explains a simple tactic to become more present in the moment to help quieten our wandering brains. In this episode: What’s standing in our way of having a heart-to-heart connection Why we need to get off the hamster wheel of being stuck in our own heads The problem with striving for perfection Read the blog post on this topic. Quotes: “If we're afraid of making a mistake or getting it wrong, well, that means that we're literally building a wall between our dog and us.” “We're stuck in this cycle of being busy. And we don't even know that we're on the hamster wheel.” “What my dog needs most is a heart connection. My dog needs to feel connected. My dog needs to feel like they belong and are heard.” Want More of Kathy? Brilliant Partners Academy Dancing Hearts Dog Academy Website Facebook Community To read the blog post on this topic and to explore other episodes, click here.

EBD166 Are You Trying Too Hard to Connect with Your Dog?

Sometimes we just get so caught up in the drama, urgencies, to-do lists, and life’s responsibilities that we forget what’s truly important. We can even get lost in an idea of how our dogs are supposed to be. We fixate on how they’re meant to look and behave without even realizing that it’s all down to choice. In this episode of Enlightened By Dogs, Kathy takes you through a simple way to change your perspective on life in general, but more specifically, with your relationship with your dog. Kathy shares some stories from members of the Brilliant Partners Academy on how they learned to “join up” with their dogs rather than try to control them. In this episode: Why you need to “join up” with your dog rather than control them How to stay focused on “the main thing” Why connection with your dog is so important Read the blog post on this topic. Quotes: “When we're available for connection, magical stuff happens.” “Rather than try to convince our dogs or campaign for our dog's attention, how about sometimes we just join up with our dogs?” Want More of Kathy? Brilliant Partners Academy Dancing Hearts Dog Academy Website Facebook Community To read the blog post on this topic and to explore other episodes, click here.

EBD165 Life Lessons From A Junkyard Dog

Welcome to the Enlightened by Dogs podcast…where training and behavior meet Heart and Soul for an inspirational and educational journey. Each week, we’ll take a dive deep into the human-dog connection and explore strategies that will inspire you to create legendary, enlightened partnership with your dog. Kathy Kawalec has always had a deep resounding connection with dogs and she has devoted her life to being their voice in a world where not many are TRULY listening. This passion is fueled by her traumatic childhood experience of being voiceless in the face of abuse … and her painful oppression as a woman. Her lifelong journey led Kathy to become an expert in dog behavior, positive training, holistic healing, the human-dog bond, the mind-body-spirit connection, and intuitively communicating heart-to-heart. Kathy Kawalec is an author, writer, the founder of Dancing Hearts Cognitive Dog Training and creator of the Brilliant Partners Academy, The Foundation Formula, Herding Partners Academy, and Creative Alchemy Passion Plan. Whether your relationship with your dog heals old wounds, inspires new beginnings, or ignites a long extinguished spark for true connection ... this show is tailor-made for you!!

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Enlightened By Dogs with Kathy Kawalec

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