10/08/2026
Today I’m going to explain the philosophy that sits behind everything I do when I’m training an adult dog. I call it going “Back to the Den”.
It starts with understanding something important about how dogs learn based on the ancestral origin of their behaviours.In the wild (ancestral wolf), a puppy’s Formative Period — roughly 2 to 4 months of age — is a window of extraordinarily intensive brain development, wiring up and learning. It’s when a young dog wires in everything it needs to survive: how to bond with its pack, how to read the world around it, how to behave. The experiences and lessons from this period wire themselves deeply into the dog’s brain, shaping their behaviour for life. It is easiest and best to do the wiring in and training in this phase, as this is the critical period for this to happen.
For dogs raised well, with the right socialisation, the right foundations and the right guidance during this window, those wired-in behaviours are exactly what you’d want. For dogs that missed some of that, the gaps show up later. Sometimes much later.
Here’s what most people don’t know: it’s possible to recreate something similar to that intensive learning period, even in an adult dog. This is what I call taking a dog “Back to the Den”. The idea is to take your adult dog back — not physically, but neurologically — into a state of openness and receptivity that mirrors the Formative Period. A state where deep, lasting learning can happen again. Where established patterns can be gently unwound and new ones built in their place. They can be re-wired but it needs to be done a specific way.
We do this through three interconnected steps.
1️⃣ First we use my signature technique - Joining Up - to rebuild the bond between you and your dog — recreating the strong mentor relationship that made learning possible in the first place. A dog that looks to you as their trusted guide is a dog that’s ready to learn from you. Part of this process includes activating oxytocin, the bonding hormone.
2️⃣Second, we get your dog reliably into a Learning State — that calm, relaxed, focused state of mind where the brain is genuinely open to new information. Without this, no technique will land the way it should. This is fundamental to all training.
3️⃣Third, we establish a Shared Language — making sure that what you’re communicating to your dog is actually what they’re hearing and understanding, and that you can read what they’re saying back to you.
With those three foundations in place, the real training work can begin. And because the dog is genuinely in a receptive state, the progress is faster, deeper and more lasting than anything you’d achieve without them.
This is what makes my Virtual Dog School different from a standard obedience class or a YouTube tutorial. It’s not a collection of techniques — it’s a complete training system, built on a deep understanding of how the adult dog brain learns and changes. When you use this as a starting point, almost anything is possible!
If you feel like you’ve tried everything, but just can’t shift challenging behaviours in your adult dog - check out my Virtual Dog School and I’ll show you how to take your dog Back to the Den!
https://www.dogzen.com/courses/virtual-dog-school
