28/08/2026
I have the privilege of spending next week with Kim, Shaun, the wolves and other trainee and licensed instructors.
I recently blocked a trainer/behaviourist, this person has a huge following, recently did an article that got a huge amount of attention.
So I look the person up, noting she's an (un)balanced trainer and uses fear, pain and Intimidation to get results.
Then I spot a picture with a most gentle and social wolf, and reading further, it's part of her selling point.
A few weeks later I see her post talking about social identities, introducing one dog to another. It was shared by someone else I follow.
Not only is the person using aversive methods to subdue and control dogs, but she's openly taken a tiny piece of information, thinking that's the important bit, using it to sound unique & special, and using it to gain an advantage over the dogs before using harmful techniques.
The bit that really pi**es me off, is that it indicates the direct opposite of the truth. She spouts on about dominance and the need to control dogs, whereas that has absolutely nothing to do with wolves or dogs. Someone who hears about social identities from her, sees her methods, is going to completely misunderstand everything Shaun & Kim have worked for.
Social identities open up a world of understanding, communication, empathy and a true look into dogs and their tendencies & behaviours. To use that to then add 🐂💩 outdated and incorrect terms and methodologies is irresponsible, ignorant and harmful.
If you see trainers talking social identities, then using aversive techniques and strict, controlling, 'dominance' or obedience training, they've missed the point of this approach completely. Please, go direct to source if you want the truth. It's so harmful and can do a lot of damage to take 5% of something and ignore or not learn the whole.
Much love.
I’m hearing this more and more… and seeing it online…
“I’ve heard about social identities, I didn’t realise it was your work.”
Annoying? Yes.
Because once again, I’m seeing a piece of Shaun’s work taken out of context and dropped into approaches that have very little to do with what the research actually means. 🤷🏻♀️
Social identities are ONE of the unique parts of our work.
They didn’t come from a dog training course, a paper, or somebody repackaging someone else’s ideas.
They came from decades of Shaun living with and observing wolves, both wild and captive, and from years of us developing that work further.
The people we licence to teach it spend years learning it properly too. They stay connected to us and bring their client work back for guidance and support.
They don’t learn a few character names and stick them onto whatever they were already doing. 🙄
Because that is where this goes badly wrong.
You cannot take social identity, then carry on talking about dominance, leadership, forcing behaviour, more exercise, control, and pretend you are still working with our research.
You’re not.
You’ve taken one piece, completely missed the point and removed the context that gives it meaning.
And yes, that matters because of the years of work behind it.
It matters because of our amazing students that invest time and money into learning it deeply.
But more than anything, it matters because of the wolves. 🐺
Their lives are where this work came from, and we are fiercely protective of that.
Once their world gets dragged back into the same old dominance language and dog training logic, their reputation gets distorted all over again.
And they’ve had enough of that already….don’t you think?
If somebody is talking about our social identities, using our character names, and they are not one of our licensed instructors, please understand that they are not teaching the work as we teach it.
They may know a fragment.
We can’t stop people repeating pieces of what we’ve shared.
But we can make sure people know the difference between somebody borrowing the language and somebody who has actually done the work. 😁
