Bharcs

29/09/2026

Two puppies encounter the kitchen mixer on their first day in their foster home and get nervous. How does one help them?

Rusk and Mousse are already skittish. Everything is new and the world is a big bad scary place. They manage to fall asleep only to be rudely woken up by the screaming of a kitchen mixer. But this is the reality of a home. Life can't just stop. So what does one do? Use the open palm gesture. We managed to get a video of this particular interaction and it is gold!

Rusk looks at his human first. He seems to register the gesture, and within just a few seconds he rests his head on his paws.

Mousse is still processing. She flinches, looks around, keeps watching the kitchen. She glances at the hand, but she's not convinced yet. It is, after all, not a command, but a conversation. It goes back and forth, and both sides get to say their bit. So the message is offered again. She deliberates a bit more, is finally convinced she is safe, and rests her head on her brother.

Same room. Same sound. Same gesture. Each puppy took it in their own time.

Also, no trained behaviour, no expectations. The open palm was simply offered, and offered again, until each of them could process the message. This is a conversation: negotiated communication. It works very differently to training. It can be powerful, but only if one understands this distinction and is open to an actual conversation.

This month's Conclave in the BHARCS Auditorium, on Sunday 11 October, looks specifically at the open palm gesture, negotiated communication and conversations.

Sign up for Canine Essential 101 before 30 September and attend this Conclave. Visit courses.bharcs.com (link in bio). Monsoon special: 35% off with REASSURE35, until 30 September.

This video is from the supplementary material to the recently published paper, The Open Palm Gesture in Human–Dog Communication (2026).

28/09/2026

I have had it with the policing of animal caregivers.

Kindness and empathy are looked down upon as permissiveness. We are constantly pushed to be tougher, more disciplined, and in general to do better.

But guess who doesn't have to do better? The violent, aggressive, nasty ones.

No one bats an eyelid when someone abuses their power over a dog who is simply struggling to cope. And if that dog has had enough and bites, the problem becomes the dog and the "permissive" caregiver. The violence and anger of the human is never the problem.

I call BS on that. They are wrong. Scientifically wrong, ethically wrong, and emotionally stunted.

Don't get gaslit into giving up your kindness.

If kindness is your jam, come hang out with us. At Canine Essential 101, we will not only give you the scientific reasons why your approach works better, for you and for your dog, but also introduce you to your kind of people all over the world. There are many of us. If we support each other, our voices grow. We can claim space to be ourselves.

BHARCS is where kindness is not seen as weakness, but as extraordinary strength: a superpower, and a scientifically valid approach to caregiving.

Start 101 at courses.bharcs.com (link in bio). Monsoon special: 35% off with REASSURE35, until 30 September.

27/09/2026

Use coupon code REASSURE35 to take 35% OFF of you sign up for Canine Essential 101 before 30th September. Log into courses.bharcs.com to sign up today.

26/09/2026

Snow is resting on his bed. A man walks into the room. Within seconds, Snow lifts his head, turns, and starts barking and howling.

Then the same moment again. This time, his human holds out an open palm. The man walks in. Snow turns, lets out one soft growl, and then just watches. No barking. He stays on his bed.

Snow was not told to be quiet. No trained behaviour asked or offered. No disciplining. No demands of any kind. Snow still noticed the man. He still had his say. But he was offered a gesture, and that seemed to have mattered. Why?

The recently published paper on the open palm gesture (Pangal, 2026) reveals that this gesture has a very long and interesting history that spills over to our interactions with dogs, and that it has a reassuring impact. The effect of the gesture is not just in the moment, but carries over to the relationship itself. Over months and years, a simple gesture changes the bond itself. It is indeed as fascinating as it sounds.

"Affective gestures" like this and their impact on relationships are at the heart of The BHARCS Way. This month's Conclave, on Sunday 11 October, looks specifically at the open palm gesture.

Join through Canine Essential 101. Monsoon special: 35% off with code REASSURE35 until 30 September.
Start 101 today at courses.bharcs.com (link in bio).

These videos are from the supplementary material to the recently published paper, The Open Palm Gesture in Human–Dog Communication.

25/09/2026

Can a simple gesture change a relationship?

This month's Conclave at the BHARCS Auditorium explores the Open Palm Gesture. We will use the recently published paper to discuss how dogs read this simple and ancient gesture, and how that, over time, shapes the relationship itself.

On the occasion of this Conclave, we have a Monsoon special. Canine Essential 101 is 35% off until 30 September. Use code REASSURE35 at checkout.

CE101 is six months of guided learning. Recorded lectures at your own pace, two live sessions a month with Sindhoor, and a community to learn with. Start by 30 September and you can join both the AMA on 4 October and this Conclave on 11 October, live or through the recordings.

The open palm is not a command, but an offer. That is the BHARCS way.

Start 101 today at courses.bharcs.com (link in bio).

24/09/2026

Can a simple gesture change a relationship?

This is what we will be exploring in this month's Conclave over at the BHARCS Auditorium on 11 October. We will be using the recently published paper on the Open Palm Gesture to discuss how dogs read this simple and ancient gesture. And how that, over time, shapes the relationship itself. This gesture is one of the foundational tools used at BHARCS to reassure dogs and strengthen attachments. But how does that actually work? Come be part of this interactive session on this powerful topic.

Also, a week earlier, on 4 October, there is an open AMA with Sindhoor. Any question about your dog, your work with dogs, or the dogs on your street.

Both sessions are live, at 7 PM India time.

Both these sessions are Auditorium events that come with Canine Essential 101. Start CE101 by 30 September and six months in the Auditorium is included. You can be in the room for both or watch recordings at a time that works for you.

Small signals are not small to dogs. They are how dogs decide whether we are safe to be around. Learning to see them is not an extra skill, but the foundation of every relationship with a dog.

Start 101 today at courses.bharcs.com (link in bio).

19/09/2026

"I thought I knew dogs."
That's what we hear most from people after Canine Essential 101. Trainers with years of work behind them, people who grew up with dogs, rescuers on their nth generation of dogs… All of them are moved by our courses, as you can see in our reviews.

What changes for them with BHARCS isn't a new technique. It was learning to learn from dogs, as our motto goes… The dog curled up outside the bakery, the one lying between two women on a bench, the one who came over for a chin scratch and then walked away: every one of them is saying something. And while our extensive experience with dogs tells us we know what they are saying, do we really?

Figure this out for yourself. Section 1 of CE101 is free. Start there, and see what you begin to notice. If you feel moved (which we are sure you will), then CE101 is for you.

CE101 is ten sections on the dog as a dog. Fear and stress, and how to reassure. Boundaries without punishment. Why the leash goes tight, and how to loosen it. Built from ethology and years of watching India's free-living dogs, and it works just as well on the dog on your sofa.

It isn't a training course. But it is for you to discover what it really is! Come with an open mind and it becomes what you need it to be, not what you want it to be or expect it to be. That is the cool thing about 101. You'll see. Try the free section and you'll know what we mean.

Link in bio.

18/09/2026

"Do Dogs Bite Because They Smell Fear?"

The advice is everywhere, in every language: don't let a dog see that you are afraid, or it will bite you. The research says something quite different.

Dogs can smell fear. That part is true. What they do with that information is not what the folklore predicts. They become careful. They hold back.

So if fear is not what gets people bitten, what does? That is what the piece works through — and why bite prevention sits with us, with how dogs are housed and treated and read, rather than with how well anyone manages to hide their nerves.

"Bijten honden omdat ze angst ruiken?" is now available in Dutch.

The translation is by Nannie de Nijs Bik-Plasman, who has spent years bringing dog behaviour writing into Dutch. It started with a translated book and now an entire body of work has grown out of that, all of it built on the same idea: the better people and dogs understand each other, the easier the living together gets.

Visit the library on bharcs.com to read the blog. The English original and the Dutch translation are both there.

12/09/2026

The Open Palm paper is out, and the conversations about it have begun.

Our friend Andrew Hale over at Dog Centred Care T.V. hosted a discussion of the paper. Where the idea came from, what the gesture is actually doing, and what it might mean for how we live and work with dogs.

Watch the conversation here:

This paper is a truly paradigm-shifting proposal, and in this wonde...

09/09/2026

Communication is co-created. What do we mean by that?

In a recent video analysis exercise with students, a student remarked that if her dog had been approached the way the dog in the video did, it would not end well, because her dog did not like that approach.

That's one part of the co-creation. The dog being approached has preferences. The next part is the dog communicating this preference. Then the recipient receives this message and may or may not alter the approach. And finally the approach is received a certain way, which shapes the meeting itself - good, bad or ugly.

For example, Cheeru had rules about how she liked to be approached, by whom, and when. Dogs who got it wrong would hear about it. Yaya and Iti were juveniles then. They not only got warned, but also told off. More than once. And they learnt.

But here's the bit worth sitting with. They changed their approach to Cheeru. They didn't change it for anybody else, not their mum, their dad, their friends. One adjustment, for one dog…Personalised. And approach is communication after all. So personalised communication by Iti and Yaya, towards Cheeru. Cheeru's preference, her ability to communicate that, Iti and Yaya's willingness to alter their style is the co-creation here.

Too often, humans get too pedantic and prescriptive about dog communication, wanting to curate what “good communication” is. Good communication is not what is defined by us as good. It is that which serves the participants of that communication best. Our job is not to judge, but to observe.