S4 EP06: The Canine Perspective

Today, I’m thrilled to welcome best-selling author and certified force-free trainer Sarah Rutten. If you’ve ever wondered how to deepen that magical bond with your Puggie without ever raising a voice, you’re in the right place. Sarah’s book The Canine Perspective is a treasure trove of compassionate, science-backed techniques—and she’s not just an expert on paper. She’s a bona fide Crazy Pug Lady, too, with over twenty years of hands-on experience wrangling, pampering, and learning from her own lovable “grumble.” In this episode, we’ll fetch you pugtastic behavior hacks, dig into a bit of fun canine science, and swap heartwarming—and hilarious—Pug tales straight from Sarah’s home. So, leash up, settle in, and get ready for a paw-sitively delightful chat you won’t want to snooze through! In this episode I talk about: 02:40 Tell us a little bit about yourself, your work and your grumble 07:30 A shift in how Dog Guardians train and live with their dogs 09:40 What is force-free training? 12:15 Developing neural pathways with your Pug 13:30 How to achieve optimal learning? 16:00 Why do you have Pugs as a trainer? 18:30 The difference positive force-free training makes 20:00 What is a Pet Guardian? 24:25 Why asking a dog permission to engage sets you up for success 26:40 The concept of trigger stacking and how to recognise it 32:30 Why a growl is a gift 36:00 The importance of socialisation and the right kind of socialisation – the socialisation checklist 43:20 Is my Pug normal or just plain weird? 49:10 When is it ok to say, this is not normal and what to do 51:30 Barking is just Pug talking 54:30 Being Pug tragic 57:45 How do we find you and your book? WANT TO LEARN MORE about The Canine Perspective or Force-free training Methods? Check out his adoption profile here: Website : https://www.thecanineperspective.com.au/ Book : https://www.thecanineperspective.com.au/the-canine-perspective-dog-training-book/ Instagram : https://www.instagram.com/thecanineperspective/ Facebook : https://www.facebook.com/thecanineperspective/ WANNA JOIN US FOR YOUR VERY OWN EPISODE? Book your recording session here: https://outlook.office365.com/owa/calendar/ThePugLifeShowPUGCAST@NETORGFT4130927.onmicrosoft.com/bookings/ If you haven’t already, please subscribe to the PUGCAST so you don’t miss out on the next Episode and leave us a review; it only takes a couple of seconds to give us a 5-star review and it goes a long way to helping other Pug-Pawrents find us. Don’t forget to subscribe to our newsletter at https://bit.ly/thepuglifeshow , so you get advance notice of our next episode and if you've got any questions or want to tell us how much you loved the Episode then let me know over at our Facebook Group - The Pug Life Show PUGCAST ( https://bit.ly/PugLifeShowGrumble ) where Crazy Pug Pawrents meet to talk all things pug.