Rachel Forday - Dog At Heart

11/07/2025

10/07/2025

Because colonialism is so centred around ownership, control, exploitation, and having dominion over others, the idea of giving a dog more agency can only sound like “Your dog should dominate you, walk all over you, and be completely out of control” to those with colonial mindsets (and that includes a lot of binary thinking).

But we know dogs are not hierarchical beings, we know dogs are more collaborative than we give them credit for, we know dogs are not here to serve us, and we know we can be in community with our dogs.

So we also know that dogs having more agency in their lives as just a right they deserve to have as sentient beings on this earth.

Yes, we live in a human-centric world and some of our dogs’ choices may be limited at times for their safety, but because we recognise this reality, we can actively choose to give our dogs more agency whenever it is safe. And the way we can think about it can be like the way we think about how we are with people we’re in community with, because we all need help to be safe and feel safe from time to time too.

A dog being able to communicate their needs and wants, express how they feel, move comfortably and freely, engage in natural behaviours, and tell us “no” or that they need a moment, is not the downfall of humanity or leading to dogs taking over the world. Dogs don’t have colonial mindsets.

If anything, a dog who has more agency and knows their needs will be heard is more likely to engage with us and learn with us because they feel safe in their relationship with us.

Agency is a basic need, a basic right, and an important part of a sentient animal’s wellbeing.

Enjoy being in community with your dog, enjoy your dog having fun doing what they enjoy, and enjoy your “ungovernable” dog like I do mine.

ID: The background photo is of Dave, a brown Singapore Special dog with pointy ears, standing off leash on the beach and looking out to the other side of the beach across the stream. The text here says “Colonial mindsets are based on ownership, exploitation, and binary thinking. That’s why when people hear ‘Dogs deserve more agency’, they can only imagine ‘Your dog is going to dominate you and run wild’”.

02/07/2025

Let me start off by saying that some time ago, I went through a phase playing around with an AI site that could generate songs. I wanted to see what it could do and was amazed with what it could do.

But then I learned better about how that harms real artists.

I used to believe that the problems with AI were mainly the problems with capitalism, and while capitalism is a huge part of why AI is harmful, I also learned more about the environmental damage AI is doing.

At one point, for a bit of extra pocket money, I even did a little work for an AI company doing data annotation, before realising AI companies also use slave labour for this.

So as someone who has also used AI in the past, this is no judgment on anyone who has been using AI. AI is also so widespread and normalised now that the issues with it also aren’t discussed enough.

But knowing what we now know about how harmful AI is in a whole multitude of ways, I hope we can recognise how unethical it is and how increasingly dangerous it is especially with OpenAI’s recent contract with the US D.O.D. and with how some governments are even using it to normalise or meme-fy their fascist actions.

It should scare us the way in which AI videos and photos are getting more and more realistic and how that can be used to falsify events for propaganda.

It should worry us that we sometimes can’t tell if we’re speaking to an AI/bot or a real person, even if it is a real person using AI to create their response to us.

It should be horrifying to us the way in which AI is speeding up climate change with its environmental damage. But we can still turn it back.

So please try your best to refrain from using AI and speak to your friends and family who like using AI or watching AI generated content about the harm that AI is causing, if you can!

19/06/2025

As we had our summer vacation right on the beach in Anglesey, Wales, I couldn’t stop thinking about the beaches in Gaza.

I look back on the photos in May 2021, when Palestinians gathered at the beach in Gaza after a ceasefire at the time after 11 days of Isr*eli airstrikes which killed over 250 Palestinians, including more than 60 children.

In May 2023, Isr*el bombed Gaza again, killing more civilians including 7 children. After the ceasefire at the time, Palestinian families gathered on the beach in Gaza again.

Despite the beaches being polluted due to their power supply, mainly controlled by Israel, having problems for years, thereby disrupting sewage treatment operations, these beaches brought joy and community to Palestinians. A chance to love life in one of the few public spaces they have access to.

I can only imagine how much more polluted the water and beaches are now, thanks to Isr*el committing ecocide, on top of genocide, and destroying water sanitation facilities and infrastructure in Gaza.

Palestinians deserve to love life and be with their families and communities on clean beaches again. Palestinian beaches, Palestinian land is not for sale.

In these photos Dave is wearing a collar inspired by the Palestinian keffiyeh, beautifully made and generously gifted to us by .

It’s so important to bring Palestine with us everywhere so people can’t look away and have to think about Palestine. With this collar, we bring Palestine on our daily walks and it allows us to start conversations with people about Palestine when we’re out on our dog walks.

All proceeds of this keffiyeh inspired collar will go to causes shared by journalist . Currently, the donations will be sent to Meals and Medicals For Injured Palestinian Kids, a mutual aid fund and soup kitchen run by volunteers in Gaza.

07/02/2025

People often tell me how cool Dave is and how fit he is for his age.

The great thing is that Dave was a shelter dog, and you can find dogs who are cool and fit like Dave in a shelter too. There are many even more sociable than him too (but I love my independent little man just as he is).

Most dogs in shelters are there due to poverty and the violence of capitalism, not because of behavioural issues. Their current circumstance does not equate to them being “genetic messes”.

Some shelter dogs, like Dave, are also former free living dogs, not selectively bred by people and are genetically diverse. Some free living dogs are incredibly social, and some may not be, just like all individuals.

While some shelter dogs may display challenging behaviours, ANY dog can too, and the inherently stressful shelter environment they are in often plays a part in this.

Having struggles and displaying behaviours people might label as fearful or reactive in certain situations is not unique to shelter dogs. Any dog, including ones from established breeders, can experience this.

Any dog, shelter dogs and dogs from breeders alike, can also experience pain which can result in displays of concerning behaviours.

There are simply no guarantees when it comes to a living sentient being’s behaviour.

This claim that shelter dogs are “genetic messes” is also harmful to dogs from breeders and guardians who obtained their dog from a breeder, as the stigmatisation of shelter dogs means people have their expectations of dogs from established breeders to be “perfect” and they feel shame or disappointment when their dog develops any behaviour challenges.

At the same time, there are also purebred dogs from established breeders who, due to the standards of the breed, may have more health and pain conditions.

There is a real issue in the way many dog training and behaviour professionals, including in the R+ and force-free side of things, talk about and treat shelter dogs and how often the people who speak negatively about shelter dogs are platformed. It’s incredibly harmful to already disadvantaged dogs.

And honestly, it is sounding eugenics-adjacent at this point. Shelter dogs deserve better.

ID: The text on top says “When people claim ‘All shelter dogs are genetic messes!’” and the text under this in black says “Me:” referring to the image below. The image is a screenshot of the Nickleback “Photograph” music video where the singer holds up a photoframe but this time it’s Dave, a brown Singapore Special dog with pointy ears standing on a stacking board, in that photoframe.

01/02/2025

In the days ahead, we will probably either see animal training and behaviour organisations reiterate their DEI (Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion) statements or quietly stop doing anything to do with DEI, if they haven’t already stopped ages ago.

This is a reminder that DEI is only the basic, bare minimum starting point, and that not one organisation in our field has even successfully implemented this.

The lack of accessibility, lack of mask-wearing at in-person events, platforming only the same BIPGM professionals who will coddle whiteness, prioritising protecting “industry leaders” and famous people no matter the harm they cause to dogs and people… the list goes on.

Pay attention to “industry leaders” who are making statements now about being a “safe space” but who have never said a word about Palestine, Sudan, Congo, or Tigray.

Many of us have moved beyond DEI and we have been working towards decolonisation and collective liberation, which is urgently needed right now.

These organisations do not move us forward. They keep us stuck in mediocrity, and that is both when it comes to anti-oppression AND animal behaviour considering the lack of pain awareness with any of these organisations and institutions.

I am grateful to always be learning from my peers in this industry who care about collective liberation and the whole wellbeing of dogs. I love that we can keep improving and changing what we do when we learn to do better.

If you’re starting out as a dog trainer or are thinking about starting out, I can no longer in good conscience recommend any large, well-known institutions and organisations to go to. But there are still lots of great, accessible resources as well as many amazing professionals out there to learn from and I’ll regularly share them to my IG stories.

A future that is force-free requires us to interrogate all of punishment culture. Learning about and working towards decolonisation, collective liberation, and restorative justice will get us there and guide us to provide better care for animals and people.

Image description in each image's caption.