27/05/2026
DogSpeak's Nikki Ivey has a wealth of experience in canine behavior and a very genuine and intuitive connection to dogs. We love and endorse her training style and highly recommend checking this out!
Over the weekend, with all the rain, Britteny and I had the chance to sit down and dive into some really good conversations about training methodology, the kinds of people who tend to gravitate toward different approaches, the comment section from my Facebook post about aversive tools not being necessary, and ultimately… what a truly well-trained dog actually looks like.
When we finished recording, I realized this conversation felt much more intimate than our typical podcast episodes. The flow felt less like a formal episode and more like the kind of conversation you’d have sitting around with friends over coffee, so I decided to share it here first with my wonderful DogSpeak Geeks.
This is an exclusive canine conversation just for you. Part two — where we really dig into obedience versus real-life skills — will be released Tuesday, May 26th, wherever you listen to podcasts.
Britt and I are committing to doing these kinds of conversations at least once a month exclusively for this community. We want these episodes to feel relaxed, honest, and conversational — like we’re all just sitting around chatting together. If there’s anything you’d like us to talk about, let me know! We may start expanding these episodes into fun facts, personal thoughts, getting to know us better, and discussions about things happening in the dog world.
Please let your friends know about this community so we can continue building a space where you feel safe asking questions about your relationship with your dog.
Fair warning: this episode is explicit, and we definitely let our passion show through. So if that’s not your thing, no worries — you can always skip ahead to part two!
Don’t Train Me, Raise Me (part two) explores the difference between creating a dog that simply follows commands and raising a dog that understands how to navigate the world with confidence, stability, and trust. In this episode, we dive into why obedience alone doesn’t prepare dogs for real life, how micromanaging every behavior can create dependence instead of understanding, and why truly successful training must account for the individual dog standing in front of us.
Not every dog needs the same behaviors, the same expectations, or the same path to success. Real life skills are about emotional balance, communication, adaptability, and helping dogs learn how to make safe choices within their environment — not just perform on cue. This episode challenges the idea of universal standards in dog training and shifts the conversation toward raising dogs as individuals rather than controlling them like robots.
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