Editorial Policy

I've been a professional dog trainer for seventeen years, and I've spent a good chunk of that time undoing damage caused by advice that sounded confident and wasn't. So when I built this site, the editorial standards weren't an afterthought — they were the whole point. Everything published here is written or reviewed with the same care I'd bring to a client session, because a wrong piece of advice on a webpage can set a dog's training back just as badly as one given in person.

Our Mission

Raising Good Dogs exists to give dog owners the kind of information I wish more people had access to when I started training professionally: force-free, realistic, and honest about how long behaviour change actually takes. I've spent six years in veterinary practice and over a decade specialising in reactivity, and I still see the same pattern — owners who were promised a quick fix and feel like failures when week two doesn't look like the video they watched. This site is my attempt to close that gap. You can read more about how I got here, including the dog who changed my career, on the About Us page.

How Content Is Created

Every article starts from real training-room or on-leash experience — mine, or a colleague's I trust enough to call directly. I don't outsource topics to writers who've never held a leash attached to a dog mid-meltdown. When I bring in outside expertise (a veterinary behaviourist, a fellow CPDT-KA trainer with a different specialty), that's noted in the piece itself. Every article goes through the same filter before it's published:

• Does this reflect what actually works in the field, not just in theory?
• Is the timeline honest? Behaviour work takes months, sometimes longer, and I won't pretend otherwise.
• Does it start with management before it asks for training, the way I'd approach it with a client?
• Would I say this exact sentence to someone standing in my training room?

If the answer to any of those is no, it gets rewritten. I still take clients three days a week specifically so this filter stays sharp — theory drifts from reality fast if you're not out there with a dog on a Tuesday, in the rain, with a neighbour watching.

How We Choose Topics

Topics come from three places: what I'm seeing repeatedly in my own practice, what readers ask us directly at [email protected], and genuine shifts in the field — new research, updated welfare guidance, or a training approach that's gaining traction and needs an honest, experience-based look before we'd ever recommend it. We don't chase trends for traffic. If something is popular but not force-free, or not backed by anything beyond a viral clip, we either skip it or write about why we're skipping it.

Sourcing and Accuracy

Behavioural claims are grounded in current force-free training science, veterinary behaviour resources, and my own case history — not secondhand blog posts repeating each other. Where a topic touches on veterinary or medical territory, we're clear that it's not a substitute for your own vet's advice, and our full Disclaimer covers exactly where that line sits. We correct outdated information as the field evolves; if a recommendation changes, we say so in the article rather than quietly editing it away.

Product Recommendations

I recommend gear the same way I would to a client standing in front of me: based on whether it actually solves the problem, fits the dog's size and temperament, and doesn't create new safety issues. I don't recommend aversive tools, and I say so plainly when a popular product falls into that category. Some pages contain affiliate links, meaning we may earn a small commission if you purchase through them, at no extra cost to you. This never influences which products we recommend or how we describe their limitations — full detail is in our Affiliate Disclaimer and general Disclosure page.

Advertising and Partnerships

This site carries advertising and may enter into brand partnerships or sponsored content from time to time. Any sponsored material is clearly labelled as such, and it goes through the same editorial filter as everything else — I don't write positive things about a product I wouldn't actually use with a client's dog. Details on how we use cookies and tracking for advertising purposes are covered in our Cookie Policy, and our broader data practices are in the Privacy Policy. If you'd like to discuss working with us, the Collaboration page has the details.

Corrections

Training science moves, and so does my own understanding after seventeen years of doing this. If you spot an error — a broken link, outdated guidance, or something that just doesn't match current best practice — email us at [email protected]. We review every report personally, and factual corrections are made promptly with a note if the change is substantial. We'd rather be corrected than stay wrong.

Community Standards

Comments and community discussion are part of this site because dog owners learn a huge amount from each other — but reactivity, in particular, brings out a lot of shame-driven advice, and I won't host that here. Our full expectations for respectful, useful discussion are laid out in the Community Guidelines, and moderation follows those standards consistently, without exceptions for tone or popularity of the comment.

Questions About This Policy

If anything here is unclear, or you want to know how a specific article was researched, reach out directly at [email protected]. You can also review our Terms of Use for how the site itself is meant to be used, and our Image Credits and Pinterest Disclaimer pages for attribution details on visual content shared across the site and on Pinterest.