The conversation about dogs is changing.
Animal welfare science is the future of the pet dog industry and a better way forward for us all.
Efforts to meaningfully change dog behavior through obedience training, discipline, and counterconditioning consistently fall short in delivering lasting improvements. When needs simply aren’t being met, problems inevitably persist as symptoms of underlying issues. Animal welfare science is the future of the pet dog industry, and it’s just 3 steps away for each of us.
Step 1: Get The Education
The Dogs in Your Life Are Not Broken, and You Have Not Failed.
There are no dog (or any other animal) trainers in nature. The need for trainers is a product of captivity and unnatural living. Reducing restrictions promotes natural learning, cognition, emotional regulation, competence, and resilience by getting to the heart of the problems. Whatever training still needs to be done is generally minimal and more effective.
Spinning our wheels with superficial symptom management leaves dogs, families, and pros at the end of their ropes. The road to a better future starts with welfare literacy and a single first step for every dog pro – the L.E.G.S. Applied Ethology Family Dog Mediation Professional Course.
We’re bridging the gap between what our dogs truly need from us as their animal stewards and what we expect them to be as our pets – asking ourselves to modify the environments and lives we provide before asking dogs to change who they are to suit a world that’s not made for them.
Step 2: Get Moving
The Pet Dog Industry is Clearly Evolving. Are You?
If you’re in the business of helping dogs in any capacity, you’ll need to be able to get those L.E.G.S. in motion. You’ll need to learn how to upgrade and adjust your services to help dogs really thrive.
Total Welfare integrates L.E.G.S. phenotyping with the Five Domains of animal welfare and behavioral diversity to map out a truly good life. We’ve even got an app to make it easy for your L.E.G.S. to grow.
Adding it all up for every dog pro and their canine-human families with applied ethology science and standards in action.
Step 3: Find Your Place
Ecosystem over Egosystem
The Family Dog Mediation Education Center intentionally moves away from the “egosystem” model of relating to dogs and each other, to one of a shared international “ecosystem” of respectful collaboration.
As Family Dog Mediators with diverse professional backgrounds and experiences, we come together to share ideas, innovations, and practical solutions for the future of the pet dog industry.
Every voice matters. Every person counts.
Join a vibrant global learning community where professionals and caregivers come together to apply the science of animal welfare to real life with dogs, and with each other – reimagining our homes, neighborhoods, and businesses with courage and creativity.
Our Community
It Takes a Village. Welcome to Ours.
The L.E.G.S. Applied Ethology Family Dog Mediation Professional Course with Total Welfare distills the central principles and practices of modern animal welfare science into digestible, practical, actionable changes that every pro can integrate into their work and lives with dogs. Our international grassroots movement and community is the tip of the spear in the evolution of our field – changing lives today and for our shared future with online and in-person educational courses, meetings, events, group spaces, resources, research, and collaborations.
Welfare literacy can bring much-needed insight and relief to not only our dogs, but to every one of us modern humans – helping us to better understand our own evolutionary mismatch in contemporary life as fellow animals ourselves. A good life – for dogs and for people – is just a matter of evolution for us all.
25+
Countries applying L.E.G.S. Applied Ethology worldwide
3000+
FDM Dog Professionals transforming the pet industry
6000+
Dog lovers learning in our online education community