Free will teaching offers a completely different way of life with our dogs. It’s a framework for people and dogs to communicate with each other on a complex level. A concept based on comprehensive learning through conversational language and calm communication skills, Free Will Teaching is outside the realm of conventional training methods. Instead of training using lures, cues, hand signals, and treats, with exercises repeated over and over, FWT gives you the ability to teach your dog properly so that you understand each other and be in tune with each other to reach a much more rewarding relationship. Truly kind and compassionate, Free Will Teaching is a new and refreshing way to teach your dog, improving your relationship and bond to nurture and guide you and your dog to a harmonious relationship based on love and trust that wasn’t considered possible a few decades ago. 

Kathie Gregory is the founder of The Academy of Free Will Teaching. I have worked closely with Kathie since 2020 and I have become extremely passionate about Free Will Teaching, as the difference I see in my client’s dogs as well as my own is astronomical! In Kathie’s words:

“Free Will Teaching is how we live our life with our dogs. It’s guiding principle is to give dogs the free will to live the life they want to live. However, free will is not just leaving your dog to do what he wants, when he wants, that would result in chaos! Free will is achieved when we understand ourselves and the world around us properly, so we are able to behave, interact, and make decisions that are healthy and mindful to us and to those around us. Spoken language is our main way of communicating with our dog, backed up by our body language. Teaching spoken language gives us the ability to communicate, via conversations, the complexity of subjects that raise dogs to the potential of their species and themselves as an individual, and gives them the ability to understand more than can be conveyed with single words or hand signals. In turn, we must understand our dog’s spoken language and body language so they are an equal participant in the relationship. Our understanding of how the brain functions is well documented and informs best practice in teaching children, but has been completely ignored when it comes to teaching animals. For some reason, we bypass this wealth of knowledge, and instead of teaching dogs, we train them based on a select few experiments done several decades ago, that had nothing to do with teaching in the first place! Those of you with dogs and horses, will have been told many times that you cannot train a horse and a dog in the same way, their brains work differently, so we have reinvented the wheel, and created different methods for each species we interact with! But as the mammalian brain basically works in the same way, there is no logical reason for interacting in a completely different way just because it is a different species. Of course, each species has some differences which we need to take into account. For example, people, horses, and dogs are social species, whereas cats are a solitary species. Instincts and automatic responses are different between species, and that affects the basic perspective of the species. The principles of comprehensive teaching remain the same whether we are teaching dogs, children, or any other mammalian species, but we use our species-specific knowledge to tailor how and what we teach.”

Kathie, a qualified behaviourist since 2001, is the author of ‘A Tale of Two Horses’ and ‘A Puppy Called Wolfie.’