Thanks To You!

Thank you for your dedication and commitment to humane, force-free, effective, and long-lasting methods, for communicating with your dogs and building relationships based on mutual trust, respect, and love instead of pain, fear, and intimidation.

Thanksgiving is one of my all-time favorite holidays. Being from Britain, I of course did not celebrate Thanksgiving until I met my American husband, but since then, I’ve come to truly appreciate what is one of the least commercialized major holidays. I also value this time of year as a rare opportunity to do what we all love to do best: eat good food and spend quality time with friends and family.

So I thought this would be a good time to let you all know how very much you all mean to me.

I am extraordinarily blessed with a wonderful family, dear friends, and an amazing team to work with, but I wanted to take the time as we begin a new holiday season to thank you for all you’ve done to allow me to live my dream every day. I won’t call you ‘fans’ because you’re much more than that. My daughter is a ‘fan’ of Taylor Swift, but however much she may love Taylor and however hard Taylor tries to engage and reach out to her millions of adoring fans around the world, it’s still pretty much a one-way relationship.

Dedicated to making a difference

To me, you’re more than fans because of the passion you all share for making the world a better place for our animals. As a music fan, you can’t really do more than sing along with the latest pop song on the charts on the way to school, but all of you do infinitely more than that in your daily lives. From spending extra quality time on a long walk with your pup to cuddling with kitty while watching TV to volunteering at the local shelter to attending your local doggie meet-up in the park, you are truly making a difference in the lives of animals, and I thank you for that.

As we continue the journey of raising awareness about the dangers of compulsion training and the beautiful power of animal-human relationships built on positive training ideals, it can sometimes be hard sledding to face the headwinds of several decades’ worth of misinformation. But the fact that you all engage in the discussion every day and work to change the world one person at a time gives me strength as well. Together we are making a difference in the lives of our beloved animals, and the momentum behind the movement toward positive training is undeniable.

So thank you. Thanks for watching the TV shows. Thanks for reading the books. Thanks for being involved on Positively.com. Thank you for trusting your local VSPDT trainer. Thanks for coming to see me at local appearances.

But most of all, thank you for your passion for promoting healthy, happy relationships with your own pets. Thank you for your dedication to searching for and committing to truly humane, force-free, effective, and long-lasting methods, for communicating with your dogs and building relationships based on mutual trust, respect, and love instead of pain, fear, and intimidation. Together, we’re moving the needle, and now a world where we collectively understand what our dogs need to thrive and flourish is within sight.

Positively.