I’m Alex Uhrich, founder of Before the Bark, an IAABC-accredited dog trainer, nosework instructor, and nervous-system-informed behavior professional based in Seattle.
Behavior is information, not failure — and lasting change happens when both ends of the leash feel safe enough to learn.
Sometimes training sessions happen from the bed.
Sometimes they happen sitting in a hallway because both nervous systems have hit capacity.
Sometimes "just take your dog on a longer walk" is impossible advice for reasons nobody else can see.
As someone with a medically reactive nervous system myself — alongside living with and training a behaviorally reactive, deeply sensitive dog — I know what it feels like to be trying to regulate two sensitive systems at once.
I use clickers with wrist straps because sometimes my hands stop cooperating. I shape behaviors from chairs and hallway floors. I shorten sessions, build recovery time into training plans, and constantly adapt enrichment to fit the capacity of both ends of the leash.
“Your dog can feel your stress” is often presented as a simple explanation. But for many people, it’s just the visible tip of a much deeper nervous system reality involving pain, fatigue, autonomic dysfunction, sensory overwhelm, hypervigilance, trauma physiology, and fluctuating capacity.
My work is not about blaming sensitive humans for having sensitive dogs. It’s about helping both nervous systems build safety, resilience, communication, and sustainable ways of moving through the world together.
My goal isn’t perfection. It’s helping both ends of the leash feel safer, more capable, and more understood.