Introducing the Canine Regulation Project.
For years, the dog world has measured success by what it can see. A dog that sits, that stays, that’s quiet, still, and easy. We’ve built whole approaches around changing behaviour, and we’ve got very good at it.
But somewhere along the way, a lot of us started noticing the same thing. The behaviour was never really the point.
A dog that looks calm isn’t always regulated. A still dog can be a shut down dog. A quiet dog can be one who’s learned that nothing they do changes anything. And a dog labelled reactive, difficult or stubborn is very often a dog whose nervous system is doing exactly what it’s built to do, responding to a world that feels like too much.
When we only work on the behaviour, we miss the dog underneath it.
That’s why I’ve started the Canine Regulation Project.
What it is
The Canine Regulation Project is a movement for the dog world, built on one idea: regulation comes first.
Before a dog can learn, settle or connect, their nervous system has to feel safe enough to let them. That’s what regulation is. It isn’t a technique or a trend. It’s the ground everything else stands on. And it goes both ways, dogs regulate off the people around them, which means our own state is part of the work too.
None of this is about being soft, or about letting go of structure. It’s about looking in the right place. Seeing the state before the behaviour. Working with it as it shifts. Understanding that a dog who feels safe learns differently to a dog who’s simply being managed.
Three parts
The project has three parts, and all of them are open to everyone.
The pledge. A public commitment to look underneath the behaviour, for owners, professionals and organisations alike. Signing takes thirty seconds, and when you do, you’ll get a badge to show where you stand.
Awareness Week. Every year, in the second full week of September, we’ll turn the dog world’s attention to what’s happening beneath the surface. A week to talk about it, share it, and bring it into the open.
Education. Free, plain-language resources on the difference between calm and shutdown, what co-regulation really means, and how to read a dog’s state rather than just react to their behaviour.
The founding year
This year is our founding year, and there’ll only ever be one.
14 to 20 September 2026 is the first Canine Regulation Awareness Week. This first year is about laying the foundations, getting the pledge out into the world, putting resources into people’s hands, and gathering the people and organisations who’ll carry this forward.
Everyone who signs this year is a founding member. The ones who were here at the very start, before anyone else. You can’t join a founding year twice, and this is the only one there’ll ever be.
Add your name
If any of this sounds like how you already feel about dogs, or how you’d like to, there’s a place for you in it.
Sign the pledge. Take your badge. Help build a dog world that looks past the behaviour to the dog underneath.
We regulate together.