About Pawplexity
Pawplexity grew out of learning to live with one very independent Shiba Inu and realising that living with a dog is often less straightforward than it looks from the outside.
It is a space that explores everyday life with dogs from the dog guardian’s perspective — the emotional, relational, and environmental parts that do not always fit neatly into training or behaviour categories.
Pawplexity does not provide training, medical, or behavioural advice. When professional expertise is needed, qualified practitioners should be consulted.
Pawplexity exists for people who feel that living with a dog is not only about training or behaviour, but about two species trying to share a life and a world that was mostly built for one of them.
I didn’t grow up with dogs. For most of my life, I was afraid of them.
New reflections appear regularly:
The Pawplexity Pawdcast publishes every other Wednesday, Pawplexity Essays every other Thursday, and Makenzie’s Journey on the first Sunday of each month.
About Pawplexity
Makenzie, a strong-minded Shiba Inu, came into my life at a time when very little felt settled already: countries, routines, the idea that things would eventually fall into place.
Learning how to live with her meant slowing down when I didn’t want to, staying with uncertainty longer than felt comfortable, and paying attention in moments where my instinct was to move on. At first, I thought this would be about training. It turned out to be about something else.
Living closely with a dog makes certain things visible. The ways we reach for control when we feel unsure. The way we mistake quiet for calm. The assumptions we make about behaviour before we’ve really understood what we’re looking at. Over time, it became less about getting things right and more about noticing what was actually happening — in her, and in me.
I write about responsibility and care, fear and trust, and about the uneasy space between loving deeply and still feeling unsure. I write about the doubts, second guesses, quiet worries and small wins that often go unspoken. And about the moments when things look fine from the outside but feel different underneath.
Alongside living with and learning from Makenzie, I’ve studied canine behaviour more formally. I hold a Level 4 Advanced Canine Behaviour qualification with the British College of Canine Studies, and have completed training in canine body language and aggression with the Institute of Modern Dog Trainers, as well as coursework with Martin Rütter in Germany. I mention this not to instruct, but to explain why I keep returning to questions of regulation, attachment, and interpretation. The more I learn, the more careful I’ve become.
Some of this thinking unfolds in Pawplexity, the podcast shaped by open conversations with friends about life with dogs: the easy parts and the difficult ones. Much of it continues in the Pawplexity Essays after the recording stops, when the questions remain and can be explored more slowly.
This space works best when we are willing to reflect together, to share what we’ve noticed, where we were wrong, and what changed over time. If you’re interested in life with dogs in all its complexity, without advice lists or tidy conclusions you’re welcome to stay and subscribe.