About

Living with a dog is supposed to be fun, right?

Until your dog is barking at every person who walks by the window. Pulling you down the sidewalk. Melting down when another dog appears. Hiding from things that don’t seem scary to you. Or doing something that makes you pause and think, “Okay… what am I missing here?”

You’re not missing anything. There just isn’t a manual.

I’m Lauren Van Duzer, ACDBC, FDM, and the human behind Happy Hounds And Beyond.

I’ve been working in the animal care world for nearly 15 years, including time in veterinary medicine, and I’ve been working specifically with dogs and behavior for more than 15 years. (Yes, those overlap—no, I didn’t discover time travel, I just never really left the field.)

I’ve seen dogs in a lot of different settings—from the veterinary hospital to the living room couch, from everyday training hiccups to the “we’ve tried everything and we’re out of ideas” cases.

And if there’s one thing that experience keeps hammering home, it’s this:

Your dog is more than their behavior.

They’re genetics, history, emotions, needs, quirks, and some very strong opinions about how the world should work.

My job isn’t to turn them into a different dog.

It’s to help you understand the one you’ve already got—and figure out how to build a life together that actually works for both of you.

A behavior is information.

Barking, lunging, growling, pulling, jumping, hiding, snapping, or struggling to settle are all behaviors—but they don’t tell us the whole story.

Instead of simply asking, “How do we stop this?”, I want to know:

What is your dog experiencing?

What are their triggers? Where is their threshold? What happens before and after the behavior? What does their body language tell us? What might their genetics, learning history, environment, emotional state, or unmet needs be contributing?

Most importantly, what can we change to help your dog succeed?

That’s the heart of my approach.

My years in veterinary medicine also shaped the way I approach behavior. Behavioral health and medical health are deeply intertwined—one can affect the other, and we can’t always understand one without considering the other.

That’s why veterinarians are often an important early part of a behavior plan. Medical conditions, pain, medications, and other physical factors can influence behavior, and ruling out potential medical contributors is an important part of understanding the whole dog.

I believe in working closely with your veterinarian—and, when appropriate, veterinary behaviorists—to make sure your dog’s behavioral plan considers the whole picture.

Training with Happy Hounds And Beyond isn’t about handing you a list of commands and expecting you to practice until your dog magically behaves.

We look at the whole picture.

Together, we work to understand your dog’s behavior, identify triggers and thresholds, create appropriate management, build useful skills, and gradually help your dog develop the ability to navigate the world more successfully.

Sometimes that means teaching a new skill.

Sometimes it means changing the environment.

Sometimes it means slowing down.

Sometimes it means recognizing that your dog is already at their limit and not asking for more.

And sometimes, the biggest breakthrough comes from changing what we expect from our dogs.

I use positive reinforcement-based methods and follow the principles of Least Intrusive, Minimally Aversive (LIMA) training. Every dog deserves to be treated with empathy, respect, and consideration for who they are.

Because the goal isn’t simply a dog who looks well behaved.

The goal is a dog who can actually feel better—and a human who finally understands how to help them.

My path into dog training has always been about more than teaching obedience.

Over the years, I’ve had the opportunity to work with dogs and families facing some incredibly difficult situations. I’ve seen how frightening behavior changes can be for owners, especially when they don’t understand why their dog is behaving the way they are.

I’ve also seen what happens when people stop viewing their dog as stubborn, difficult, dramatic, or “bad” and start looking at behavior through a different lens.

The relationship changes.

The dog changes.

And the human often feels a whole lot better, too.

That is what Happy Hounds And Beyond is about.

Helping you understand your dog so you can stop simply surviving the hard parts and start enjoying life together.

Every dog is different, and progress doesn’t always look like a perfectly behaved dog.

Sometimes progress looks like a dog recovering more quickly after seeing a trigger.

Sometimes it’s a family realizing their dog actually can relax.

Sometimes it’s a dog who once felt impossible to manage becoming easier to understand.

And sometimes the changes are so subtle that families don’t realize how much has changed until they look back.

When “More Exercise” Wasn’t the Answer

One family was doing what many of us are told to do with an energetic dog: more activity, more enrichment, more things to keep him busy.

But their dog wasn’t simply lacking something to do. He was becoming increasingly wound up and struggling to come back down.

By looking at his arousal, triggers, thresholds, and ability to actually relax, we were able to approach his needs differently.

Eventually, his family noticed something they hadn’t expected.

He had stopped doing a number of little things that had been quietly driving them crazy.

They hadn’t realized how much those behaviors bothered them until they were gone.

When Behavior Finally Started Making Sense

Another family was dealing with behavior that had become genuinely concerning. What they saw was a dog behaving aggressively.

What we needed to understand was why.

Rather than focusing only on stopping the outward behavior, we looked at what was happening underneath it—what was triggering the response, where the dog’s threshold was, and what could be changed to help him feel safer and more successful.

As the family learned to recognize his signals and work with him instead of simply reacting to him, they began to see a different dog.

Not because the dog was “fixed.”

Because they finally understood each other.

Dogs have been a huge part of my life for as long as I can remember, and they continue to teach me something new all the time.

I don’t believe there is one perfect way to live with a dog.

There is your dog.

There is your family.

There is your environment, your lifestyle, your goals, and the relationship you share.

Good training has to fit into real life.

And while I take behavior seriously, I don’t think living with your dog should feel like one giant training session.

You have another species living inside your home. That’s pretty amazing.

They also have absolutely no interest in making your life convenient, which is part of their charm.

I want you to enjoy them.

I want you to understand them.

And training gets to be the thing that makes your life together better—not more stressful.