Our Canine Expert – Shawn Riley
Shawn is a canine/human behaviorist with over 40 years of dog/people training experience. With an extensive history of successfully training people to properly establish and maintain leadership roles with their canine companions, Shawn thrives on sharing his expertise to help people develop safe, healthy, and happy relationships with their dogs for life.
Growing up in the Pacific Northwest, Shawn and his siblings spent much of their time learning about, caring for, and training their animals. While he had a natural connection with most animals, dogs quickly became his favorite.
Even as a pre-teen, Shawn began sharing his keen insights on dog behavior, helping others train their pets and laying the foundation for what would become a life-long passion and career. He’s been caring for others' dogs and developing "The Dog Way" training philosophy ever since.
Realizing early in his career that punitive and reward tactics like training collars, clickers, and treats weren’t the answer, Shawn developed and refined The Dog Way training methods through experience and observation of dogs' natural interactions within their groups. He realized that the way dogs behave in a natural group setting was the key to understanding how THEY think, their fundamental needs, and how to motivate lasting behavioral changes that would create the happiest and all-around healthiest dog and people relationship possible.
Throughout his extensive career, Shawn has successfully trained thousands of people with dogs of every breed, size, gender, and age. As part of his ongoing outreach and dog advocacy, he provides free clinics to Portland-Metro area veterinarians and their staff to improve animal safety and handling skills. He also volunteers his counseling services to ALL animal rescue and foster organizations and he’s never turned a dog away, helping some of the most difficult cases to find their forever home.
Shawn has appeared on local TV shows and has presented "The Dog Way" methods to many professional training groups and individuals internationally. He was also recruited by National Geographic as the on-set Behavioral Advisor for a national video series called “My Dog Ate What?”
Recruited by experts Shawn traveled to El Salvador to teach groups of Central and South American trainers to use The Dog Way as an alternative to the old style harsh methods they had been long using.
An avid father, adventure traveler, mountain climber, sailor, and auto/motorcycle-racer, Shawn does everything with intense focus. As a young father, he developed his dog / owner training business from home with the primary purpose of being accessible to raise his children from home. Now with his children grown, he mentors others interested canine behavior/philosophy and dedicates his time to helping new generations of people develop safe, healthy, and happy relationships with their canine companions.
