Growing up in Gippsland with a park ranger father meant my early years were spent outdoors — reading landscapes, watching animals, and learning to notice what others missed. I was a quiet observer by nature, and with three much older brothers, paying attention became second nature.

Horses were my first teachers. Years spent riding and later photographing for a horse trainer taught me timing, softness, emotional regulation, and the power of pressure and release — lessons that quietly laid the groundwork for how I would later work with dogs.

When injuries, allergies, and chronic pain meant I had to step away from that world, my focus shifted — and landed firmly on the Kelpie.

Long before I owned one, I was fascinated by the intelligence, instinct, and connection working dogs bring to their job. All fed by watching McLeod’s Daughters. I studied bloodlines, working styles, and handling long before a Kelpie ever came home.

When dogs did enter my life, they didn’t arrive easy.

My first was a timid, anxious Jack Russell cross. My first Kelpie came “free to good home.” Her daughter was born loud, reactive, and deeply suspicious of the world — earning the nickname Noisy before her eyes had even opened.

Noisy became my heart dog, and the true beginning of my work in behaviour.

At the same time, I was navigating my own challenges — long-term anxiety and depression, a late ADHD diagnosis, and a body that didn’t always keep up with the physical work I wanted to do. Rigid systems didn’t work for my brain, and they didn’t work for my dogs.

So I began building systems that did.

Structured but flexible.

Clear without being rigid.

Grounded in reality, not ideology.

That work became the foundation of The Holistic Dog Method — training that supports both ends of the leash.