What Animal Training Can Teach Us About Ourselves with Dr. Chris Pachel [Episode 290]

In this episode, Ryan Cartlidge welcomes back Dr. Chris Pachel — veterinarian, veterinary behaviorist, educator, speaker, business owner, and lifelong problem solver with a passion for understanding the complex relationship between animals, people, and their environments. Chris runs the Animal Behavior Clinic in Portland and serves as Vice President of Veterinary Behavior at Instinct Dog Behavior and Training, and he speaks internationally to veterinarians, trainers, and pet owners about behavior, relationships, and well-being. Grounded in curiosity, collaboration, and a desire to move beyond simply fixing behavior towards truly understanding it, Chris brings a fascinating perspective to a conversation about how we can apply the principles of animal training to ourselves.

Together, Ryan and Chris explore the idea that many of the skills we admire in experienced trainers, clinicians, presenters, and communicators aren't innate talents — they're behaviors that can be observed, broken down into approximations, practiced, and strengthened over time. Chris shares how skills he developed through music, performance, drama, and working as part of an ensemble have shaped the way he communicates with clients, audiences, colleagues, and animals. He explains how recording and listening back to his own veterinary consultations became a powerful way to identify patterns, experiment with different choices, and build greater fluency, while Ryan explores how these same principles can be applied to developing our own skills through deliberate practice.

The conversation also dives into the role of community, belonging, safety, and the challenges of navigating emotionally charged interactions. Chris shares the story behind Lima Beings, a community created during the uncertainty of 2020 to explore what it means to show up in the world in ways that are least intrusive and minimally aversive, while remaining curious and invitational even when people disagree. Together, Ryan and Chris consider the parallels between animals going over threshold and humans experiencing overwhelm, burnout, and emotional fatigue — and how identifying an appropriate "stimulus gradient" can help us find opportunities to practise skills without becoming overwhelmed.

Chris also shares practical strategies for working with our own behaviour, including the "ask why five times" exercise, recognising patterns before they take over, using small approximations to build new skills, allowing ourselves "10,000 new beginnings," and creating three alternative stories when we notice ourselves moving into judgement. Throughout the conversation, he returns to the importance of effort, grace, curiosity, agency, and recognising that failure isn't the enemy — it's an opportunity to learn.

Throughout this episode, we discuss:

✅ Why communication and interpersonal skills should be viewed as hard-earned, observable skills rather than innate talents

✅ How Chris's experiences with music, performance, ensembles, and drama have influenced his work as a veterinary behaviorist and presenter

✅ The story behind Lima Beings and the importance of community, belonging, safety, and being heard

✅ How to use approximations, repetition, and reinforcement history to build skills in ourselves

✅ Why recording and listening back to your own consultations can be such a powerful learning tool

✅ Recognising the difference between being under threshold, over threshold, and finding the "feathered edge" where meaningful skill-building can happen

✅ The parallels between managing reactive dogs and navigating human overwhelm, burnout, and emotional fatigue

✅ How asking "why?" five times can help uncover what is really important enough to generate effort

✅ Working with the inner critic, letting go of perfectionism, and finding more grace for ourselves and others

✅ Chris's practical strategy of creating three alternative stories when we notice ourselves becoming judgemental

✅ Why choice and agency matter for ourselves just as much as they do for the non-human learners we work with

Whether you're looking to become a better communicator, build greater fluency in your professional skills, navigate challenging conversations, or simply find a more compassionate way to work with your own behaviour, this episode offers a powerful reminder that the principles we use to help our animal and human learners can also be turned inward. As Chris puts it, these skills are learnable — but building them takes effort, practice, curiosity, and time.

Links

https://thelimabeings.thinkific.com/