Training, Welfare and Doing Things Scared with Jaana Aadamsoo [Episode 75]

In this engaging episode of the Animal Training Academy: Making Ripples podcast, host Shelly Wood sits down with Jaana Aadamsoo — a lifelong dog nerd whose journey has taken her from animal control and assistance dog training to breeding, showing, and training American Staffordshire Terriers. Jaana is currently focused on fitness coaching and training for dogs, showing in conformation, raising puppies, consulting, and occasionally training and handling dogs bred under the Pure Power prefix.

Jaana shares the story of her lifelong fascination with animals and training, from reading books about dog breeds, anatomy, and training as a child to working with a wide variety of dogs and eventually discovering clicker training. She reflects on her experiences with old-school and balanced IGP-style training, attending KPA Dog Trainer Professional in 2021, and the impact of finding approaches based on applied behaviour analysis and positive reinforcement.

A major focus of the conversation is Jaana's work with Olive, an American Staffordshire Terrier who developed significant reactivity and difficulty regulating her arousal in show environments. Rather than trying to simply train Olive out of the behaviour, Jaana took a broader approach, exploring enrichment, exercise, sleep, stress, and other factors that could support Olive's overall wellbeing. She shares how weight pulling became an important part of that process and how these changes ultimately helped Olive become more comfortable and able to regulate herself in challenging environments.

Jaana also discusses her work with a dog who developed intense resource guarding, sharing how she approached the situation by building trust, working below threshold, combining positive and negative reinforcement, and avoiding unnecessary conflict. Her story highlights the importance of looking beyond the immediate behaviour and considering what the animal needs to feel safe and function well.

Together, Shelly and Jaana explore:

✅ Jaana's lifelong fascination with dogs, training, breeding, and animal behaviour

✅ Her journey from old-school and balanced training approaches towards applied behaviour analysis and positive reinforcement

✅ What Jaana loves about American Staffordshire Terriers, including their optimism, energy, creativity, and sense of humour

✅ The importance of doing things scared and stepping outside your comfort zone

✅ Supporting dogs with reactivity by looking beyond the immediate behaviour and considering their overall emotional state and welfare

✅ Using enrichment, exercise, sleep, and other factors to help dogs develop better regulation and coping skills

✅ How weight pulling became an important part of Olive's enrichment and wellbeing

✅ Recognising when management and positive interrupters are useful, while also addressing the underlying factors contributing to behaviour

✅ A detailed resource guarding case and the process of gradually building trust around valuable resources

✅ Working below threshold and using distance, positive reinforcement, and carefully chosen resources to create successful learning opportunities

✅ Why suppressing behaviour is not necessarily the same as helping an animal feel better

✅ The importance of giving animals access to social and other welfare-enhancing opportunities

✅ Learning from other trainers, researchers, and educators by "trampling on the shoulders of giants"

✅ How the Animal Training Academy community provides Jaana with a safe and thought-provoking space to learn, question, and explore new ideas

This episode is a celebration of curiosity, learning, and the willingness to rethink how we approach challenging behaviour. Jaana's experiences offer a thoughtful reminder that sometimes the most effective way to address a behaviour is to step back, look at the bigger picture, and focus on helping the animal feel better rather than simply trying to change what they are doing.

Links

https://purepowerkennel.com