The Leashed Mind Podcast, Mental Health & Dog Training · The Leashed Mind by Woof Cultr©

Empathy and Understanding w/Lorenzo Fox

·1 hr 10 min·1 clip

Mandi Bautel welcomes Lorenzo Fox to The Leashed Mind Podcast. He is the lead trainer at Synergy Veterinary Behavior in Portland, Oregon. Lorenzo traces a winding path into animal work. He talks about growing up on a petting zoo in Kentucky and then moving through wilderness guiding, domestic violence shelters, and work with at-risk youth before settling more fully into dog training. The episode stays close to positive dog training, but it keeps opening into the human side of the work. Lorenzo says the important question is often what sits underneath the behavior, not just what the behavior looks like. He points to undiagnosed pain and illness as reasons a dog can seem difficult or reactive. He also talks about trust as something that has to be earned and maintained, not assumed. His own life comes into the story too. Lorenzo speaks candidly about ADHD and the transformative impact medication made for him. He treats that as part of the same larger lesson about self-awareness, care, and ongoing learning. The episode becomes especially personal when Mandi reflects on her adolescent Dutch shepherd, Rufio. She describes how that dog has pushed her to rethink expectations and self-judgment. Lorenzo meets that with the same steady frame he uses in training. He keeps bringing the focus back to relationship and to what is happening between a person and a dog in the moment. The pair talk through rupture, friction, reconnection, and the need to slow down before the whole interaction goes sideways. Lorenzo says the long-term plan does not matter much if the relationship breaks in the moment. That idea lands as both a training principle and a life one. The episode closes with the same warm, practical seriousness it starts with. It leaves listeners with a sense that good dog training is also good attention to the body, the mind, and the bond in front of you.

As heard by us

Dog training becomes a lesson in pain, trust, and self-regulation.

Lorenzo Fox approaches dog training through behavior, but keeps circling back to what may be shaping it underneath: pain, illness, trust, and relationships. He also folds in ADHD, medication, and self-awareness without drifting away from the practical side of the work.

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Why you'd press play

For when you want dog training that treats relationship as the real skill, not an afterthought.

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