OUR WHY

PAAK was formally established in 2024 and is a one-woman operation run out of Calgary, AB.

If you had told me 5 years ago that I would be running a small business (full stop) in a completely different field than I studied, I would have laughed in your face.
If you had told me 25 years ago, I would have said, “what else would I be doing?”

My name is Sydney Trimming and I am PAAK Dynamics. I was 12 when I trained my first dog - the family dog, Rudy - and he was perfect (/s). From my earliest memory to present, dogs have been my strongest interest and my greatest love. They are also one of my top 5 strongest allergies, unfortunately, which painfully realigned my intended career path from DVM towards wildlife biology. The idea was that a little extra space between myself and the animals would be better for my health… That did not last long.

I birthed my first biological dog at the age of 19, and to this day, everyone who knows Tuk is at least a little bit unsure that he is actually a dog. He is just a little bit too smart, too quick, too witty and absolutely understands the system and how to rig it. Is he a genius? Did I train my dog to be a human? Not sure. What I do know for sure is that I speak English and Tuk speaks dog. While we can try our best to communicate through eyebrow raises, ear tilts, groans, mumbles and the occasional curse word, there will always be something left unsaid. To train Rudy, I pulled from years of Ceasar Milan and other trainers I had studied in depth - I utilized positive and negative reinforcement, I ran drills, I created household rules, and we practiced consistently. I understood the basics and I trained the dog to behave and follow commands. When I met Tuk, or should I say, when Tuk took over our shared university household in a flurry of deviance and untapped energy, I realized that the basics may not always be enough. I realized that you could ask, suggest or even force a dog into listening and behaving the way you want them to… but that is not a sustainable, life-long solution. I didn’t want to live a life of strict routine that I scheduled around how long I could keep my crazy dog kennelled before I needed to let him obsessively chase a ball around for an hour. I learned what it meant to train a dog beyond the basics - beyond the sits, stays, comes, downs, etc. Instead, our most useful trick was drop it, our most impressive trick was leave it, our favourite game switched from fetch to disc and rally. The more I focused on the relationship instead of the end goal, the better I understood Tuk, who he was, what he wanted and what he needed in order to succeed. Three years later, I brought my “high energy, high drive, sport dog” home who was projected to be similar to Tuk in every way. Juneau reminded me that all dogs are unique - no matter what their genetics predict or their 6 week assessments suggest. Juneau taught me that there are hard and soft dogs… and that your soft + independent puppy will NOT respond the way your hard + needy dog did to correction, affection or anything else for that matter. My dogs have taught me, re-taught me, and then changed the rules more times than I can remember. The only constant has been that they are dogs, they speak dog, I speak English, and we desperately want to understand each other.

Whether I am in biologist, trainer or instructor mode, the following remain true: All organisms are unique and exist in relation to their environment; An animals genetics make up the fabric of their physical and psychological being (their structure, energy, personality); Sentient beings will exist, influenced by nature and nurture (genetics vs. environment), separate from our own goals, assumptions and/or expectations. In order to achieve said goals, one must communicate their expectations effectively to their respective partner. Further, in order to see a long-term change in behaviour, one must accept said partner for exactly who they are, strive to understand their wants and needs, and offer them something in return. The point: I like to think of myself as a human-dog translator. I want to help you understand what your dog is communicating through their body language, actions and behaviours. I want to help them get their physical, mental and emotional needs met. Finally, I want to help you communicate your goals and expectations to your dog.