Rewriting the Rules: Raising Puppies Naturally with the CDD Method

By Bethany Bell, Behaviourist and Creator of the Canine Dialogue Dynamics (CDD) Method

What if raising a puppy wasn’t about obedience, dominance, or endless training?
What if it began — and ended — with love, language, and deep emotional connection?

Bethany Bell offers a beautifully different way to raise your puppy — one rooted not in control or conditioning, but in relationship, dialogue, and trust. Through the CDD method, she guides you to understand and support your puppy as a developing emotional being — not a project to fix or a blank slate to train, but a soul to nurture with intention, empathy, and care.

This book is for those who want more than tips and techniques. It’s for the dog parent who longs for a deeper connection — one built on shared understanding, respectful communication, and the natural rhythms of development.

• How to raise your puppy without using commands, treat-based training, or corrections

• The Five Phases of Dialogue — a powerful framework for natural communication

• How your puppy’s brain and emotional world develops in stages

• Gentle ways to support toilet learning, sleep routines, and early separation

• Why choice, consent, and co-regulation are essential for lifelong resilience

• Practical, everyday ways to support healthy behaviour through trust and clarity

• Natural approaches to early exploration, vet visits, socialisation, and safety

• Nutrition and enrichment guidance that supports the whole puppy — mind and body

From the earliest days at home to the quiet triumphs of emotional growth, Rewriting the Rules is both a feel-good companion and a transformational resource. It brings together neuroscience, gentle parenting principles, holistic canine care, and soulful storytelling to offer a grounded, ethical path to raising your dog as a family member — not a trainee.

Because raising a puppy shouldn’t be about control. It should be about becoming, together.

The Canine Dialogue Dynamics (CDD) Method is a gentle, deeply respectful way of teaching and living with dogs — one that replaces conventional training methods with relationship, communication, and emotional development.

Instead of relying on treats, commands, corrections, punishments or behavioural conditioning, the CDD Method is built on the natural language between dogs and humans — a language made of observation, empathy, choice, and trust. I

Rather than managing behaviour, the CDD Method helps your dog develop resilience, confidence, and self-regulation naturally — creating a lifelong bond based on mutual understanding rather than control.

This approach aligns with modern neuroscience, attachment theory, and emotional learning — honouring your dog not just as a companion, but as a sentient being with their own thoughts, needs, and wisdom.

• It works with how dogs naturally learn, not against it

• It fosters long-term emotional health, not just momentary obedience

• It builds real trust — the kind that lasts through all life stages

• It’s rooted in ethics, empathy, and science, not dominance or conditioning

• It creates dogs who are capable, curious, and content, not dependent or robotic

If you’re looking for a way to raise your puppy that feels natural, kind, and deeply fulfilling, the CDD Method offers a path that is both revolutionary and timeless.