Russell Lee describes his method in three words: balanced, not dogmatic. Certified through Highland Canine Training and now training at Essentails, working across Sukhumvit and Sathorn, he doesn’t align himself with any one training philosophy — he starts from what the dog in front of him actually needs. It’s an approach to dog training in Bangkok shaped less by method than by the particular city these dogs live in. Any training beats no training, he says — but there’s a fine line between what’s effective and what’s kind, and the real skill is knowing when to be firm, when to be compassionate, and staying open-minded enough to keep learning.
The corgi that made it click
A client’s corgi was reacting to every sound and every movement — barking, lunging, permanently on edge. Russell looked at the routine and found the answer there: the dog barely walked. Its owners had kept it “exercised” by playing fetch indoors, day after day.
He puts it as a thought experiment. Imagine being locked in a room for years with nothing but a treadmill — no outside world, no new smells, no new faces. Then one day you hear people moving around outside your door. How would you feel? What would you do?
You’d probably react to everything too. Not because you were broken, but because you were never actually exposed to the world you’re expected to handle.
A lame husky, and a path to certification
He’d loved dogs since childhood — White Fang, Beethoven, all of it. But loving dogs and training them are two different things. The shift came eight years ago when he adopted Daisy, a husky whose own breeder had given up on her: she was born partially lame with a spinal defect. Raising her meant he actually had to learn what he was doing.
Then came two more dogs, each with personalities and problems Daisy never had. That’s what pushed him past figuring it out alone. He started learning from puppy classes, from other trainers, from shepherds, from search-and-rescue volunteers — anyone working with dogs for real rather than in theory. Eventually the search took him to America, where he got officially certified.
Projection dressed up as care
The mistake he sees most often is owners copying what worked for someone else and assuming it’s the only way. They see dog-friendly restaurants and assume their dog wants to be there. They see dogs playing at the dog park and assume their dog needs more dog friends. It’s projection dressed up as care — doing what looks right instead of what your specific dog actually needs. Dog-friendly Bangkok gives owners more options every year, he says — but an option isn’t the same as a need.
His correction is to go back to fundamentals. Is your dog getting enough steps outside? Enough sunlight, enough exercise, enough time with you, enough proper nutrition? Nine times out of ten, the fix isn’t a new class or a new gadget — it’s making sure the basics are actually being met.
Two worlds colliding
Underneath all of it, he says, training is really just one thing: making the unnatural natural to our dogs. We’re asking animals built for open space — for running, digging, chasing, howling at whatever moves — to live quietly in high-rise apartments, walk politely past a hundred strangers, and wait patiently while we work nine-to-five. That’s not a small ask. It’s two worlds colliding: their instincts and our expectations, their needs and our schedules.
“Good training isn’t about erasing what makes a dog a dog. It’s about finding the overlap — teaching them to thrive inside our world without losing themselves in it.”
What dog training in Bangkok really asks of owners
Ask him about dog training in Bangkok and he doesn’t start with the obstacles, though he acknowledges them: sidewalks that disappear or turn into obstacle courses, green space that’s genuinely scarce. It’s easy to look at that and decide it isn’t possible here, or that you’re somehow failing your dog.
But the reality, he says, is that both the city and the people in it are adapting. More dog-friendly spaces are opening, more owners are getting educated, more people are working with what they have instead of waiting for the perfect environment. Dog-friendly Bangkok isn’t there yet — but it’s moving, and so are we. Give yourself and your dog more credit than that.
His own two
Daisy, the husky who started it all, is by his own description the greediest, laziest husky you will ever meet. Then there’s Rygar — really a German shepherd in a border collie’s skin.
Between the two of them, he’s had to be both firm and soft, sometimes in the same afternoon — which is more or less his whole argument. There’s no single correct way to raise a dog in this city, only the willingness to keep watching the one you have and to keep learning from people who work with dogs for real. Start with the basics, he says, and give yourself credit for the rest.
Get in touch
Russell Lee · Trainer at Essentails
Certified by Highland Canine Training
Dog Trainer Talk
A Pup Cities series putting real questions to Bangkok’s dog trainers — practical, city-specific answers to help owners meet their dog’s needs, one conversation at a time.
