Hondly started with a puppy and a houseful of people who all loved her — and all handled her slightly differently.
Why we started Hondly
When we brought our first dog home, the hard part wasn't teaching her to sit. It was getting everyone in the house to teach her the same way. One person let her up on the sofa; another didn't. One said "come," another "here," another just clapped. She wasn't being difficult — she was being asked to follow five different rulebooks at once. A dog getting mixed signals is a confused, unsettled dog, and an unsettled dog is hard on the whole family.
So we looked for help — and found a lot of it. Confident, often contradictory, and nearly all of it based on "this worked for my dog" rather than on evidence. For a family member you'll share your life with for a decade or more, that felt like the wrong foundation to build on.
So we built the thing we wished we'd had: one calm, shared plan that everyone in the household follows — owners, partners, kids, grandparents, the dog walker, the sitter — so the dog hears a single, consistent voice. A happy, well-understood dog makes family life better. A confused, anxious one weighs on everyone. Hondly exists to tip that balance the right way.
The problem with most dog advice
Dog training is full of strong opinions and short on evidence. Techniques get passed around because someone's dog turned out fine, not because they've actually been shown to work — or to be kind. Some of the most popular advice isn't just unproven; it's been shown to harm a dog's wellbeing. We think you and your dog deserve better than folklore.
Our approach: evidence, not anecdote
Everything in Hondly is built on published, peer-reviewed research in dog behaviour and welfare — not on any one person's hunches. Two ideas run through all of it: reward-based methods, always — shown to be at least as effective as aversive training and far better for a dog's welfare, with less stress and fewer fear and behaviour problems later — and the right thing at the right stage, following the science of socialisation and development so you're working on what matters now and not missing the early windows that close before most owners realise. And because a dog is a whole-life commitment, Hondly walks with you through every stage — from puppy-proofing before arrival, through the socialisation window and the ups and downs of adolescence, to a settled adult dog — with the whole household on the same page the entire way.
Where the training plan comes from
Hondly ships one fully written curriculum, the Family Pet track: 52 weeks covering a dog's first year, laid out by the puppy's developmental age rather than by how long you have had the app. Each week introduces either a command to drill or a milestone to tick off — socialisation, handling, house-training — and the plan only ever grows: nothing you are already working on quietly disappears. A herding-breed variant of the same track exists for dogs that need earlier, heavier impulse-control and mental-stimulation work.
Positive reinforcement, mainstream practice
The content is grounded in widely-agreed, positive-reinforcement puppy-raising practice. No aversive methods and no corrections-based shortcuts.
Paced to real development, not to sign-up date
The primary socialisation window (roughly weeks 3–14) gets concentrated, gentle exposure work. Nothing assumes the puppy is already home before the usual eight-week homing age. Adolescence from about week 24 is flagged explicitly, including the second fear period, so a regression reads as expected rather than alarming.
Quiet weeks on purpose
Not every week introduces something new. Consolidation weeks are deliberate — a curriculum that crammed something new into all 52 weeks would be worse, not better.
Written in English, then translated
Every command, milestone and cue is authored and reviewed in English, then translated into Dutch and German. Translations are presentation only: the training content itself is the same in all three languages, and your dog's spoken cue never changes when you switch the interface language.
Reviewed before it ships, never auto-published
Curriculum content is written into this app's repository and reviewed there, like a code change, before any household sees it. Nothing is generated and published straight into your dog's plan.
AI never silently changes your plan
Hondly does not use AI to rewrite a household's training plan behind its back, and makes no veterinary or behavioural certainty claims.
How we keep ourselves honest
Written and reviewed by
Jacco Schutter
Founder of Hondly and a dog owner — not a certified trainer — who builds Hondly's guidance on published canine behaviour and welfare research rather than personal opinion.
We're not certified dog trainers, and we don't pretend to be — our authority is the research we build on, not a personal CV. We cite our sources, we keep the guidance current as the science moves, and we know our limits: Hondly is everyday guidance for a healthy dog, not a replacement for your vet or a behaviourist when there's serious fear or aggression — and where that's what's needed, we'll say so.
I'm a new dog owner myself — which is exactly why Hondly exists. I saw first-hand how hard it is for a family to stay aligned on how to handle and train a dog, and how much calmer and happier the dog is once everyone finally pulls in the same direction. I started Hondly to give families and caregivers the best, most honest guidance I could find: grounded in science, not opinion.
Jacco Schutter, founder of Hondly
Are you a qualified trainer or behaviourist who shares this evidence-first approach? We'd genuinely love to talk — reach us at jacco@21digitals.com.
A few of the studies our approach is built on
McEvoy, V. et al. (2022). Canine Socialisation: A Narrative Systematic Review. Animals, 12(21), 2895.
Vieira de Castro, A. C. et al. (2020). Does training method matter? Evidence for the negative impact of aversive-based methods on companion dog welfare. PLOS ONE.
China, L., Mills, D. S., & Cooper, J. J. (2020). Reward-based training vs. remote e-collars. Frontiers in Veterinary Science.
What Hondly is not
Hondly is not veterinary or behavioural advice. If your dog shows aggression, severe anxiety, or a sudden change in behaviour, talk to a vet or a qualified behaviourist — a week-by-week plan written for dogs in general cannot assess yours. Hondly does let you invite your own trainer into your household, so their guidance and the shared plan live in the same place.
Contact
Questions about the method, or a correction to the curriculum? Email jacco@21digitals.com and a person will answer.