Sowjanya S Vijayanagar
Bangalore · Founder, Dog Pawmise
Certified canine behaviour consultant and applied ethologist. Through Dog Pawmise she works with guardians and teaches practitioners, and lectures internationally.
BHARCS teaches canine behaviour through ethology, biosociopsychology and zoosemiotics — grounded in peer-reviewed research and years of field study of India's free-living dogs. Our students learn to observe before they intervene, and to work with dogs without controlling them.
Led by Sindhoor Pangal
Our programmes ask for sustained observation, patience, and written work. They are demanding by design: certification here is evidence of study, not of payment. If you are seeking the fastest route to a certificate, BHARCS is not that school — and we say so with warmth, because the dogs deserve nothing less.
We begin with the dog as an animal — its natural history, its communication, its social world. Our curriculum builds on the philosophies of internationally acclaimed behaviourist Turid Rugaas, and on a population most canine education ignores: the free-living dogs of India, observed on their own terms.
BHARCS practice is non-control-based. Dogs are individuals, deserving of choices, autonomy and respect. We teach students to read stress, seek consent, and support a dog's agency — resolving difficulty through communication rather than compulsion, gadgetry, or "correction."
Cutting-edge science and genuine tenderness are not in tension. Our curriculum is built on published research and demands rigorous written work — in service of relationships, not obedience.
Listen more. Do less. The BHARCS way
Member, International Companion Animal Network (ICAN) · Animal Behavior Society · Affiliated with Galen Myotherapy
Veterinarians, behaviour consultants and trainers worldwide who wish to add an ethological depth — and the perspective of free-living dogs — to an existing education. Begin with the open module; proceed through CE101 Professional toward BACBECC candidacy.
Guardians — many in India, many with adopted indies — who want connection rather than command. Begin with the open module; continue with the CE101 Pet Parent path, with live coaching and a community that shares your values.
A scientific guide to calming signals — the visual language of dogs. Thirty short lectures with real-life footage: signals, vocalisations, and how to respond. This is the complete first section of Canine Essential 101 — 30 of its ~87 lessons — offered free and in full, so you may judge our teaching for yourself before enrolling in the rest.
Those who begin here receive a standing discount toward Canine Essential 101.
Twenty hours across ten areas of study: communication, stress, fear, social structure, boundary-setting, and the myths of dominance — with a perspective on free-living dogs found nowhere else. Completion with distinction is the prerequisite for advanced study.
Two paths: Pet Parent (with live expert coaching and community) · Professional (with admission to the BHARCS Auditorium for advanced discourse).
Five hundred hours of supervised study for practising and aspiring consultants: stress physiology, zoosemiotics, consent and agency, client consultation, and qualitative observation — with one-to-one tutoring and continuous assessment. Admission is by application and mock submission.
An interdisciplinary live seminar for professionals who find existing frameworks insufficient. Four sessions interrogating the politics of knowledge in ethology: dominance and pack theory, research methodology, cultural bias, conflict resolution, and the ethics of care — beginning with your own assumptions, not others'.
Fees are stated in USD; Indian residents study at INR rates — write to learn@bharcs.com. Certification at every level is earned through completed written work, not attendance.
BHARCS does not graduate students by the hundred. Each practitioner on this register completed hundreds of hours of supervised study, observation and written work — and each now runs a practice, publishes, or teaches in their own right, from Bangalore to Kranj. As the school grows, this register will grow slowly. That is the point.
Certified canine behaviour consultant and applied ethologist. Through Dog Pawmise she works with guardians and teaches practitioners, and lectures internationally.
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Drawing on canine cognition, gesture studies, attachment theory, anthropology and field observation, the paper argues that this ancient, widely used human gesture deserves greater scientific attention.
Lives of Streeties is BHARCS's research and advocacy initiative devoted to India's free-living dogs — animals who belong to no one, coexist with everyone, and rely on human benevolence for sustenance. They offer what laboratory studies cannot: dogs living on their own terms.
The initiative pursues two aims at once — original ethological research, and public sensitivity to what these dogs bring to our lives. It is the perspective that runs through every BHARCS course, and the reason our curriculum reads unlike any other in canine education.
Published by HarperCollins India, Dog Knows braids behavioural and ethological research with stories from a life among dogs — what a soft growl signifies, why eye contact is a conversation, and how street dogs develop their extraordinary coping skills.
"The markedly different approach that Sindhoor offers, compared to other dog books in the market, sends out a clear and understandable message." Turid Rugaas · Internationally acclaimed canine behaviourist
An engineer by qualification, Sindhoor Pangal left corporate life to work with dogs after her dog Nishi met with an accident and needed special physical and emotional care. She began as a behaviour and myotherapy consultant for companion dogs — and soon discovered her passion for studying India's free-living dogs.
She has published her work in the peer-reviewed journal Human–Animal Interactions and presented at major international conferences in the US and UK, with seminars across Europe and South America. She has been an expert guest on several podcasts, including NPR, and wrote a weekly dog-behaviour column in The Bangalore Mirror for two years. National Geographic calls hers a "Great Mind" in the bookazine Genius of Dogs. She is a TEDx speaker and the author of Dog Knows.
While she wears many hats, Sindhoor's favourite role has been being a mother to two dogs — Nishi, who recently passed away, and Cheeru — whom she considers her inspiration and her greatest teachers. Every BHARCS course is written and taught in her voice, and graded against her standard.
BHARCS is dedicated to advancing understanding of dogs, human–dog relationships and coexistence through research, education, capacity building, policy engagement and public scholarship. We integrate canine ethology, biosociopsychology and human–animal interaction to develop evidence-informed approaches to living with dogs, with particular attention to the social, ecological and human dimensions of free-living and companion dogs.
Our work includes qualitative research on free-living dogs and human–dog relationships; professional education and capacity building; grassroots approaches to helping Indian communities understand and address conflict with dogs; and advisory and policy work relating to free-living dogs. Through these activities, BHARCS seeks to contribute to more informed, ethical and sustainable forms of human–dog coexistence.