Ten Questions to Ask Your Dog Training Professional – Before You Hire Them!
Ten Questions to Ask Your Dog Training Professional – Before You Hire Them! What dog training equipment do you use when training a dog or do you recommend I use? A force-free professional trainer will recommend using equipment that has been designed with a dog’s safety in mind. While collars are great for holding ID tags, they can do damage to a dog’s neck and throat if the dog is walking with pressure on the leash (i.e. pulling). We recommend using a properly fitted front- or back-clipping harness to lessen… Continued
PPG Responds to American Kennel Club’s Backtracking on the Use of Shock in Dog Training
In the light of a recent study stating that – unsurprisingly – electronic training collars present a welfare risk to pet dogs, The Pet Professional Guild (PPG) was delighted to hear American Kennel Club Vice President Gina Dinardo speak out in favor of positive reinforcement training methods in an interview with Fox News on 13 Sept, 2014. “There are better training methods than using shock collars,” said Dinardo. “Shock collars can cause stress, distress, sometimes pain. Used inappropriately they can prevent dogs from even being receptive to other training methods in… Continued
I Have a Dog. What Do I Do Now?
Now and then over the years I’ve tried my hand at painting. Portraits — human and canine — baffled me time and time again. No matter how painstakingly I tried to capture a likeness, the finally product warped. A nose was too long. The eyes weren’t quite right. Or, if I faithfully nailed the lines and proportions, I failed to capture the elusive spark that made the person or dog sitting before me the unique individual they were. The lights were on but nobody was home. Practice didn’t make perfect, but it… Continued
Life Is a Numbers Game
On August 13, 2013, I forced myself to say goodbye to my senior Jack Russell rescue Minnie Winnie. She had developed intestinal lymphoma that my vet had diagnosed the previous September. I was thankful to have an anonymous sponsor pay for the surgery that re-sectioned her colon and removed her spleen along with a chunk of her liver that luckily was benign. Whatever your thoughts might be on “heroic measures,” the result was that Minnie Winnie recovered better than she was before her surgery! She played with her basketball and… Continued
Drill-Sergeants Not Needed
I’ll never forget the first (and only) time I ended up in a law suit. It was many years ago and I was young and terrified. I had given my landlord a 28 day notice to vacate my apartment, but a 30 day notice was the law. In his complaint, the landlord additionally sited me for tossing out a (moldy) vinyl shower curtain and urine-stained carpet from the previous tenant’s cat. We met at the court-appointed mediator’s office to resolve the issue and it was there that I got to… Continued
Which Puppy Would You Pick?
By Bob McMillan Whether you’re making the selection yourself or your breeder picks a puppy for you, what can you tell looking at an eight-week-old puppy? Other than it’s heartbreakingly cute and you wonder how many you can make it out the door with before anyone notices? Luckily, there’s a testing procedure to that can give you insights into what to expect in the months and years ahead from this squirming ball of fur and razor-sharp teeth. Evaluating puppies is a both a science and an art form and it’s not… Continued
If Marketing Is Not Sales – What Is Marketing?
by Niki Tudge What Is Marketing? The purpose of a business is to create and maintain satisfied and profitable customers. Customers are attracted and retained when their needs are met. This is a function of marketing. Marketing is often confused with the simple act of selling or simply the activity of increasing your business sales. However, marketing is very different to sales. If you market effectively the end result is an increase in your sales, but that’s not all there is to it. Marketing is far more detailed that… Continued
How Long Will I Have To Treat My Dog?
By Fran Berry, CPDT-KA Of all the questions I receive, “How long will I have to treat my dog?” tops the list! It seems that some humans are resistant to give their dogs “treats” during training; their opinions run the gamut of “Dogs should do things because I say so.” to “I don’t want my dog getting fat (spoiled, sick, etc.) Not so long ago, I’d hear the question and launch into a tirade (in my head, of course); actually, I’d start explaining the fundamentals of animal training and wouldn’t… Continued
Get With Your Money Pet Professionals & Small Business Owners!
by Niki Tudge Numbers! Numbers! Numbers! Wherever you go, you are bound to see numbers. Addresses, license plates, phones, prices and of course, money! Numbers connect us all to each other in many more ways than we might imagine. Our world revolves around numbers. Some of us enjoy dealing with numbers while others have a fear of them. I know some people who have a math or number phobia and this greatly impacts the performance of their business. If you own or operate a small business it will really help… Continued
Pet Professional Guild Celebrates National Mutt Day with Mutts Gallery; Poignant Tales of Rescue
Tampa, FL – The Pet Professional Guild (PPG) is celebrating National Mutt Day with the creation of its very own Mutts’ Gallery. The gallery features photos of PPG supporters’ mutts along with incredible tales of their rescues, their achievements once given a second chance in life and the impact they have had on their owners’ lives. “There are countless tales of the heroics of mixed breed dogs over the centuries,” said Niki Tudge, PPG President and Founder. “In our PPG Mutts Gallery alone there are stories of mutts rescued off the streets and highways… Continued
Be Brave – Take a Stand, Move Shock Off The Table!
by Niki Tudge For a force-free trainer, shock collars are off the table. There is never a need or time when considering using one would be acceptable. Why? An effective pet dog training program is one component of your dog’s physical, mental, environmental and nutritional well-being. Training should be conducted in a manner that encourages learning, creates confidence, prevents aggressive or fearful responses, and energizes the dog. Training should not only be effective, it should be fun, and support appropriate socialization and emotional stability so your dog can successfully… Continued
A Little Truth in Advertising, Please
Can a dog trainer advertise that they’re “force-free” and then strap a shock collar on your dog? Surprisingly, they can — and some do. This puts dog owners in a bad place if you believe positive training is the only acceptable way to help your furry friend learn your rules. How do you wade through the sometimes outrageous claims dog trainers make? What red flags do you look for? First, realize that dog training is an unregulated industry. Doctors, lawyers, big rig drivers, hair dressers and nail technicians all have to… Continued
It’ll Be a Cold Day in July…
Thanks to the polar vortex, Lexington, KY enjoyed near-record low temperatures in the mid-50s (Fahrenheit) and lower humidity this past week of July. I took advantage and walked Zip and Trevor in my neighborhood after work most evenings. One evening Zip and I shared dinner outside. Sometimes Zip has difficulty grasping the food from the bowl as he’s missing some front teeth, so I will spoon feed him a portion of his meal as I do in this video clip. How much of this reluctance to eat alone is because Zip… Continued
Getting Started in Getting Organized
by Niki Tudge One of the hardest parts about getting organized is sorting and sifting through all the “stuff”. But all this “stuff” can cause distractions and take up valuable space. When you find yourself among stacks and piles of “stuff” it feels really overwhelming. So let’s breathe and take the first step to de-cluttering your life and get started on a path to better organization. If you get more organized then you can be much more productive, more efficient with time and more effective in each of your tasks.… Continued
A Little Night Music, Please
By Bob McMillan It’s a question I’m sure that Beethoven and Mozart asked themselves at some point in their illustrious careers: “Sure, the crowned heads of Europe love my stuff, but how do dogs feel about my music?” Well, as it turns out, dogs are big on classical music. Researchers have studied it. Really. The question came to mind the other day when I read that the Dog TV channel has hired Grammy-winning musician Andrew Dost to write some relaxing tunes for dogs who are stuck at home alone while… Continued
My Dog Is a Sociopath!
My dog is a sociopath! Well he must be because I’ve never seen that “guilty” look on his face when I come home and he has destroyed something! Apparently most dogs are very guilty creatures. Just Google “guilty dogs” and you’ll see an array of photos and videos, some of which have gone viral. Heck, Good Morning America invited Denver the Guilty Dog on their program, along with his housemate, Macy, who was not a guilty dog, but a “sneaky dog”…hmm. It is just my luck to have a dog who… Continued
Getting to Know You: The Human-Canine Bond
By Bob McMillan Everybody with a dog knows that Fido needs to learn the household rules, but it’s easy to put the cart before the horse. Before a dog learns to sit, much less goes on to agility trials, obedience competitions, flyball or musical freestyle events, he needs a rock solid foundation — a quality bond between the dog and the owner. It’s something that’s often talked about but sometimes misunderstood. If you’ve got it, it’s obvious. If not, it’s never too late to fix it. The human-canine bond isn’t… Continued
What the Nose Knows
By Bob McMillan A whiff of cinnamon can whisk you back to that day years ago when you baked cookies with grandma on a rainy Saturday. You stroll into a florist to buy flowers for a party and the smell of the flowers floods you with memories of your father’s funeral. A single scent can ruin your day, energize you, give you hope and affect your decisions — it’s the power of scent and memory. Our sense of smell has come under intense scrutiny by scientists and marketeers in recent… Continued
Thumbs and Empathy
By Bob McMillan I spotted it driving down a rural road in Tennessee just before dawn one morning on my way to work. At the edge of my headlights, strolling nonchalantly down a driveway, was a coyote, unperturbed by my passing car. My first thought was, “You lucky dog. You go where you want to go, do what you want to do when you want to do it. You’re free, the master of your own domain.” I was a little sleep-addled, obviously, because my three dogs were back home doing exactly… Continued
L-Bo’s Dog Blog: Making Memories
On the morning of May 24 I walked the Woodford Wag 2K in Versailles, Kentucky. The dog walk and accompanying 5K run benefit the Woodford Humane Society. My walking partners were my senior rat terrier Zip and his wire fox terrier buddy Clever Trevor. We had a good time. We did not walk the fastest, but we, by no means, walked the slowest. Most interesting to me is how much Zip relies on Trevor to walk with him and maintain a steady pace; otherwise, Zip can be stressed without his “goat” to keep him… Continued
How to Talk Dog
Dogs and humans have been friends for thousands of years. In fact based on some of the latest studies, it is estimated that dogs evolved from wolves almost 40,000 years ago. But what is most incredible is that science, until the last decade, hadn’t been interested in studying dogs; after all why bother with a common domesticated animal when there are so many exotic species to study? But they couldn’t have been more wrong, as it is domestication that sets these amazing creatures apart from other animals and as such… Continued
If I Knew Then What I Know Now
By Bob McMillan If the Hound of the Baskervilles ever needed a stand-in, my dog Cuchulain would have pushed to the head of the line. A Scottish deerhound/Irish Wolfhound mix, he was a 130-pound guided missile of shaggy black fur, crazy long legs and very big teeth. The day he started rushing at strangers and snapping is the day I began to seriously rethink my approach to dog training. “No really, he’s not aggressive,” I reassured them shrilly. I was a little less convincing than the dog looking them level… Continued
The Clicker versus Yes!
I have recently seen and heard discussions on message boards and dog training forums about the use of clickers versus verbal markers such as using ‘yes’. I actually use and recommend both, not at the same time as this weakens the conditioning effect through either blocking or overshadowing, but for different applications they can both have their place. When I work with my dogs I can either use ’yes’ as a conditioned reinforcer or a clicker. What is important when using either of these tools is that the conditioning has… Continued
A Dirty Big Secret – Get With The Program
A basic strategic marketing plan is paramount as a small business owner, no matter how good you are at what you do, says Niki Tudge First published in “Barks From The Guild” (Spring 2014), the official publication of The Pet Professional Guild. For many small business owners, taking the time to develop a marketing strategy can seem so overwhelming that it never even makes it onto their to-do list. In fact, one’s marketing strategy may never even emerge from being a thought or a remote possibility. But let me share… Continued
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