Class Action Lawsuit Filed Against Maker of Shock Collar Products
By Niki Tudge Good news! A class-action lawsuit has been filed in California against Radio Systems, maker of shock collar products. The story has been picked up by Bloomberg Law and several other sites. Excerpt from the filing: “This is a consumer class action arising out of misrepresentations and omissions by Radio Systems in connection with its manufacture, sale, marketing, and advertising of shock collar products under the brand name PetSafe® (the “Shock Collar Products”). Shock Collar Products are devices that deliver electric shocks to household pets via a collar worn… Continued
Pet Professional Guild Launches New Divisional Member Meetups
Free Bimonthly Events Provide Members a Forum for Mentoring, Education and Support INVERNESS, Fla. – Aug. 19, 2022 – The Pet Professional Guild (PPG) has launched free bimonthly divisional meetup events for its members. The events are designed to give members the opportunity to join in the conversation and ask questions of pet professionals and featured guests live in an informal format. “Our goal with the meetups is to provide an environment for topical and species-specific discussions and education while fostering a sense of community and support among PPG members,”… Continued
Pet Professional Guild Appoints New Editor of BARKS from the Guild
INVERNESS, Fla. – Aug. 3, 2022 – PRLog — The Pet Professional Guild (PPG) has appointed New York-based cat behavior consultant Paula Garber as editor of its trade publication BARKS from the Guild effective August 5, 2022. She replaces Susan Nilson, who served as editor and was a member of the PPG Steering Committee from March 2014 to July 2022. “On behalf of the Board of Directors of the Pet Professional Guild, we would like to extend our heartfelt thanks to Susan for her many years of contribution. We greatly appreciate her services during the ‘growing’ years… Continued
Rethinking Your Use of Canine Scent Knowledge and Skills
A few years ago, we hosted Dr. Robert Hewings from the UK College of Scent Dogs to present a couple of back-to-back workshops at our training business in Tampa, FL. One of these workshops was the five-day Canine Scent Instructor Certification workshop. To be honest, at the time I was eager to host Dr. Hewings and his business partner Karen for our membership, but scent training wasn’t something I was really into! I considered it a Canine Sport and given my time constraints and the fact that I already participated… Continued
Lessons from the COVID-19 Crisis
By Veronica Boutelle I have loved and served this industry for 20 years, but I have never been prouder to be part of it than I am in this moment. I’m writing this from my home office in late April while sheltered in place. You’re probably reading it sometime in July. I’ve no way of knowing, as I write now, what things will be looking like when you read my words. I feel fairly certain, though, that whatever the specific circumstances, we’ll still be dealing individually, as a nation, and… Continued
PPG Joins Six Leading Organizations to Support UK Dog Behaviour and Training Charter
Milestone agreement sees seven professional bodies join forces to set professional standards and ensure consumer transparency, with animal welfare at the forefront TAMPA, Fla. – May 28, 2020 – PRLog — The Pet Professional Guild (PPG) has signed up to be one of seven founding organizations to support the UK Dog Behaviour and Training Charter set to be launched on June 8. The initiative aims to provide clarity regarding the future direction of dog behavior and training throughout the UK in relation to professional standards, tools and methodologies, with canine welfare at the heart of its… Continued
Finding the Upside of a Pandemic
In what seems like the blink of an eye the COVID-19 pandemic changed the whole world, and has hit the dog service industry particularly hard. There certainly are a lot of things on the downside, but I am finding some very nice things on the upside too. They just require some searching and creativity. Like so many pet service providers, clients have cancelled my pet sitting appointments since they are sequestered at home and not traveling, and my in-home training and behavior services had to stop in order to prevent… Continued
Pet Professional Guild Launches Sponsored Membership Program
10 long-standing PPG members and 10 eligible shelter and rescue organizations to be awarded with free membership for 12 months WESLEY CHAPEL, Fla. – April 7, 2020 — The Pet Professional Guild (PPG) has announced a new initiative designed to support and reward 10 of its long-standing, loyal members with a 12-month sponsored PPG membership. In addition, the initiative will invite 10 representative organizations from the worldwide shelter and rescue community to apply for a sponsored PPG membership, again for a 12-month period. Known as the PPG Sponsored Membership Program,… Continued
A Summary of the Keeping American Workers Paid and Employed Act
By Niki Tudge Below is a broad summary of the various types of assistance and relief the recently passed legislation may provide you and your business. The situation is constantly changing so this summary is meant only as a general guide. Please check with your local authorities and your accountant for guidance specific to you and your situation. Assistance in the form of Loans: The “Keeping American Workers Paid and Employed Act” provides loan support for: Small employers with 500 employees or fewer plus businesses that meet current Small Business… Continued
Financial Management During Challenging Times
By Niki Tudge Keeping and maintaining accurate and timely business books is always an important function of owning your own business but this responsibility becomes especially critical during challenging times for several reasons. Operating your business without accurate GAAP financial records (Generally Accepted Accounting Principles – all modern financial bookkeeping software uses these principles or the UK equivalent) is like being in the middle of the wilderness without a map (or GPS): 1. What you measure is what you can improve so knowing what your income is and where it… Continued
COVID-19 and Pet Dogs
(Updated 3-16-20) Coronavirus (COVID-19) has spread rapidly around the world, and on March 11, 2020, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared it a global pandemic, issuing daily situation reports as this is a very fluid health crisis. WHO identified 90% of cases of human infection to be in China, South Korea, Italy and Iran. The origin of this new Coronavirus strain has been identified as Wuhan city (China) and was thought to have made the jump from animals in a live-animal market to humans. The exact origin of COVID-19 is… Continued
The Unintended Consequences of Shock
(Confidentiality Notice: Names in this blog have been changed to protect privacy, but the facts remain unchanged. Photographs have been used with written consent.) Betsy is a kind person who contacted a shelter in June of 2016 to help find a nice family dog to share her life with through adoption. She learned of Zelda, a female one year old mixed breed. Zelda’s online biography suggested she was “fine” with other dogs and was “friendly” with people, but jumped on them “to say hello.” Little was known about Zelda except… Continued
Thunderphobia in Dogs
Thunderphobia is the fear of thunderstorms and it can be severe enough to make a dog’s life miserable. It may be more common than you know. At least 20% of dogs suffer noise phobias including thunderphobia, according to ethologist Dr. Karolina Westlund, Ph.D. There are about 80,000,000 dogs in the United States and if 20% suffer thunderphobia the scale of the problem is enormous. It may be even greater, as Zazie Todd, Ph.D. wrote in Companion Animal Psychology in 2013. “Dogs that responded badly to fireworks tended to also react to… Continued
Zoophilia*: A Hidden Horror for Animals
I entered law enforcement at 20 years of age. When I retired 30 years later I thought I had seen the full spectrum of human abuse, violence and degradation. The cruelty of humankind no longer shocked me, though it wore me down. Through the years I never investigated a single case of sexual abuse of an animal and none of my fellow officers ever spoke of it. The crimes occurred under the radar, hiding in the long dark shadows of secrecy, pain and trauma. On January 25th of 2018 I… Continued
Dogs Require Daily Enrichment
As a professional dog trainer 60% of my cases are behavioral in nature. Training is about teaching dogs (and owners) how to do things while behavioral cases usually involve changing underlying emotional states such as anxiety, stress and fear. I often see lack of enrichment in the dog’s life in behavioral cases. I often hear from owners they have a “high energy” dog who engages in annoying behaviors such as excessive barking, chewing, jumping on people, and general inability to settle down. Very often the first recourse applied by pet owners… Continued
Santa Claus May Scare Dogs
People around the world enjoy the winter season and many nations celebrate a version of Saint Nicholas. In the United States I witnessed an increase in commercialization and marketing hype since I was a child and Christmas decorations now appear after Halloween in my locale. There is a lot of social pressure to “be happy” during the Christmas season. Personal and social expectations of “joy and happiness” rose substantially over the years and today pet owners may draw their dogs into the frenzy by dressing them in holiday attire or… Continued
Being Your Dog’s Best Advocate
In 2012, my wife and I enrolled in a therapy dog training class which led to a Pet Partners evaluation process for therapy animal teams. I partnered with Buddha and my wife partnered with Gandhi. It was only by working closely together for our mutual benefit that we truly became teams and passed the evaluation. The instructor taught me two significant concepts I had never before considered. One was that I was my dog’s best advocate, and the other was the application of PETS. Although I had kept dogs in… Continued
Spook Night, Fireworks and Dogs Don’t Mix!
In the United States, Halloween is widely celebrated and can be a challenge for dogs (see Halloween Hazards for Pets), while here in the United Kingdom, Bonfire night on November 5 is fast approaching – great fun for most of us but not so great if you happen to be a dog! This subject is re-hashed every single year, but I want to deal with things succinctly from a behavioural point of view and specifically of course, from a dog’s viewpoint. Leave Him At Home! You know, this is so simple!… Continued
Pet Professional Guild celebrates launch of Shock-Free Coalition with week of events, summit ticket giveaway
Successful first week for global initiative that seeks elimination of electric shock devices in animal training, consumer transparency for pet guardians seeking professional advice TAMPA, Fla. – Oct. 2, 2017 – PRLog — The Pet Professional Guild (PPG) has celebrated the launch of its Shock-Free Coalition (www.shockfree.org) with a week of special events that included interviews with several canine behavior experts, a host of interactive social media activities, and culminated in the giveaway of 10 tickets to its annual educational summit (https://petprofessionalguild.com /2017-Orlando), taking place in Orlando, Florida on November… Continued
Ping Pong Recalls
When I ask new puppy owners ‘what are the most important objectives for you and your new pup?’ you can bet that right at the very top of that list is ‘I want to be able to let my dog off lead and for her to come back when called!’ I think that’s pretty reasonable – most of us have at some time experienced those palpitations when you’re calling and calling AND calling and there’s no response – isn’t that the best relief when that little head pops up? So, what… Continued
Professional Training and Pet Sitting
As a professional dog trainer and behavior consultant I developed a working relationship with hundreds of families over the years, and many pet owners have asked for my recommendation when they needed a pet sitter or dog walker. This often arose when there was a planned vacation, a wedding or an unplanned absence from home. Some folks did not want to board their pets and for others that simply was not an option, as many of my dog clients are anxious or fearful of strangers. It was always difficult to… Continued
“Naughty” Dog Or Normal Dog?
I’ve lost count as to how many times I’ve heard that Fido is ‘really naughty,’ ‘he’s doing it deliberately,’ ‘he’s trying to spite me,’ or, if an owner has more than one dog, ‘they’re trying to gang up on me!’ But are these labels in any way helpful? Let’s consider this for a moment. Ask yourself ‘Why?’ before reacting The number one point I would like all dog owners to consider when their dog is not responding in the way they would like their dog to respond is ask a simple question… Continued
Does Breed Specific Legislation Work?
Recently a dog incident occurred in the tiny northern village of Plain, Wisconsin. As reported by TV news in the southern part of the state, a lady was walking her dog when three Pit Bulls escaped their home and rushed up to her. The lady ended up on the ground and was “scratched”. The news report did not explain how the lady went to the ground, that there was any biting or dog fighting, or which of the four dogs scratched her. Evidently the news editor felt the story was… Continued
Choke Collar Pathology
Recently I persuaded a local pet supply store owner to sell me all his choke collars (at cost) and refrain from restocking them, in return for recommendations for safe body harnesses such as Perfect Fit and Balance. He was persuaded by data I presented to him about the pathology of choke collars. “I never knew they hurt dogs, and only carried them because people asked for them.” I never knew either, years ago when I went to a trainer seeking help with my Labrador, Jake. She told me to use… Continued
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