Behavior Teams

Professionals Working Together

Let’s stop, think, and change the way we work with our colleagues and clients. 

1. Would you like to work with a team of professionals who support you as you support them?
2. Would you like to join a team that networks and refers clients to trusted pet sitters, groomers, and dog walkers—services that your own clients often look for?
3. Would you like to share cases, network, and receive support from professionals with diverse areas of expertise?
4. Would you like the strength of being part of a local, regional community of professionals who all care about each other, their clients, and the success of case management, based on positive reinforcement approaches?

If you answer yes to any of these, then you are not alone.

A New Program to Help and Support You

Working with pets can be one of the most pleasurable and fun careers, but it can also be lonely, challenging, and emotionally draining.

Coordinating with clients, veterinarians, and other pet professionals can leave you feeling like you have run the gamut of an assault course. It can also be challenging for both pet guardians and pet professionals to access competent and qualified training and behavior professionals.

**You do not need to be a PPG member to join Behavior Teams – You Do Need To Agree To The PPG Guiding Principles & Code of Conduct **

“Alone, we can do so little; together, we can do so much.” – Helen Keller

Behavior Teams was developed to facilitate teams of behavior experts and pet professionals who work together to support pets and their people with behavior and training programs.

We often hear from our membership how hard and frustrating it can be to work in isolation from other trainers, veterinarians, and veterinary behaviorists. We also hear that it is challenging for pet guardians and pet professionals to gain access to competent and qualified training and behavior professionals. There are multiple reasons for this dilemma, a few of which we have highlighted here. 

• Limited Resources: There is a limited number of veterinary behaviorists, making it difficult for pet owners to get the advanced care they need and for other professionals to get referrals.
• Isolation: Many pet professionals, like trainers and behavior consultants, work in isolation without a strong support network of colleagues.
• Need for Support: Less-experienced professionals need more support and supervision to handle cases effectively and avoid working outside their area of competency.
• Lack of Regulation: The pet training and behavior industry is not regulated, leading to a lack of confidence and trust when professionals need to refer cases to others.
• Disconnection: There is often a disconnect between the academic diagnosis of a pet’s behavior issue and the practical implementation of a training or behavior modification plan.

Behavior Teams is a program developed by the Pet Professional Guild whose core purpose is to create collaborative teams of pet behavior experts and other professionals to better support pets and their owners.

The program was created to address the challenges in the pet training and behavior industry.

By creating “Behavior Teams,” the PPG aims to:

• Facilitate a working model that enables veterinarians, veterinary behaviorists, and pet trainers/behavior consultants to collaborate effectively on cases.
• Provide a standardized, best-practice approach that ensures pet owners have easy access to high-quality, humane, and ethical behavior support.

Provide a manual, a credential matrix, and other resources to help team members work together and refer cases appropriately.

The Program Includes

• Best Practice #1 How Do Behavior Teams WORK TOGETHER
• Best practice # 2 Communication and Feedback Model
• Best Practice #3 Client Intake Procedure and Functional Assessment Flowchart
• Best Practice #4 The Credential Matrix
• Behavior Team Working Together Agreement
• Monthly support meetings during team development and post team launch

Your Supervisory Team

Niki Tudge

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Niki Tudge

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Niki Tudge, MBA, PCBC-A, CABC, CDBC, is the founder and president of the Pet Professional Guild, DogNostics Education and The DogSmith. She has substantial leadership experience in business management and administration, particularly in the nonprofit sector, which encompasses her role as the president of Doggone Safe, a nonprofit educational organization. She has published numerous articles, which have been featured in publications such as the New York Times. She has also authored five books. Her most recent book, Pet Training and Behavior Consulting: A Model for Raising the bar to Protect Professionals, Pets and Their People, which she co-authored, was published in 2019.

Niki holds a dog training and dog behavior credential from the Pet Professional Accreditation Board, has successfully completed two diplomas (animal behavior technician and canine behavior science and technology) with James O’Heare at the Companion Animal Sciences Institute, and is a certified dog trainer and dog behavior consultant through the Association of Animal Behavior Professionals.

Before following her passion into small business and nonprofit management, she enjoyed a distinguished career in the hospitality industry, holding executive positions all over the world. Her real passion in her corporate role was the identification and development of female talent in the workplace. She enjoyed managing and coaching her team through both their personal and professional development, and loved watching the process of female empowerment and growth at a high level of management.

In recent years, Niki has invested time in moving her love of running from a hobby to a professional business. Her professional credentials include International Sports Science Association (ISSA) certified fitness trainer, ISSA certified transformation specialist, nutritional coach and ISSA elite trainer. She is also a certified chi walking and running coach, and has successfully complete the MAF Foundations’ certificate course.

Along with her business degrees from Oxford Brookes University in the UK, Niki holds a Six Sigma Black Belt certification, specializing in data analysis and process improvement and is an International Training Board (HCITB) certified people trainer at levels TS1, TS2 and TS3, and a certified facilitator and project manager. In addition, she was recognized for her outstanding contribution to the business community and honored with a Fortune 500 Company Leadership Award for her accomplishments.

 

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Dr. Christine Calder

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Dr. Christine Calder

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Dr. Calder has lived and practiced veterinary medicine in both New Jersey and Maine for many years. In addition to general practice, Dr. Calder spent time as part of the behavior service at San Francisco SPCA and in Community Practice as part of several veterinary school teaching hospitals. As a general practitioner, she always had an interest in animal behavior and in 2016, she finished a residency with the American College of Veterinary Behaviorists becoming a Diplomate with the American College of Veterinary Behaviorists (DACVB) in 2017. In addition to her own behavior referral practice, Dr. Calder is the Chief Behavior Officer for Cattle Dog Publishing and a Vets at VIN Consultant. She has a special interest in education and the preparation for veterinary students to help them be “Day One” ready for practice.

 

 

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