Professionals Working Together
Let’s stop, think, and change the way we work with our colleagues and clients.
- Would you like to work with a team of professionals who support you as you support them?
- 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?
- Would you like to share cases, network, and receive support from professionals with diverse areas of expertise?
- 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
Two Ways to Join
Once you have watched the on-demand webinar and reviewed the Behavior Teams Working Together manual, you can decide if you would like to lead your own team or join another team now or in the future.
1. Become a Team Leader
Complete this form to let us know that you would like to start a team.
2. Join Another Team
Check the Find a Behavior Team page to see if there is a team in your area that you can join. To join an existing team, use the “Join Our Team” button on the team’s page.
If you do not see a team in your area that you can apply to directly, then please complete this form to attend meetings, learn more, and get information about new teams assembling.
Need More Information Before You Decide?
If you have questions or need more information, register for a live Q&A session via Zoom.
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