Respect, Routines and Redirection
By Andrea Carne Dear Diary, day 10 of quarantine and the human is STILL sitting in my spot … Over the past few months, your social media has no doubt been filled with a host of funny memes depicting the plight of cats reluctantly having to endure the presence of their humans 24/7. While these have provided some much-needed light relief in an incredibly stressful period, I believe there is also some truth behind the comedy. At the time of writing this article, we were in the middle of the… Continued
BARKS Podcast with Kelly Duggan of Kelly Duggan Design: July 24, 2020
In this BARKS Podcast, we “Chat & Chuckle” with Kelly Duggan of Kelly Duggan Design, a Pet Professional Guild approved vendor. Kelly wears many hats and has several roles in our industry, from her own business to supporting the Academy for Dog Trainers to working behind the scenes helping the Pet Professional Guild with their new website. In this podcast, we talk to Kelly about marketing and websites and how you can best leverage your website to service more clients and help more pets. The conversation wanders from graphic design… Continued
Phoenix Blog Competition: Learning Compassion
By Charleen Cordo For 15 years, I worked at an established training and adoption facility for shelter dogs at a facility for mentally ill youths. The dogs, who mostly came from a rural community, I felt that, judging by their behavior, had not always been treated very well. Many of them had worms or were prone to eating anything they could, some had mange, and most were just not very healthy. Among the behaviors they exhibited were jumping up, shyness around the approach of hands, lack of leash manners, and… Continued
Empowering Dogs and Humans to Have a Deeper, More Connected Relationship – One Harness at a Time
By Joan Hunter Mayer of PPG corporate partner Transpaw Gear® At TransPaw Gear®, our goal to help move society forward into a mutually respectful space between dogs and humans – thereby creating a pawsitive cultural shift. Walking together is one of the most basic activities dogs and the people who love them do together, so we set out to create pet harnesses that ensure an easy, enjoyable, walking experience. More importantly though, we are on a mission to empower dogs and humans to have a deeper, more connected relationship –… Continued
A Foot in the Door
By Tabitha Davies Shelter is defined as a place to rest, a place for comfort and a place for safety. But with 3.9 million dogs entering shelters and an average of 1.2 million of them being euthanized each year (Source: ASPCA), this is sadly not the case for many dogs in US shelters. Life in the shelters in Coachella, CA, where I am based, means a concrete floor with drains, full access to food, water, and, only if you are without behavior problems, a blanket, bed and toy. It also… 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
Harassment? Or Assault?
The majority of pet trainers, behavior consultants and pet industry service providers are self-employed or independent contractors and are most at risk from sexual harassment or sexual assault via nonwork-specific locations, such as public training areas, clients’ homes, conference locations or workshops…For those of us operating solo in the pet services industry, who may find ourselves, as individuals, at risk of being sexually harassed or assaulted, we must take into consideration some of these identified traits and behavioral settings. Our personal safety must take into consideration that most individuals who… Continued
Examining Anxiety Traits and Breed Specifics
Noise sensitivity was the most common anxiety trait with 32% of dogs being fearful of at least one noise, of which fear of fireworks was the most common subtrait with a prevalence of 26%: “The prevalence of noise sensitivity increased with age, especially fear of thunder.” (Salonen et al., 2020)…Over 50% of dogs who were fearful of one noise were fearful of several noises. Comorbidities are good for all dog professionals to be aware of, whether you are a veterinary behaviorist who is treating one specific condition, or a dog… Continued
Target Practice
By Lara Joseph Training animals to target makes husbandry a lot less stressful and much safer. It is also a useful tool to have at your disposal in an emergency situation. But first, let’s define some of the terms: Targeting is getting an animal (or human) to touch a predetermined body part to a particular object. Stationing is teaching the animal (or human) to continue targeting until cued to do otherwise. Targeting is such a common behavior that many people train it without realizing. When we attend an event and… Continued
Surviving the Storm
By Gail Radtke Looking back to March-April time, it seems like the entire dog training business as we know it pretty much crashed overnight. As COVID-19 started to take hold, decisions had to be made fast – especially for those of us who run a business at a physical location that is under a lease who realized we were not going to earn any income at that venue for the foreseeable future. Of course, we had all heard about the coronavirus and what was happening overseas but had no idea… Continued
Everything Was Fine Until…
By Suzanne Clothier Does this sound familiar? “Everything was fine until… [fill in months, age, event].” It’s a statement that is common, and sometimes accepted without much thought. For example, a client might tell us that their puppy was a saint until he turned 7 months old. Or that there were no problems until Grandma Tilley came to stay for a week. Perhaps a new neighbor was bitten, or the owner was nearly pulled into the street when the dog spotted a squirrel. Whatever the precipitating event(s) that brought the… Continued
Reinforce the Behavior You Prefer
Last night I was relaxing on the screened porch with my Labradors, Buddha and Gandhi. The porch faces the backyard and leads to a deck. It is a comfortable and quiet spot where we spend a lot of time and enjoy watching the wildlife. Living in the countryside means the variety of wildlife ranges from mice to deer and coyote, and everything in between. It started as a hot and muggy day, but by afternoon a cold front swept across the state with drenching rains and cooling temperatures. By the… Continued
Setting the Right Criteria
By K. Holden Svirsky Guppy, a young male “pit bull” and German shepherd dog mix, didn’t know how to sit. Or, more accurately, he didn’t know how to sit on cue. To be considered adoptable by the suburban families that frequented the shelter, this was a pretty important behavior. Guppy was incredibly friendly and goofy and he loved people. So he jumped all over them. Admittedly, 70 lbs. of exuberance, tongue and pointy teeth a few inches from your face isn’t exactly what most folks write down under “I’m looking… Continued
‘Laundry List’ Dogs
By Kristi Benson As dog trainers, we may frequently find ourselves sitting across the kitchen table from our clients in something of a conundrum. While we may have been called in to assist with house-training, or jumping up, or biting strangers, or any other typical concern, clients do not always stick to the script. For example, we may find out that the dog who is eliminating inside the house is also chewing the walls when left alone, or that the dog who is jumping up on guests cannot be enticed… 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
BARKS Podcast with dog*biz: May 21, 2020
Niki Tudge catches up with Gina Phairas (left) and Veronica Boutelle (right) of PPG corporate partner dog*biz to talk about the FREE six-week group coaching program, Survive & Thrive, they launched in April 2020 to help R+ trainers navigate through the COVID-19 crisis. They talk about their experiences and also their key takeaways from coaching pet professionals and small business owners through these challenging times. The discussion ranges from the new landscaping of the pet industry to how Survive & Thrive is shaping some new ideas and… Continued
Phoenix Blog Competition: Starting Straw for Dogs
By Metis Riley Even as a child, I always noticed dogs outdoors… especially during our long, dark Alaskan winters. Dogs living in yards, chained to an old car, trying to stay warm by burrowing under the deck. I was familiar with the buzz of a sled dog yard, maybe a hundred dogs bouncing and barking, but these dogs outdoors alone stuck out to me as extra sad. One night, one of our neighbor’s dogs didn’t survive a cold night outdoors. I remember my grandmother marching over and taking their other… Continued
Troubleshooting the Hand-Delivered Retrieve
There are many different ways to train a dog to hold a retrieve item in their mouth. One approach involves shaping and differentially marking and rewarding for increasing duration. This approach requires very precise marking. Another strategy often used to build duration involves combining a chin rest with the “take” cue. Yet another approach involves tugging on the item immediately after the dog takes it. Most dogs will pull back in response to the tugging, and this gives the trainer an opportunity to mark and reward for a firmer and… Continued
Phoenix Blog Competition: Where Hope Lives
By Heddie Leger Hope comes in many ways, shapes and forms. We are encouraged in life to never give up Hope. It was a rainy stormy day. A medium sized, white dog was spotted wandering the school yard going from door to door. Every once in while she could be seen sitting by a certain door. She did not appear frightened or scared and most folks thought she had just wandered from her home and was looking for a child in her family. After several hours passed, a kind woman… Continued
PPG Summit 2020 Sessions: Foundation Training Skills to Prepare Dogs for Future Learning After Adoption
BARKS presents session details from PPG’s 2020 Summit and Workshops in Phoenix, Arizona Session Details: Presenter: Emily Larlham Session Title: Foundation Training Skills to Prepare Dogs for Future Learning After Adoption Session Type: Arizona Humane Society Workshop (1.5 Hours) When working with a shelter dog, we always hope that the people adopting the dog will not only provide a safe loving home but also teach their dog skills to help him thrive and fit in with the family’s lifestyle. A skilled trainer can easily teach a dog new skills and… Continued
Tell Us What You Really Think
By Susan Nilson and Angelica Steinker Amongst dog trainers and enthusiasts, Dr. Gregory Berns is probably best known for his pioneering work that specializes in the use of brain imaging technologies to gain a greater understanding of canine motivation and decision-making. For the last three years, Berns’ team at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia have used positive reinforcement to train a group of volunteer dogs to remain still during functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI)*. As the dogs are awake during the entire fMRI process, Berns and his colleagues are provided… Continued
Teaching Recall: A New Standard
A favorite expression amongst pet trainers is that we should aim to have a “constructional approach” to changing behavior. This means we should be working to build the most appropriate behaviors rather than focusing on a punitive approach toward what humans consider to be annoying or frustrating behaviors their pets may, at times, exhibit. As such, rather than punishing a particular behavior, we must ask this simple question: What behavior would we prefer the pet to perform as an alternative in this situation? Once we have identified this, we can… Continued
Setting the Right Criteria
Why do trainers and dogs reach these impasses? When progress plateaus, trainers begin to consider more invasive measures. Dogs risk being sent to boot camps and being subjected to shock or prong collars because “treat training” didn’t work. The problem is rarely motivation, of course, or the effectiveness of positive reinforcement. The problem is the trainer’s inability to set appropriate criteria…The ability to set good criteria isn’t just for jumpy, mouthy dogs who find themselves in a shelter environment. It is even more important in cases of fear and aggression.… Continued
Learning to Love the Business Side of Your Business
Here’s the honest truth – it’s hard to run a successful business. Let’s face it, you got into this because you want to help people and their animals have a more fulfilling life together, right? You have the passion, dedication, commitment, and interest. But knowing what your vocation is, can be quite different to knowing how to turn it into a reliable and stable source of income…Price setting is a tricky part of running a business, not least because the whole issue of money and worth can be caught up… Continued