The Crossover Client
By Eileen Anderson When I crossed over to training primarily with positive reinforcement, I had no idea how much my behavior and even my belief system would need to change. I had to question my faith in some long-held cultural assumptions and learn to rely on scientific observation and analysis. Crossing over was a lengthy process for me, and even now, after several years, I occasionally fall back onto old assumptions and behaviors. I wonder sometimes if I am the only one so vulnerable to cultural programming. But a quick look… Continued
When Standard Positive Reinforcement Fails
By Yvette Van Veen Early in my dog training days, I remember having a brain storming conversation with a trainer friend who was also a mentor. To put it in context, this person was ahead of me in their learning curve. She was quite good but was also early in her journey. I learned from her and we would brainstorm various problems together. I remember one conversation very clearly. She could not get her dog to like nail trims. We broke down the problem. We talked about technique. We Googled.… Continued
Training Your Cat to Sit on Cue
By Jennifer Van Valkenburg I actually came to cat training completely by accident. My kitty was overweight and unhealthy so her vet recommended an entirely new lifestyle. This came with adding exercise (I remember thinking, how do you exercise a cat? – more on that later) and a new food regimen. No more leaving a pile of food in her dish every day, now her diet was strictly controlled. So now instead of eating whenever she wanted, she had to wait for me to feed her twice a day.* The… Continued
Take Your Dog Training Career to the Next Level with Karen Pryor Academy
By Karen Pryor Academy Do you want to feel empowered with the skills to become a dog trainer who is ready to launch a successful business or career? Karen Pryor Academy’s Dog Trainer Professional (DTP) program is for anyone with a significant interest in dog training and behavior. It’s a life-changing course for those looking to change careers or to add training skill to their animal care skill set, like a veterinary technician, pet sitter/walker, or groomer. The DTP program is for the highly motivated trainer who has specific goals… Continued
Our Greatest Teachers
By Lara Joseph In my opinion, as trainers, our best teachers are the animals we struggle to find opportunities to effectively communicate with. Animals such as these often come to us with reinforcement histories that incorporate a variety of approaches, interactions, and consequences to behavior, meaning a lot of counterconditioning will be required. As a result, we find ourselves having to think outside the box and be creative in where we begin…I began training [Willoughby the turkey vulture] from outside her enclosure because she wouldn’t let me inside. As soon… Continued
Portland Blog Competition: Tips to Reduce Leash Reactivity
By Michelle Wieser When a leashed dog barks, pulls or lunges at other dogs (or wildlife, skateboards, kids, bikers, etc.), it is known as leash reactivity. Dogs may feel trapped and restricted by the leash and, unfortunately, given that they can’t voluntarily remove themselves from the situation (think fight or flight), it can lead to reactive outbursts during leashed walks if a dog is feeling threatened, anxious, stressed, fearful, or, indeed, excited to meet a stranger or another dog. Regardless of the reason, it’s not fun for anyone so here… Continued
Career Aptitude Testing … for Dogs
What if there were a test that could tell you whether a dog would make a good assistance dog or detection dog or search & rescue dog … or whatever career you hoped the dog would choose? Researchers Evan MacLean and Brian Hare are working on it. Their recently published study, “Enhanced Selection of Assistance and Explosive Detection Dogs Using Cognitive Measures,” describes initial attempts to create a sort of career aptitude test for working dogs. What I love about this study: It recognizes that dogs’ cognitive abilities a) exist,… Continued
Portland Blog Competition: Canine Aggression – The Public Perception
By Hannah Blumenfeld “Not a nice dog,” says the woman on the sidewalk. Lucy and I had just walked past her, and although I was shoving treats in Lucy’s mouth, the woman locked eyes with my beautiful beast. This scares the bejeezus out of Lucy, so she barks. And, yes, sometimes lunges. I do not correct the woman; I don’t tell her that Lucy is, in fact, a very nice dog. A couple months earlier, we were walking past a family of four. First came the mom and older daughter.… Continued
My Dog Is Afraid of the Clicker. What Should I Do?
I wrote this article especially for people who are either new to using a clicker or have not dealt extensively with a fearful dog. If your dog is scared by the noise of the clicker, slow down. Switch to a verbal marker for now. Don’t immediately focus on trying to achieve softer clicks. Here’s why. Rat terrier Kaci says, “Train me!” Some years ago, I used to train my friend’s rat terrier Kaci. She is the star of my “backing up” video and was an all-around champ of a dog. She… Continued
When Day Care Is Bad for Your Dog
By Danette Johnston If your dog currently attends dog day care or you are thinking about starting, here is some food for thought… I have owned and operated a dog day care and training facility for over 18 years now. I have a lot of experience in this arena, have learned a ton (thank goodness) in the past 18 years and my opinions and recommendations on dog day care have changed. When I opened in 2000, dog day care facilities were a brand-new thing. I used to recommend day care… Continued
Litter Box Victory
By Jennifer Van Valkenburg In this post, I am going to talk about a very basic feline need – going to the litter box. Cat owners may wonder, when there is a perfectly good litter box, why does their cat think it is preferable to use the floor, the laundry basket or maybe even the bed to do her business? The answer can be complicated. First, go to the vet to check for any physical/medical problems such as urinary tract infections (UTI). UTIs are very painful. As a result, a… Continued
Portland Blog Competition: Aggression by Any Other Name
By Stephanie Peters “Help, my dog is aggressive!” This is often the first thing that I hear from potential clients when they contact me for a training or behavior consultation. They may be troubled by certain behaviors their dog is demonstrating, and are either panicked that they have somehow caused the behavior, or worried that their dog is inherently “flawed.” Our culture sometimes has a tendency to pathologize aggressive behaviors in our beloved pets—who are, let’s remember, animals—and there is something of a dearth of information available to pet guardians… Continued
Training the Wild Friends at Best Friends
By Vicki Ronchette [An] astonishing thing happened with a different tortoise who we were told was overweight and needed exercise. This tortoise started out happily taking food but then stopped eating. However, she continued to stay with the group of people. I asked the caretaker if this tortoise enjoyed being touched and he said that she did, so I asked him to show us how he touches her. He explained that she seemed to like being scratched on her legs close to her shell. We continued our stationing training, but… Continued
Identifying Enrichment
By Lara Joseph In order to change a behavior, we must replace it with another behavior… In my role as an exotic animal trainer, several of the undesirable behaviors I encounter are lunging, screaming, kicking, grabbing, rushing enclosure doors as keepers try to enter, defensive posturing, abnormal repetitive behaviors, and self-mutilation, amongst many others. What, then, is our approach? Often, when approaching a behavior issue, I observe how an animal interacts with her environment when there are no humans in close proximity. I do this so I can begin identifying what items… Continued
BARKS Podcast with Jean Donaldson: November 8, 2018
Guest: Jean Donaldson, Founder and Principle Instructor of The Academy for Dog Trainers Topic: Upcoming PPG Webinar “It’s Mine!” – Object Guarder Cases Studies: Two DSCC and a DRI.in which Jean will present three case studies of resource guarders. Two resolved using desensitisation and counterconditioning and one using differential reinforcement. Listen to the Podcast here.
Portland Blog Competition: Lessons from Bogie
By Shannon Finch I want to warn you at the outset, Bogie’s story doesn’t have a happy ending. Everything that could go wrong did go wrong for this dog, with mistakes compounded by more mistakes. It’s been over 15 years since I worked with Bogie, but I clearly remember every detail about him. He was a 7-month-old German shepherd with severe fear issues that started when he was attacked in the car by his family’s other dog. The owners came back from dinner to a horrific sight of blood all… Continued
Halloween and Pet Welfare
I confess that Halloween is my favorite holiday. I enjoy the creative costumes, haunted house attractions and horror films. For me, the creepy nature of the holiday is fun. Behaviorally healthy dogs may accept Halloween activities like trick-or-treat visitors in costume as just another silly thing humans do. For many other dogs Halloween celebration can be truly frightening. Years ago I trained a cute Dachshund puppy named Manny. I was a rookie trainer and he was a star student who excelled in the group training environment, but when he later… Continued
A Lure By Any Name is Still a Lure
By Yvette Van Veen Luring a dog towards something he fears is a problematic practice most recognize. Regardless of whether you use aversives in training or not, it’s an issue because it can create a slew of problems. From the dog’s perspective, luring into scary is a ‘gotcha.’ The first few times, they happily follow the food only to face something nasty. Animals aren’t stupid. Fool them once…they learn. After a couple repetitions, they realize that food can lead to nasty things. Food motivation may decline. Food snubbing may start… Continued
Pet Tutor…My Hero
By Smart Animal Training (A letter from Malena DeMartini-Price CTC CDBC) Dear Wes & Amanda at Smart Animal Training, I wanted to tell you about a client that I have been working with for a little while now that has been absolutely wonderful and of course, the Pet Tutor was my hero in this case! The client contacted me about separation anxiety however upon further investigation it really wasn’t quite separation anxiety, but more anxiety surrounding the guardians leaving the house, particularly Mom. Once gone, the dog in question was a… Continued
Dogs CAN Learn That … and That, and That!
Do you know anyone who has more than one service dog because “one dog couldn’t be taught to do all the tasks” that person needs? Have you ever heard a dog owner (or worse, trainer) claim that dogs “can’t learn” to distinguish similar commands or tasks or learn multiple related tasks — for instance, detection of more than one type of drug or contraband or … the list of things that people claim dogs “can’t learn” is endless. And mostly wrong. “Our conservation detection dogs are agile, portable, and endlessly… Continued
The Human Impact
By Anna Bradley As dog owners, trainers, and behavior consultants, we have a deep empathy with our dogs and, consequently, we understand how troubling struggling to cope with a given situation, context, event etc. may be for our dogs. What though, do we feel? I think sometimes this aspect is neglected, but it very much shouldn’t be. It is a very important aspect of behavior therapy to address the human as well as the animal slant. Frustration, sadness, hopelessness, failure, embarrassment, pity, even anger are just a few of the… Continued
Pet Professional Guild Response To Joint Industry Code of Conduct
Official Pet Professional Guild (PPG) response to the announcement (September 11, 2018) by the International Association of Animal Behavior Consultants (IAABC), the Association of Professional Dog Trainers (APDT), and the Certification Council for Professional Dog Trainers (CCPDT) that they have combined to adopt a unified Code of Conduct, a Code of Ethics and Standards of Practice for professional animal behavior consultants and trainers. Download the pdf. PPG wishes to acknowledge the efforts of all those who participated in the development of the combined Code of Conduct, Code of Ethics and… Continued
BARKS Podcast with Morag Heirs: September 11, 2018
Guest: Morag Heirs of Well Connected Canine; PhD, MSc, MA(hons)(SocSci), PGCAP, Accredited Talking Dogs Scentwork trainer, and TD Rally Judge. Topics: Heirs’ article in BARKS, Fast and Furious, that discusses training deaf dogs to participate in dog sports such as canicross and flyball Listen to the Podcast here.
A Miniature Puppet Master
By Bob McMillan It took me a while to understand Bentley. He came to us with two others rescued by my daughter, who moved in after a job layoff. We already had two Scottish deerhounds and a wolfhound, so we were now a house of six dogs and two testy cats. The floor squirmed with fur. In the chaos, Bentley kept to the fringes and quietly studied the situation. He’s a dapper little guy with a Chihuahua face on a sleek hound body, easy to lose in the shuffle of… Continued