Does Your Training Language Potentially Compromise Your Credibility With the Medical Community?
The words we choose to use in our training and behavior change sessions and written client plans impact the way we are perceived. Our words Impact our credibility and thus our ability to work alongside our peers and our industry partners, particularly those who hold more senior credentials such as Board-Certified Behaviorists and Veterinarians. In any profession whether you are a presidential speech writer, a career orator or an individual service provider working with clients transferring skills and knowledge, words really do matter. The nomenclature we choose to use matters… Continued
So Easy to Miscue …
A few days ago, I heard a story on the radio about police dogs and their handlers. The reporter was talking to a retired police dog handler who now trains dogs and works as an expert witness. What he said was disturbing for anyone who gets stopped by a police officer-and-dog team, but, to anyone with dog training experience, sounds plausible. What he was talking about was how common it is for the K9 handlers to miscue their dogs. Sometimes it is conscious and intentional; the officer wants to do… Continued
Are You SURE Your Dog Prefers That Food Toy?
It just occurred to me that it is super easy to make assumptions about how much our dogs prefer a particular food toy, or even whether they really enjoy them that much. Don’t yell at me. To be clear: I use food toys for my dogs every single day. I think they can be enriching and that they are ethical things to use. But food toys present us with a funny little problem. The laws of behavior get in the way of something we might like to know. How can we tell… Continued
An Open Letter to Pet Industry Representatives Regarding the Use of Shock in Animal Training, Management and Care: We now know enough to stop shocking our pets
Shocking pet dogs remains a common, if controversial, training practice worldwide. In this open letter, Pet Professional Guild (PPG) combines decades of research, the opinions of certified animal behaviorists, and the question of ethics to explain why using electric shock in the name of training and care is both ineffective and harmful. PPG concludes that shocking constitutes a form of abuse towards pets, and, given that there are highly effective, positive training alternatives, should no longer be a part of the current pet industry culture of accepted practices, tools or… Continued
Making Peace with Muzzles
I’ll give you the moral of this story first: Make peace with muzzles. Be OK with dogs who wear them, applaud owners who use them, and put one on your own dog if the situation warrants it. Now I’ll tell you the story. It’s about mistakes I made that led me to this moral. I hope it’ll bring you there, too. (And if you only read this far, at least check out The Muzzle Up! Project’s website.) Years ago I had a gentle, low-key mutt named Sachem. She was easygoing with… Continued
Clicker Training for Cats (1/6)
By Paula Garber and Francine Miller Why train a cat? Why indeed. Myths about the trainability of cats abound: “Cats can’t be trained because they’re too independent.” “Cats are difficult to train because they are not food motivated.” “Cats don’t need training like dogs do.” These are all common misconceptions, but get ready to kick all the myths to the curb and add some useful cat training tools and techniques to your repertoire. Clicker Training Professional dog trainers will already know all about clicker training and many use the method… Continued
Why do food rewards win, but not for separation anxiety?
By Julie Naismith Rewards-based training is the best. Dogs love it because it’s fun and it doesn’t involve fear or pain. And best of all, it works. In fact, research shows that it works better than any other method. Hands down, the best tool for training is food. But, despite the fabulousness of food, it’s best left in the cupboard when we’re training a dog with separation anxiety. It’s not that we couldn’t use food for separation anxiety training, it’s just that we don’t need to. When it comes to… 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
An Open Letter to County Commissioners re: Consumer Transparency – the Methods Used in Animal Training, Care and Management Will Protect Pets, Their Owners, Local Residents and the Public at Large
By Susan Nilson and Niki Tudge Introduction: The Importance of Transparency between Clients and Service Providers Frieden (2013) states that: “Free and open information empowers people to make informed choices and reduces the likelihood that misinformation or hidden information will endanger health.” It is not unusual and, in many cases, is mandated, that providers and manufacturers of potentially dangerous services and products place warnings on said products, thus providing transparent details to the end user regarding any risk from use. Tobacco, alcohol, gardening equipment, power tools, and even some children’s toys… Continued
Why Become Credentialed?
Louise Stapleton-Frappell B.A. Hons. PCT-A. CAP3. CTDI. DN-FSG1. DN-CPCT2 – Wow that’s a lot of letters and I recently added some more: PCBC-A! (Professional Canine Behavior Consultant – Accredited) So why do I feel the need to continuously further my education in the field of force-free, rewards based, science based dog training? I am sure that many of you are already aware that the field of dog training is as yet an unregulated industry. Whether you live in the USA, the UK or elsewhere, you will probably be surrounded by people calling… Continued
Partying or panicking? How to be a separation anxiety sleuth
By Julie Naismith Dogs like company. They like being with us. I heard Dr. John Bradshaw say in a radio interview this week that ”All dogs hate being left on their own. You can train dogs to be ok with being on their own. But you do need to train them”. And some dogs hate being alone so much they tip over into full-blown anxiety. They’re not just unhappy that you’ve left them. They’re in a panic. But how do you know which it is? Are they disappointed you left… Continued
Why Prong Collars Hurt
Prong collars, also called pinch collars, are metal chain collars for dogs that include links of prongs whose ends press into the dog’s neck. When a dog pulls on leash, moves out of position, or is “corrected” with a quick snap of the leash, force is exerted on the dog’s neck through the points of contact of the prongs. Force is also exerted in these situations when the dog is wearing a flat collar. A correction applied to a dog on a flat collar can also be uncomfortable or… Continued
An Open Letter To Pet Owners About The Pet Professional Guild’s Shock-Free Coalition
According to the American Pet Products Association (2017), 68 percent of Americans return home to a pet (or pets) each day. An estimated 48 percent of US residents are dog owners while 38 percent share their home with a cat (or cats). In spite of this, for many people, more time is spent planning the family vacation than on bringing a pet into the home. Compounded by the fact that many of us not only work full time and raise children, we are also swamped with family commitments and countless… 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
Pet Professional Guild launches Shock-Free Coalition to end use of electric shock as training tool for pets
Initiative calls for the worldwide elimination of shock devices in animal training, care, management, and behavior modification; seeks consumer transparency for pet owners seeking professional advice The Pet Professional Guild (PPG) has launched the Shock-Free Coalition, a global advocacy campaign which aims to end the practice of using electric shock to train, manage, and care for pets, build a strong and broad movement committed to eliminating shock devices from the supply chain, and create transparency on the methods used for consumers seeking professional advice on pet behavior or training issues.… Continued
Using Annoying or Scary Sounds for Dog Training
Let’s pretend you saw an ad for a new dog training product. It read something like this: Introducing the Noise-Aided Obedience Device (NOD)! Never have trouble with your dog again. When you jerk or flap the lead attached to your dog’s collar or harness to punish him or to force him into the correct position, the device adds a noise that makes the leash jerking or flapping extra unpleasant. You can get instant compliance! That is, for some dogs. Some won’t be bothered by the noise or will get used… 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
Front Door Freakout
If you come to my house, brace yourself. You walk up the stairs, ring the doorbell. Suddenly…the shrieking of a hundred banshees? Maybe an exorcism in progress? Or fiery-eyed, froth-mawed Cerberus guarding the gates of Hades? Nope. It’s my people-loving hound Huckleberry going freakshow crazy at the front door. Sometimes trainers’ own dogs can make people doubt our training chops. Maybe it’s that we fall in love with “project” dogs, with issues so bedeviling we’re sure no one else will put up with them. We bring home these fixer-upper pups, and… Continued
It is Unwise to Say, “Just Ignore the Problem Behavior!”
By Niki Tudge Last week, while perusing my Facebook news feed while I drank my morning coffee, I came across a link to a blog advocating for force-free dog training methods. This short blog had a video link which was showing a dog trainer punishing a dog for a problematic behavior. In summary, the positive reinforcement trainer was quoted as saying “encouraging the behaviors we want and ignoring behaviors we don’t, is the correct and positive way to train your pup without using physical force”. I always try to read… Continued
Labels and Limitations…..
By Kamal Fernandez Do you have a nickname for your dog? I mean, an endearing title or word that describes or captures who they are? This can often be a positive thing… all of my dogs, have a ‘second name’, that I often use to reference them… Sugar is ‘shu-shu’….. Punch is ‘P dog’… ‘Super’ aka suppy, dupey do, or do-do…. thriller… Girlie whirl…. you get the drift…. It’s so easy to label your dog with a phrase, word or characterisation… but what does it actually mean? Whenever I deliver… Continued
Dog Car Safety: Help – An Escapee!
Recently, my nephew and I saw a dog running down a busy main road. She was very lucky as between us we managed to redirect her down an alleyway away from all the traffic and eventually I got her to come near enough to me so that I could take hold of her collar. She was obviously very frightened and stressed. A scared dog may well bite so my approach was very slow, low, friendly and unthreatening in order to gain some trust and not put either of us… Continued
Cognitive Dog Training
I first started teaching about what I called cognitive dog training several years ago. I didn’t invent it; I simply named what a lot of positive, forward-thinking dog trainers were already doing. Cognitive dog training enlists the dog as a partner in learning; it is not about training so much as it is is about teaching. It’s also about redefining human-dog relationships. How does it differ from other approaches to dog training? It encourages dogs to think and solve problems. Often, there is… Continued
Change Is Difficult – We Are Humans After All
As trainers we sometimes talk about owner compliance, or maybe more accurately – in some cases at least – the apparent lack of it. Part of our job as dog trainers is to find ways to motivate our clients to make changes to the lives of their dogs and often this means they also need to change the way they do things too. Change is hard and we humans need good reasons to initiate change, but nevertheless, to change the dog’s behavior, we need to change the owners’ behavior first. I… Continued
Putting More Tools in the Tool Kit
Recently I worked with an adolescent dog that I trained as a puppy. Like many adolescents he suddenly forgot several of his training skills and got stuck offering two behaviors in specific circumstances. When greeting people he climbed upon them with his fore paws, seeking attention. And to greet another dog (while on leash) he pulled hard and quickly became frustrated he could not reach them, barking and screeching while his owner strained to keep her footing. I have observed that when dogs enter adolescence they often develop annoying behaviors… Continued