Pet Professional Guild Launches Force-Free Dog Training Program at New Educational Facility
The Pet Professional Guild (PPG) has launched the first in a series of practical force-free dog training workshops and educational seminars at the new Canine Behavior Center on King Lake in Wesley Chapel, FL. The first workshop took place 27 – 28 September, 2014 at the state-of-the-art dog training and educational facility, which is set on 23 fully-fenced acres against the backdrop of the lake, a 500-acre inland water feature hosting some of the state’s richest bird species. Sponsored by The DogSmith, the inaugural two-day workshop “Refining Your Training Skills”… Continued
Multiple Dogs Create Joy and Challenges
For many of us, dogs are like potato chips, you can’t just have one. Living with multiple dogs can be joyous and chaotic. For 3 years, I had 3 dogs. The dogs, Dale, Jesse and Rio, got along fine for the most part. Dale was firmly in charge of our household. She was the play police, making sure canine activities didn’t get too wild. That is, until it was time to run out the door to bark at our neighbors dogs. Then she led the charge. Quite the queen, the… Continued
The Best Laid Plans: Adding a New Dog to the Fold
How to introduce a new dog or cat to a home with resident pets has been well-documented by many an expert. Personally, I have done it successfully so many times over the years I rarely bat an eyelid when another creature needs a place to stay. So bringing home dog #5 wasn’t really much cause for concern. I knew our dogs would be okay with her and eventually the cats too, but the dog herself was something of an unknown quantity. No worries I thought, we can handle it. I… Continued
Forcing Hugs on Dogs Amounts to Punishment
Imagine if somebody, particularly someone you didn’t know, were to approach you directly, grab you and, despite your resistance, squeeze and rub him/herself against you, what would you do? Struggle to escape? Shout at them? Call for help? Slap them? I’m sure you would be very fearful of what might happen next. According to human etiquette, not only would it be a totally unacceptable invasion of our personal space and extremely bad manners, but pretty threatening also. In the workplace it would be justification for a complaint of harassment. ‘Hugging’… Continued
Pet Professional Guild Promotes Force-Free Training Methods for Hearing Impaired Dogs
Tampa, FL – In line with Deaf Dog Awareness Week taking place from 21–27 September, 2014, the Pet Professional Guild (PPG) is highlighting the message that deaf dogs respond equally as well as their hearing counterparts to force-free training. According to the Deaf Dog Action Fund, deafness occurs in dogs for a number of reasons, including injury, old age, reactions to medications or genetics. Breeds such as Dalmatians and Boxers are more prone to deafness than other breeds, as are white dogs, although any dog can be deaf. Regardless, deaf… Continued
DOWN WITH DOMINANCE
When was the last time you heard “my dog is dominant” or “my dog is trying to be dominant with (fill in the blank)” or “my dog doesn’t see me as the dominant one”? Dominance in dogs is scientifically proven to be a myth. The AVSAB (American Veterinary Society of Animal Behavior) in its concern for the resurgence of dominance theory issued a position statement. By definition the state of being dominant according to the Merriam-Webster dictionary is defined as “a dominant position especially in a social hierarchy”. This definition is… Continued
Ten Questions to Ask Your Dog Training Professional – Before You Hire Them!
Ten Questions to Ask Your Dog Training Professional – Before You Hire Them! What dog training equipment do you use when training a dog or do you recommend I use? A force-free professional trainer will recommend using equipment that has been designed with a dog’s safety in mind. While collars are great for holding ID tags, they can do damage to a dog’s neck and throat if the dog is walking with pressure on the leash (i.e. pulling). We recommend using a properly fitted front- or back-clipping harness to lessen… Continued
PPG Responds to American Kennel Club’s Backtracking on the Use of Shock in Dog Training
In the light of a recent study stating that – unsurprisingly – electronic training collars present a welfare risk to pet dogs, The Pet Professional Guild (PPG) was delighted to hear American Kennel Club Vice President Gina Dinardo speak out in favor of positive reinforcement training methods in an interview with Fox News on 13 Sept, 2014. “There are better training methods than using shock collars,” said Dinardo. “Shock collars can cause stress, distress, sometimes pain. Used inappropriately they can prevent dogs from even being receptive to other training methods in… Continued
I Have a Dog. What Do I Do Now?
Now and then over the years I’ve tried my hand at painting. Portraits — human and canine — baffled me time and time again. No matter how painstakingly I tried to capture a likeness, the finally product warped. A nose was too long. The eyes weren’t quite right. Or, if I faithfully nailed the lines and proportions, I failed to capture the elusive spark that made the person or dog sitting before me the unique individual they were. The lights were on but nobody was home. Practice didn’t make perfect, but it… Continued
These Snoots Were Made for Walking
Walking a dog is good exercise. True or False? Wait! Before you answer, realize this question actually has a couple questions buried beneath its surface. One is, what KIND of exercise? Are you fixated on the physical aspect and overlooking the mental part? Another is, exercise for WHOM? Whose walk is it, after all? To be fair, at least some walks should be primarily for our dogs. So what are you trying to accomplish on dog walks? Maybe power-walking your dog is your way to get a cardio workout. You get your… Continued
“Trick” is a Very Powerful Word!
Why do I like doing “dog tricks” with my dogs Tessa and Jambo and why do I think everyone should do them with their dogs? Reason no.1: Doing dog tricks is my way of “training” my two dogs, Jambo and Tessa. It’s simple really, I like “training” to be fun and doing dog tricks is definitely a lot of fun. Reason no. 2: Doing dog tricks uses up some of Jambo’s boundless energy. Jambo is a “full-on” dog who rarely slows down. If left to his own devices some of… Continued
Electronic Pet Fences: What You Need to Know
Electronic fences, e-fences, radio fences, Invisible Fences™, pet containment fences: they all amount to the same thing. A system where your dog wears a radio controlled electronic collar that shocks him whenever he crosses a certain perimeter, sometimes marked (at least at first) with little flags. If you are considering this kind of fence, there are some things you need to know that the people who market them won’t tell you. The fences and accompanying collars are marketed as safe, painless, and foolproof by the companies that make them and… Continued
Life Is a Numbers Game
On August 13, 2013, I forced myself to say goodbye to my senior Jack Russell rescue Minnie Winnie. She had developed intestinal lymphoma that my vet had diagnosed the previous September. I was thankful to have an anonymous sponsor pay for the surgery that re-sectioned her colon and removed her spleen along with a chunk of her liver that luckily was benign. Whatever your thoughts might be on “heroic measures,” the result was that Minnie Winnie recovered better than she was before her surgery! She played with her basketball and… Continued
Drill-Sergeants Not Needed
I’ll never forget the first (and only) time I ended up in a law suit. It was many years ago and I was young and terrified. I had given my landlord a 28 day notice to vacate my apartment, but a 30 day notice was the law. In his complaint, the landlord additionally sited me for tossing out a (moldy) vinyl shower curtain and urine-stained carpet from the previous tenant’s cat. We met at the court-appointed mediator’s office to resolve the issue and it was there that I got to… Continued
Get the Best From Your Pet
I read a great quote the other day from a book titled Bringing Out the Best in People by Aubrey Daniels. Here he is talking about positive and negative reinforcement: “It is important to know the difference, because the characteristics of performance generated by each are very different. Negative reinforcement generates enough behavior to escape or avoid punishment. The improvement is usually described as “just enough to get by.” Positive reinforcement generates more behavior than is minimally required. We call this discretionary effort…” In the world of behavior, negative reinforcement involves… Continued
Positive Reinforcement Training and a “Strong” Dog
You have a “strong” dog so you must need to use lots of force to control them, right? Wrong. Using positive reinforcement is not only based on science, it is also a fast, effective and fun way of teaching your dog new behaviors. It establishes a pattern of learning and trust allowing you to bond more deeply with your dog. You can increase desired behaviors and decrease unwanted ones. Positive reinforcement training uses rewards not force. Many behavioral problems can be solved by channeling your dog’s energy into something constructive. … Continued
The Importance of Mental as well as Physical Stimulation
People, no matter how much they love their dog, sometimes don’t consider how desperately bored and unfulfilled some dogs get if they have little exercise or outlet for his/her breed instincts. People in particular who have not lived with dogs before simply may not realise. It’s not that they are being deliberately neglectful – it’s a lack of knowledge. It is no wonder when the outside world is an occasional ‘treat’ rather than a regular daily event, that a dog may become overwhelmed with either excitement or fear – or… Continued
Choke Is No Joke
Recently there was a great blog posted to the Pet Professional Guild called Why Prong Is Wrong. I am a big fan of the author, Diane Garrod. Diane is an awesome positive dog trainer, behavior consultant and one of the most passionate people I know about getting truthful information out to dog guardians so their lives are better with their dogs. That blog offered very good information, and some great perspectives from people that have seen the negative outcomes of choke and prong devices. Additionally, I am a big fan… Continued
Why Prong Is Wrong – Physically and Psychologically
A man’s best friend deserves better Prong collars are used to decrease behavior and involve waiting for the dog to do something wrong, like pulling, and then jerking the dog. Used “correctly” they ride high up on the neck. Starting with a play on words, replace the P in Prong with a W and, well you get the picture. The PPG BARKS from the Guild Editor has asked me to write a blog on prong collars and I graciously accepted. Apparently people want to know why prong collars are harmful (physically… Continued
Which Puppy Would You Pick?
By Bob McMillan Whether you’re making the selection yourself or your breeder picks a puppy for you, what can you tell looking at an eight-week-old puppy? Other than it’s heartbreakingly cute and you wonder how many you can make it out the door with before anyone notices? Luckily, there’s a testing procedure to that can give you insights into what to expect in the months and years ahead from this squirming ball of fur and razor-sharp teeth. Evaluating puppies is a both a science and an art form and it’s not… Continued
Teaching My Hound NOT To Hunt
Shhhh. Can you keep a secret? I used to HATE walking my dog. Why? Because my neighborhood is full of squirrels, and every time my dog saw one, she went freak-show crazy. Airborne. Yowling, lunging, sometimes even pulling me off my feet and dragging me along the sidewalk. People literally stopped and stared. Windows flew open and heads craned out to investigate the commotion. Oh, and the looks on their faces–judgmental, scornful, control-your-dog looks. I was apprenticing to become a dog trainer at the time, so imagine how competent I was… Continued
What is Really Happening?
Making things up to control the environment is a large part of how the brain functions for animals and humans. Research into both animal and human cognition has shown that when there is stress in the environment that may lead to harm or has a fearful component, or perhaps you just need to get active and move, the brain kicks into survival mode and attempts to make sense of the environmental context for control. How often has the handler of reactive dogs thought they saw another dog in the distance… Continued
It’s Not Painful. It’s Not Scary. It Just Gets the Dog’s Attention!
Some dog trainers who use tools such as shock, prong, or slip collars, or startle the dog with thrown objects or loud noises, claim that these things are done only to “get the dog’s attention.” They may further insist that the dog is not hurt, bothered, or scared. This sounds like the Holy Grail of dog training. It’s the Magical Attention Signal! It can get your dog’s attention, get him to do something, or stop doing something, all rolled into one. You don’t have to use those pesky treats or toys, and it certainly… Continued
If Marketing Is Not Sales – What Is Marketing?
by Niki Tudge What Is Marketing? The purpose of a business is to create and maintain satisfied and profitable customers. Customers are attracted and retained when their needs are met. This is a function of marketing. Marketing is often confused with the simple act of selling or simply the activity of increasing your business sales. However, marketing is very different to sales. If you market effectively the end result is an increase in your sales, but that’s not all there is to it. Marketing is far more detailed that… Continued
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