Stumbling through Puppy Socialization
In 1983 my wife and I moved into our first home on a ¾ acre lot in a small city and could finally have a puppy. She was a black Labrador Retriever whose AKC registration name was Monona Midnight Melody, but we called her Samantha. We knew nothing about raising a puppy and there were not abundant dog trainers to work with, nor could we have afforded them at the time. I bought the best-selling dog training book available and tried to teach Samantha according to the instructions of the… Continued
Bath Time
By Robyn Lowe of PPG corporate partner Canine Arthritis Management After coming home from our walk the other day, Daisy needed a bath. It got me thinking… Daisy is 2kg (4.4 lbs)… yes 2kg! (that’s not Daisy in the picture, just in case you wondered!) She can be bathed in the bath, shower or even the sink. She’s extremely easy to support and doesn’t slip or jump about when getting baths. I know for a fact this isn’t true of all dogs and especially for larger breeds it’s extremely difficult… Continued
BARKS Podcast with Denise O’Moore of INTODogs: July 31, 2020
Niki Tudge hosts Denise O’Moore, chair of INTO Dogs, to chat about all things Geek Week, a virtual educational event taking place on November 11-15, 2020. Join us to find out all about the Geek Week schedule, presenters, and all things Geeky. Tune in to hear the fun news about this great event where, for five-days, 24-hours a day, there will be more than 130 educational sessions with over 80 presenters. Learn about the sponsorship opportunities, virtual exhibitor halls, and so much more. See Geek Week for more details. Listen… Continued
Examining Anxiety Traits and Breed Specifics
By Dr. Sheryl L. Walker A review of a recent paper on the prevalence, comorbidity, and breed differences in canine anxiety in Finnish pet dogs Review Introduction With a background in behavior analysis and animal sheltering, and currently working toward my Certified Applied Animal Behaviorist (CAAB) certification, I personally found the research in Prevalence, comorbidity, and breed differences in canine anxiety in 13,700 Finnish pet dogs by Salonen et al. (2020) intriguing. Right off the bat, the first sentence in the Abstract packs a punch, especially if you have spent any… Continued
Behavior Modification — A Case Study of a “Difficult” Dog
By Maren Jensen Ph.D. and Angelica Steinker M.Ed. CDBC PDBC PCBC-A The Joy and Journey of Rehabilitating a Dog with Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, Panic Disorder, Pica, Separation Anxiety, Noise Sensitivity and Aggression Rumble was a normal puppy. He investigated, pounced and loved all. Rum, as he is affectionately known, socialized with confidence and happiness, starting at nine weeks. He learned how to learn playing games. Maren, his owner, is a dog trainer and dog sport coach. Everything seemed on track for Rum to make a spectacular entrance into the dog sport… Continued
Do “Carbon Copy” Dogs Exist?
We love our dogs so much, but sometimes there is that one dog who just sort of raises her head just that little bit above the parapet and eats her way into our heart that bit deeper. Or maybe we’ve battled more with that one dog to overcome behavioral or medical struggles…It’s not always easy to pinpoint but it’s that unidentifiable ‘something’ that makes some dogs shine just a bit brighter in our memory. The pain of losing a dog is immense and it can take time to heal emotionally… Continued
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
Developing Food Manners
By Michelle Martiya One of the top reasons I believe people move away from clicker training with their horses is being unsure of how to manage their animal’s behavior around food. Horses can often become over-excited with the introduction of food reinforcers and offer unexpected or even dangerous behaviors that can scare or injure their handlers. In my experience, “food manners” is often taught as an isolated behavior in which the horse stands calmly next to his handler, facing forward in a neutral position. While this behavior is an excellent… 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
Understanding Our Dogs: Separation Anxiety in Canines
By Animal Courses Direct How is your dog coping with changes during the pandemic? For many of us, the coronavirus and lockdown have brought a chance to spend more time with our beloved pets and families. Lots of dogs are benefitting from increased walks, interactions and new opportunities for mental stimulation. Some dogs will be loving this extra time with their loved ones and the company day-to-day, however for some dogs this will feel unusual and they may struggle with this change to their normal routine. It’s also likely that… Continued
BARKS Podcast with Dr. Eduardo J. Fernandez of the School of Behavior Analysis: July 17, 2020
Every Friday, PPG hosts a Facebook Live session for PPG members. On Friday, July 17, 2020 we hosted Dr. Eduardo J. Fernandez where we discussed science, ethics, bears, tigers, data collection and learned what three things Dr. Eduardo has on his desk at all times! Listen to Podcast here on a choice of platforms. Or simply click ‘Play’ below. Dr. Eduardo J. Fernandez received his Ph.D. in psychology (minors in neuroscience and animal behavior) from Indiana University and his M.S. in behavior analysis from the University of North Texas. Much of… 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
COVID-19: 3 Tips for Dog Trainers on Adapting to the ‘New Normal’
By Susan Nilson Last month, the Pet Professional Guild (PPG) hosted a webinar with Anna York, BSc (Hon) PhD, Stephanie Perniciaro PhD MPH, Anne Wyllie PhD, Maikel Boot PhD, Chantal Vogels PhD MSc BSc, and Kayoko Shioda DVM MPH of the Yale School of Medicine in New Haven, Connecticut and Dr. Hannah Capon of Canine Arthritis Management in the U.K. to examine how, in this time of pandemic, dog trainers, animal behavior consultants and pet care professionals can engage in best practice to keep themselves and their clients safe as… Continued
Living with a Dog Who’s Going Deaf
Buddha, my black Labrador, has always had a sharp sense of hearing. Teaching him to respond to word cues was easy, and I also taught him several hand cues. Doing so probably saved his life on one occasion. About eight years ago a solar panel system was installed on our barn roof. That required a crew of workers to have access in, out and on top of our barn for three days straight. I put our horse and sheep in their paddock and let my three Labradors play in their… Continued
Phoenix Blog Competition: Working to Address Stress
By Jerri Colonna I am a shelter volunteer on the behavior and enrichment team at Indianapolis Animal Care Services (IACS) and we have worked very hard as volunteers to develop some great enrichment for our dogs. We are a very large inner city, open intake shelter and many of our dogs only get to go outdoors once every 24 hours, so it can be a stressful environment for them – especially if they are there long-term. Because of this, we have an enrichment group that focuses on things we can… 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
Raising a Puppy
Think of your relationship with you puppy as a bank account. Every positive interaction is a deposit and every time you scowl or get cross or punish you make a withdrawal. As soon as your account goes overdrawn then things will most likely go from bad to worse but keep a nice healthy bank balance and you and you pup will soon end up as millionaires in the relationship stakes. (Issue 43, July 2020, pp.38-39). Read article
Dog Guardian Etiquette
Let’s say you have a dog who loves to charge about but is also a complete softie (I do!). He’s in area where it’s safe and permitted to be off leash and you see a dog in the distance. You shout, “It’s okay, he’s friendly!” But you have absolutely no idea how the other dog will respond to your dog or how that dog’s guardian feels about the advance. Many, many times I have worked with clients with nervous dogs on the receiving end of advances such as this and… Continued
Pets and Road Safety
To demonstrate the necessity of safely securing pets while travelling, the Royal Automobile Club of Spain (RACE) carried out a series of crash-tests in which they simulated a frontal collision at 50 km/h, using a dog dummy weighing 22 kg (48.5 lbs) and a human driver dummy. RACE concluded that the safest way to transport a pet is in a pet carrier (crate). For small dogs and cats, the crate is best located on the floor of the car. For larger dogs, it is preferable to locate the crate in… Continued
Developing Food Manners
Food manners develop over time and are dependent on your clarity and consistency in the management and delivery of the food. In this video, I address every issue that people encounter with hand feeding horses that I’ve heard of so far. It takes considerable self-control to keep your body still while you click for behavior so it’s a good idea to practice this often. Click your clicker first and then move your hand to reach for the food in your pouch. Preloading your hand is also something to consider, as it… Continued
Technique vs. Emotional Involvement: Finding the Balance
Handlers have an obligation to be trustworthy for their dogs. A handler who is calm and affectionate at times but who becomes anxious or disconnected in some situations can lead a dog to distrust them. For handlers, trust also means trusting that the dog is doing his best, or that if he cannot do his best, he has good reason. This is very difficult for many handlers. In any given situation, the dog’s behavior tells you what his best guess is as to how to handle the situation. (Issue 43,… Continued
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