Search Results for certification
The Power of Play
By Margo Patrick *This post is a selected entry from the Pet Professional Guild Writers’ Competition for Geek Week 2020* My goal is to educate and facilitate health, wellness and communication through building or repairing the relationship known as the human animal bond, utilizing principles and standards derived from my first professional career as a registered nurse and my certifications in human animal intervention and, soon, applied canine ethology. I employ a dynamic, multidisciplinary force free approach involving overlapping principles of behavior, ethology, core emotions and emotional affect space. I believe… Continued
BARKS Podcast with Veronica Sanchez of Cooperative Paws Service Dog Education: January 9, 2021
Join Niki Tudge as she chats with Veronica Sanchez of Cooperative Paws Service Dog Education about service dog certification. Listen to Podcast here on a choice of platforms. Or simply click ‘Play’ below. Veronica Sanchez M.Ed CABC CPDT-KA is the founder of the Cooperative Paws Service Dog Coach™, an educational certification program for professional trainers. She teaches dog trainers how to train service dogs and how to incorporate service dog training into their pet dog training businesses. She also offers a variety of online courses on different aspects of service dog… Continued
BARKS Podcast with Paula Garber and Tabitha Kucera of the PPG Feline Committee: December 4, 2020
Niki Tudge, PPG president, chats with the PPG Feline Committee chair, Paula Garber and vice-chair, Tabitha Kucera about all things feline. Topics range from pet cats and veterinary visits, to what we know we don’t know about cats, and to feral cats and the myths about cat colonies. The trio also spend some time talking about all the great things the Feline Committee is doing, including the popular Cat Lounge! Listen to Podcast here on a choice of platforms. Or simply click ‘Play’ below. Paula Garber is the owner of LIFELINE Cat… Continued
Dudley the Wonder Fish
By Sharon Empson It has been a little over a year since I trained Dudley as part of my Karen Pryor Academy Certification as a Pet Trainer. Not wanting to add more furry pets to our home, I chose a fish as my “other species.” I bought Dudley at a pet shop when he was about a little over an inch long. Cichlids are intelligent fish. I read an interesting article that stated you can see the intelligence of Cichlids in their hunting techniques. The N. Livingstonii buries itself in… Continued
The Fearful Rescue Dog Who Changed My Life
By Gloria Schmidt *This post is the Pet Professional Guild runner up entry in our Geek Week 2020 Writers’ Competition* Back in 2011, I had accepted a job at St. Jude Children’s Research hospital that required moving to a new state, 13 hours away from home, to a place where I initially knew nobody within a five hour radius of Memphis. As an anxious and quieter type of person, I was frequently asked if this life change was the best idea for me. My constant answer was, “It will be… Continued
Puppy Joint Problems: An Unexpected Detour
By Gail Radtke Porter came into Sam’s life at the age of 8 weeks old as a healthy, happy, and adorable American pit bull terrier pup. Sam had met both Porter’s breeder and his biological mother and could not have been happier to bring Porter home and start raising her puppy. Sam works as a veterinary assistant at an animal hospital in the Lower Mainland in British Columbia, Canada, and is well experienced in canine care. Porter was your typical happy, playful, and goofy puppy and Sam enrolled in puppy… Continued
Phoenix Blog Competition: Blake’s Story – Adopting a Prison Program Dog
By Rhonda York One of the many things I get to do as a dog trainer is train inmates at the Federal Penitentiary in Leavenworth, Kansas in tandem with the Leavenworth County Humane Society. It helps both the residents and dogs and we work together to train the dogs in the program to have good manners and basic skills. Last November, one of the dogs, Blake, had finished his training but hadn’t been adopted yet. I didn’t want him to go back to the shelter, so knowing he should be… Continued
BARKS Podcast with Veronica Sanchez of Cooperative Paws Service Dog Education: September 9, 2020
Join Niki Tudge as she chats with Veronica Sanchez of Cooperative Paws Service Dog Education about the service dog industry, public access dogs, and the concept of at-home service dogs, as well as her new program, Mobility Task Training How-To’s. Listen to Podcast here on a choice of platforms. Or simply click ‘Play’ below. Veronica Sanchez M.Ed CABC CPDT-KA is the founder of the Cooperative Paws Service Dog Coach™, an educational certification program for professional trainers. She teaches dog trainers how to train service dogs and how to incorporate service dog… Continued
The Importance of Ethograms
By Dr. Sheryl L. Walker With a background in behavior analysis and animal behavior, I am easily captured by behavior in the wild. I was driving to work a couple of weeks ago and stopped to watch a family of geese walk across the street. One adult was in the front, one adult was at the back, and they were separated by four juveniles. The adult at the back was moving his head back and forth with his beak open, I’m assuming making some type of noise. Those 30 seconds… Continued
Phoenix Blog Competition: Traumatized Dog
By Rhonda York Claire, an Aussie/cattle dog mix, came to live with us in May 2016. When I brought her home to foster her, I had no idea how to help her. She was completely unsocialized to humans and utterly terrified of everyone and everything—except for my two Labs, Angel and Buddy. I read many books, but nothing addressed how traumatized she really was. I regularly volunteer at PAWS for Life animal shelter in Pueblo, Colorado and am used to hyper dogs, big dogs, slightly OCD dogs and nervous dogs.… Continued
Practice Makes Perfect
By Joanna Moritz Nobody likes going to the vet’s office with a sick pet. But here are some simple rules to follow that will make your trip more pleasant for you, your dog and the office staff – and that’s a win-win-win. 1. Practice Makes Perfect The less stressed your dog is for an exam, the better for everyone involved. So: If you have a puppy or a small dog, put him on your washer or dryer occasionally and practice touching him all over – and give him treats while… Continued
BARKS Podcast with Judy Luther of Trust Centered Training: August 26, 2020
Join Niki Tudge where she Chats and Chuckles with Judy Luther, chair of the PPG Canine Committee. Their discussion explores the great programs the committee is working on such as Project Trade, standard training procedures for boundary training, and so much more. Listen to Podcast here on a choice of platforms. Or simply click ‘Play’ below. Judy Luther is based in the St. Louis, Missouri metro area and Branson, Missouri and has provided training and behavior consulting services for a variety of species, both domestic and exotic, for over 27 years.… 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
Phoenix Blog Competition: Mookie’s Tale
By Kim Geisert The gray and white male pit bull was covered in blood. It was flowing down his face, running from the punctures in his forelegs and neck, and streaming from where the tip of his ear had been severed. He limped toward me, but was otherwise unexpectedly calm, considering the obvious trauma he had just experienced. We were at the neighborhood park, on one of the hottest July days on record, and both of our lives were about to change forever. At the time, I had been involved… Continued
E-Fence Fallout
By Daniel Antolec My clients Maggie and George* had both grown up with dogs. Now, as a married couple, they were ready for a puppy of their own. In 2009, they bought a house with a large lot that was ideal for a dog and joyful labradoodle, Charlee, thus entered their lives. As the house was located along a busy boulevard they, of course, wanted to keep Charlee safe while enjoying the yard, so they considered installing either a physical fence or an electronic containment system (ECS). Building a physical… Continued
The Hand-Delivered Retrieve
By Veronica Sanchez The hand-delivered retrieve is an important task for many service dogs and a wonderful skill for pet dogs. Service dogs trained to help a person who has a mobility impairment, a mental illness or a neurological condition often must be able to perform numerous retrieve-based tasks. Pet owners may want their dogs to retrieve a few items for enjoyment or to simply help out around the home. Owners who participate in Rally or other types of competitive obedience may need their dog to retrieve for performance activities.… Continued
BARKS Podcast with Veronica Sanchez of Cooperative Paws Service Dog Coach™: March 25, 2020
Guest: Veronica Sanchez M.Ed. CABC, CPDT-KA, founder, Cooperative Paws Service Dog Coach™ Topic: The role of service dogs; service dog training; instructor certification programs, and much more! Listen to Podcast here on a choice of platforms. Or simply click ‘Play’ below. Veronica is known for her expertise in service dogs. She has developed a certificate program for professional dog trainers in service dog coaching and authored the book, Service Dog Coaching: A Guide for Pet Dog Trainers. Be sure to listen all the way to the end or you will miss… Continued
Me, the Pet Professional Guild, and My Village People
By Coleen Ellis I’m just coming off an amazing weekend with yet another Pet Loss and Grief Companioning Certification class under my belt! Not unlike any of the other classes, the attendees are all about animals! Just like every other class, it’s a fabulous few days spent with my tribe! And, I know they felt the same way. However, this class was a bit different, and I was honored to have even been invited to be with this group of professionals and a part of their mission. An invitation by… Continued
The Top Ten New Simple Solutions to Help You and Your Dog in the New Year
Helping Pet Dog Guardians Get It Right! Did you know that good management is an essential part of any training or behavioral change plan? In fact, management is an important part of your dog’s life, in the same way that it’s important to manage your children’s environment. If your dog is behaving in a way you do not like, then limit his opportunity to practice the unwanted behavior. Management strategies can be put in place while you learn how to teach your dog new and more appropriate behaviors. Here are… Continued
Personal Trainer or Dog Trainer? The Case for Day Training
By Veronica Boutelle of PPG corporate partner, dogbiz Frustration over unfinished cases and low client compliance—endemic issues in our industry—often lead us to view clients as lazy, uncommitted, unskilled, uncaring, cheap. As positive reinforcement trainers, we teach “Don’t blame, train.” But while we’re quick to apply this mantra to dogs, we’ve largely failed to do so with our human clients. The human client equivalent would be, “Don’t blame the client, train their dog.” Our primary service modality, of coaching clients to train their dogs, does not serve our human or canine… Continued
The Miracle Mutt
By Gail Radtke Changing your career in your 40s is nerve-wracking at the best of times but I was lucky enough to have a very special friend to inspire and guide me towards following my passion. That special someone was Lanie, a Shar-Pei-Chow-Malamute-shepherd-mix girl who completely changed my life. Up until 2007 I had had a rewarding career at British Columbia Provincial Corrections in the Greater Vancouver area as a Correctional Supervisor and Instructor but then a car accident left me with injuries that would change my ability to carry… Continued
Encounter with a Poisonous Toad: How Positive Cues and Scent Games Saved the Day
In the early morning hours of a wet April in 2015, I found myself rushing my gorgeous Staffordshire bull terrier Jambo to the emergency vet. As a result of what happened on that stormy night, I shared our experience and the information that my veterinarian subsequently shared with me in a BARKS blog titled How Force-Free Training Helped Save My Dog’s Life! Here is a quick recap of what occurred: After a particularly bad thunderstorm had finally dissipated, I decided to take my two dogs out for a bathroom break… Continued
Position Statement on PPG’s Pet Industry Education Mandate
The Pet Professional Guild (PPG) and its membership hold themselves accountable to a high standard of ethics, protocols and transparency. Since its inception in 2012, PPG has been unwavering and unequivocal about where it stands on equipment philosophy and training methods for pets. As such, its members are committed to the use, promotion and education of humane, scientific and effective training, care and management protocols, as espoused in PPG’s Guiding Principles (2012). While PPG has taken an exclusively force-free approach and a promise to “do no harm,” it also recognizes… Continued
Mentoring the Next Generation of Trainers
I entered the field of dog training late in life, following my initial career in law enforcement. When I consider the things which made that 30 year career successful a long line of teachers parade through my memory and make me smile. They saw my potential, fueled my interest in learning and guided me toward my goals. They prepared me for the success which followed. At this stage in my life I think the older trainers and behavior consultants among us have an important role to play by preparing the… Continued