Consumer Protection and Transparency Is Key to Professionalizing the Pet Industry: How to Compete Against Those Who Blatantly Disregard Ethics, Honesty, and Service Integrity with Niki Tudge

The current state of our industry is far from a fair game. Beyond the professional disagreements over methods, philosophies, and tools, there are sinister strategies at play, demanding our immediate attention.
As Foubert (2016) points out, scientific research in animal behavior and canine ethology provides humane training methods for dogs. However, there’s no legal obligation for dog trainers to apply these methods. This can lead to harmful training techniques and consumer deception. The burden of identifying a ‘qualified’ dog trainer falls on the consumers, a situation that is both alarming and unjust.
This strikes me as unfortunate, to say the least (for dogs and their owners), and incongruous, given that consumers are protected by legislation across an overwhelming number of other products, services, and industries—at both state and federal levels.

Come and join the discussion on Consumer Transparency and Protection as we explore what this means, its implications and ramifications for +R-based trainers, and how, with a new understanding of its importance, we can compete and combat “professionals” who are deceptive, fraudulent, and unethical.

This session will explore and meander around several topics that, when combined, set up the conditions for ensuring we provide ethical and honest practices. To juxtapose this, we will also explore examples of fraudulent marketing and illegal practices from pet industry players and compare these to other industries where legal action has been sought and won, preventing statements and unfounded guarantees that hoodwink pet owners and set up for dangerous and risky procedures for the four-legged clients.

Knowledge is power; your new understanding of ethics in marketing and consumer transparency and protection will help you further educate prospective clients and guide them to the appropriate service providers.

Learning Objectives

1. Understanding ethics in marketing
2. The connection between Pavlov and marketing effectiveness
3. How unethical marketing messages can manipulate pet owners
4. The differences between ethics and Law
5. A review of Illegal marketing practices
6. What is consumer protection?
7. Key Definitions
8. Fraud
9. Deception
10. What is the Misrepresentation of services
11. How we can use the behavioral sciences to impact our messaging and effectiveness
12. Summary and Recommendations for pet professionals

Foubert, E. (2016). Occupational Licensure of Pet Dog Trainers: Dogs are not the only ones who should be licensed. Chicago, IL: The John Marshall Law School

Your Presenters- Niki Tudge

Niki Tudge – M.B.A, PCBC-A, CABC, CDBC SSA-CFT, Six Sigma Black Belt, HCITB TS1, TS2 & TS3 Certified People Trainer, Certified Facilitator and Business Project Manager.

As the founder and President of The Pet Professional Guild, DogNostics Career Center and The DogSmith, Niki has substantial leadership experience in the pet industry. Niki has published numerous articles on dog training and dog behavior and her pet dog training businesses have been featured in many publications including The New York Times. Niki’s professional credentials include; AABP-Professional Dog Trainer, AABP-Professional Dog Behavior Consultant, PCBC-A and PCT-A through the Pet Professional Accrediting Board and she has earned diplomas in Animal Behavior Technology and Canine Behavior Science & Technology through the Companion Animal Science Institute. Along with Niki’s business degree and MBA from Oxford Brookes University she is also a certified Six Sigma Black Belt, a HCITB TS1, TS2 & TS3 certified people trainer and a certified Facilitator and Project Manager.

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