Podcasts about apdt

Have you ever been stressed out? Were you experiencing eustress, distress, or toxic stress? Do you know what factors in your life have directly affected your stress threshold? Join the Amys and their bee-guiling guest, Dr. Kristina Spaulding - the stress expert - and founder of Science Matters Academy of Animal Behavior, as we discuss all the F words that have to do with stress and how it affects our bodies. We touch on the important areas of the brain that deal with stress and some strategies for better coping.Grab a dictionary and a cocktail, and get up to speed on the latest buzzzzzz, courtesy of your favorite VBees

In this episode of Muttz with Mannerz Canine Training Academy podcast you'll discover  Instincts matter: A dog's instincts significantly influence their behavior and interactions with the world.Breed type matters: Understanding a dog's breed type reveals their needs, tendencies, and the roles they were originally developed to perform.You cannot train your way out of a breed: Training can shape behavior but cannot override traits rooted in a dog's genetics.Unique breed challenges: Northern breeds, hounds, terriers, and sporting types each present distinct challenges based on their natural instincts—like prey drive, wandering tendencies, or high energy levels. Recognizing these traits helps ensure appropriate outlets and support. Listen to the podcast for an enlightening conversation packed with practical advice and heartfelt stories that celebrate the bond between humans and their furry companions.Resources Sue Sternberg www.suesternberg.comSue's books and DVD's available through www.Dogwise.com and www.TawzerDog.com. The Biology of Dogs Dr. Tim Lewis https://www.amazon.ca/Biology-Dogs-Gonads-Through-Ganglia/dp/1617812765 https://www.audible.ca/pd/Biology-of-Dogs-Audiobook/B0DF99LMK5 Sniffspothttps://www.sniffspot.com/ Biographies Special guest- Sue SternbergSue has been working in shelters and as a dog trainer since 1981. Sue was the 2016 recipient of the APDT's Lifetime Achievement Award. She founded the shelter featured in the HBO documentary: Shelter Dogs. Her over 40 years of canine behavior experience includes as a dog control officer, behavior consultant at the ASPCA, shelter owner, successful competitor in a variety of dog sports (with Nose Work being her current wild favorite) and a teacher of dog trainers world-wide. She has published many books and DVDs  on all aspects of dog behavior, training and assessments, available through www.Dogwise.com and www.TawzerDog.com.Her latest book from Dogwise, is Assessing Aggression Thresholds in Dogs —Using the Assess-A-Pet Protocol to Better Understand Aggression. Sue has been developing and refining assessment techniques for decades to help shelter workers and trainers determine the likelihood that a dog will engage in aggressive behaviors. This book includes Sue's newest protocols based on the theory that sociability is the key predictor of a dog's potential for aggression.  Sue's newest DVD project is a giant, lifetime video collection of discrete behaviors serving as a catalog of body language—over three hours of an intensive study guide to dogs, available through Dogwise.Your Host:Corey McCusker, Canine Coach Professional Dog Trainer, CPDT-KA, FDMCorey's passion for helping humans and dogs excel led her to take a leap of faith and leave her corporate job in 2006 to start two coaching companies. She works with business leaders & high-performance teams, as well as canines. Corey's 30 years of diverse experience includes over 15 years of dog training, 22 years of corporate experience, and the last 13 years as a successful Solopreneur delivering a niche service coaching high-performing leaders, athletes, and canines to achieve their goals.Corey's roles have included Senior Manager, Dog Trainer, Vet Assistant, Group Tour Leader, and Mental Performance Coach. She believes in giving back to the community and over many years has volunteered at the Toronto Humane Society and the OSPCA. Currently, she is active with Markham Fair, and Stouffville Ladies Floor Hockey League, and was proud to be an evaluator for St. John Ambulance Dog Therapy Program. She also held the position of Director of Communications on the Canadian Association for Women Entrepreneurs and Executives.Corey has made Stouffville her home for the last 18 years and shares it with Mike, her partner, two step-daughters, Karla and Alison, Skye, her 2-year-old Manitoba Mutt, plus her two energetic kittens, Dino and Demi. She stays active with her two businesses and when not with the canines or family she loves playing floor hockey with the ladies or golfing with Mike.ContactMuttz with Mannerz – https://muttzwithmannerz.comCorey's Email – corey@muttzwithmannerz.com

Jamie, Bert & I attended the annual APDT conference in Riverside, California.

Visit us at shapedbydog.com    Answering your top questions on reactivity, dog behavior, agility, frustration, sports dogs, neutering and more! You'll hear tips on training multiple dogs, strategies for improving focus, impulse control, and drive, and how to handle things like lunging, growling, nipping and jumping up. If you have any other questions I didn't cover, jump over to YouTube and let me know in the comments. Your questions are always so insightful!   In this episode, I'm answering your great questions:   • Do dogs benefit from being in a multi-dog household or are they happy with human company? • I'm struggling with drive to show my dog that agility is fun. • I suspect my dog is having early takeoff at agility. Can I still do the sport? Is it selfish to want to continue? • Over arousal in the agility ring. • How often a sport dog should see specialists and which ones? • Neutering. When or when do I not neuter? Also, how to handle high sexual arousal for intact dogs.  • I feel like crap when I lose my patience. • How do I train more than one dog at a time? • Reactivity, reactive dogs. Reactivity, if you don't have the ability to keep a dog away from all the triggers. • I need help practicing greeting people on leash when my dog shows leash reactivity, lunging, growling, jumping.  • How do I set my dog up for even more success if he gets easily frustrated? • How do I use play to reinforce a cue? Can play replace food as a reinforcer? • Herding, nipping when overexcited and herding breeds.   Resources:   1. DogsThat YouTube Channel Playlists - https://www.youtube.com/c/DogsThat/playlists 2. Podcast Episode 282: How To Walk Multiple Dogs: Step-by-Step Guide To Stress-Free Walks - https://dogsthat.com/podcast/282/ 3. YouTube Livestream: Dog Agility: Create FUN & SUCCESS with These FOUR Focuses - https://www.youtube.com/live/uv3dxW-7ZHU 4. YouTube Video: Transforming Dog Behavior - The Story Of This! So Far: Dog Training, Agility, Nutrition And Beyond - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1UlHPe2R3uE 5. Dr. Laurie Coger Healthy Dog Workshop - https://healthydogworkshop.com/about/ 6. Healthy Dog Expo - https://www.healthydogexpo.com/ 7. Kim Collins: Pawsitive Steps Canine Sports Centre - https://www.pawsitivesteps.ca/instructors.html 8. 2024 APDT Annual Conference - https://www.apdtconference.com/ 9. Podcast Episode 262: Shaping Tips For High Drive, Frantic, Hyper Dogs To Stop Dog Training Frustration - https://dogsthat.com/podcast/262/ 10. Canapp Sports Medicine - https://www.canappsportsmed.com/ 11. Podcast Episode 230: Finding Joy Amidst Frustration And Shame In Dog Training – DeCaff's Story Part 2 - https://dogsthat.com/podcast/230/ 12. Podcast Episode 181: Training Multiple Dogs To Wait Turns And Relax - https://dogsthat.com/podcast/181/ 13. YouTube Playlist: Reactive or Aggressive Dogs: Key Insights with Susan Garrett - https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLphRRSxcMHy0Tbd6ZybIXgJk3mtpBLLk7&si=_-WvD5zovQjWtecA 14. YouTube Playlist: Target Training for Dogs with Susan Garrett - https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLphRRSxcMHy3ylCyQ2bJQSCwo_ERiVHj3&si=ptH9TKBCjz6x4MqW 15. YouTube Playlist: Dog Training Games with Susan Garrett - https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLphRRSxcMHy2TzttCtZVFwzwMGayAsaYe&si=97o0_XtEK0wBXcXb 16. YouTube Playlist: Help for Over-Aroused, Over Excited, Hyper, Frantic, High Drive or Out of Control Dogs with Susan Garrett - https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLphRRSxcMHy3tN5Z336OeZkYoF2dJ7gNY&si=nyxLfoYNt90QkcLx 17. Book: Frustration Theory- An Analysis of Dispositional Learning and Memory - https://www.amazon.com/Frustration-Theory-Analysis-Dispositional-Behavioural/dp/0521247845 18. Podcast Episode 281: How Vito's Thinking Games Will Transform Your Dog Training - https://dogsthat.com/podcast/281/ 19. Podcast Episode 215: What Your Destructive, Lunging, Nipping Or Hyper Dog Or Puppy Is Trying To Teach You - https://dogsthat.com/podcast/215/ 20. Watch this Episode of Shaped by Dog on YouTube - https://youtu.be/sWuYFA32IkM

Dando sequência à série "Naruhodo Entrevista" de conversas descontraídas com cientistas brasileiras e brasileiros, chegou a vez da mestra e doutora em Biociências e Biotecnologia Aplicadas à Farmácia, além de co-fundadora do canal NV1C (Nunca Vi 1 Cientista), Laura Marise de Freitas.Só vem!> OUÇA (81min 14s)*Naruhodo! é o podcast pra quem tem fome de aprender. Ciência, senso comum, curiosidades, desafios e muito mais. Com o leigo curioso, Ken Fujioka, e o cientista PhD, Altay de Souza.Edição: Reginaldo Cursino.http://naruhodo.b9.com.br*Laura Marise de Freitas é graduada em Farmácia-Bioquímica pela Universidade Estadual Paulista "Júlio de Mesquita Filho" - UNESP, com estágio de iniciação científica no National Institutes of Health - NIH (EUA).Mestra e Doutora em Biociências e Biotecnologia Aplicadas à Farmácia pela Faculdade de Ciências Farmacêuticas de Araraquara - UNESP. Fez parte do doutorado na State University of New York at Buffalo (EUA).Foi bolsista da Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP) na graduação, mestrado e no doutorado.Fez pós-doutorado no Laboratório de Processos Fotoinduzidos e Interfaces (LPFI) no Instituto de Química da Universidade de São Paulo (IQ-USP/Depto de Bioquímica), também com bolsa da FAPESP.Atuou principalmente nas áreas de microbiologia aplicada e terapia fotodinâmica antimicrobiana (aPDT), em ênfase em mecanismos moleculares de ação e otimização da aPDT, e biofilmes.Atua ativamente na Divulgação Científica através de trabalhos no grupo Nunca vi 1 Cientista e atualmente exerce atividade como Scientific Advisor.Lattes: http://lattes.cnpq.br/2603023551856235*APOIE O NARUHODO PELA PLATAFORMA ORELO!Um aviso importantíssimo: o podcast Naruhodo agora está no Orelo: https://bit.ly/naruhodo-no-oreloE é por meio dessa plataforma de apoio aos criadores de conteúdo que você ajuda o Naruhodo a se manter no ar.Você escolhe um valor de contribuição mensal e tem acesso a conteúdos exclusivos, conteúdos antecipados e vantagens especiais.Além disso, você pode ter acesso ao nosso grupo fechado no Telegram, e conversar comigo, com o Altay e com outros apoiadores.E não é só isso: toda vez que você ouvir ou fizer download de um episódio pelo Orelo, vai também estar pingando uns trocadinhos para o nosso projeto.Então, baixe agora mesmo o app Orelo no endereço Orelo.CC ou na sua loja de aplicativos e ajude a fortalecer o conhecimento científico.https://bit.ly/naruhodo-no-orelo

Celebrity trainer Nicole Ellis shares her top tips to lower stress for dogs, cats and yes, even horses! Nicole Ellis CPDT-KA, APDT, Fear Free Certified, AKC evaluator Nicole Ellis, a certified professional dog trainer and esteemed pet lifestyle expert, is the co-author of Working Like a Dog and has been featured on Amazon's The Pack, as well as The Today Show, among other platforms. Through her positive reinforcement training approach, Nicole emphasizes building strong bonds between pets and their owners. Her expertise spans puppy training, teaching tricks, dog sports, movie work, and more, all with the overarching goal of integrating pets more seamlessly into our lives. She has her own loved pets, Maggie and Rossi, as well as her horse Cali.

In this episode, Dr. Elizabeth Congdon and Dr. Jessica Owens describe how play therapy reduced salivary cortisol levels in shelter dogs and improved behavioral responses and emotional regulation. We discuss:Study design with Calmr dog toys and goalsHow play with improved relationships and wellness for shelter dogsSpecial design of Camlr toy mimics preyHow cortisol affects behaviorThoughts on developing programs for shelters involving play therapyDr. Elizabeth Congdon's bio and links:Dr. Elizabeth Congdon is an Associate Professor of biology at Bethune-Cookman University with an extensive background in behavioral ecology, conservation biology, and science education. She is particularly interested in the relationship between social structure and dispersal in neotropical mammals, specifically capybaras. Locally, Dr. Congdon works with animal shetlers to use data-driven strategies to improve the quality of life and adoption rates for the dogs and cats - especially the large dogs and 'bully breeds'. The latest results from her team show that therapeutic play as an enrichment strategy can bring down cortisol with a lasting effect. She founded BEC Research, Inc to help fund these efforts and support student research projects.APDT 2023 session description:Using interactive and therapeutic play leads to improved health and wellness in shelter dogsBEC Research, Inc www.becresearch.orgCalmr Dog Toys www.calmrdog.comDr. Jessica Owens' bio and links:Dr. Jessica Owens is an Experimental Psychologist studying animal behavior and communication. Their day job is serving as the lead behaviorist and CEO of Unleashed Training. They specialize in working with dogs and their guardians to overcome behavior and emotional challenges resulting from trauma – including abuse, neglect, lack of socialization, etc. www.unleashedtraining.org unleashedvolusia@gmail.comContact Behavior Vets tweet us @BehaviorVets follow us on Facebook follow us on Instagram Online courses Webinars and seminars Email Ferdie at ferdie@behaviorvets.com

As we bring Season 1 to a close, Elise and I reflect on my idea to start a podcast, and then chat with our guest Heather Blakeman, CPDT-KA. Heather received her Certified Professional Dog Trainer - Knowledge Assessed accreditation from the independent certification council, CCPDT, in 2017, is a Fear Free Certified Professional, a Professional Member of the APDT, and is a Certified AKC CGC Evaluator.

On What The Bark this week, listeners have been asking for an intro to dog training theory - so here we are! With George away, Dr. Imogen has stepped in to give an overview into dog training 101. We dive into the research, different training methods, and how to find a reputable trainer. And here are links to the APDT and to the Delta Institute, both mentioned on the podcast.

In this episode, we dive deep into the world of separation anxiety in dogs (and even touch on cats) with renowned expert Malena DeMartini-Price, author of the books "Treating Separation Anxiety in Dogs" and "Separation Anxiety in Dogs – Next-Generation Treatment Protocols and Practices." Malena shares her incredible journey to becoming a leading authority in this field, provides valuable insights on separation anxiety and its common symptoms, and dispels some prevalent myths surrounding this issue. We also explore how animal professionals, including trainers and veterinary staff, can make a significant difference. Malena sheds light on her invaluable book and online resources, and to wrap it up, she shares heartwarming success stories from her favorite cases.Malena DeMartini-Price is renowned in the dog training world for her expertise in dog separation anxiety issues. She is the author of the books Treating Separation Anxiety in Dogs and Separation Anxiety in Dogs – Next-Generation Treatment Protocols and Practices.She has also contributed articles on separation anxiety to multiple publications such as the Association of Professional Dog Trainers (APDT) Chronicle of the Dog, Pet Professional Guild's (PPG) Barks From the Guild, and various national magazines such as The Bark. She lectures on SA at professional dog training workshops and conferences around the world, including everything from large professional conferences to small venues.She also has been interviewed widely on this topic and multiple videos and podcasts have been produced. Malena is an honors graduate of the esteemed  Academy for Dog Trainers, where she studied under Jean Donaldson, and is a member of the APDT, the Pet Professionals Guild, and the International Association of Animal Behavior Consultants.Resources:https://malenademartini.com/https://malenademartini.com/for-trainers/books-and-workshops/ Mission: POSSIBLE course https://malenademartini.com/possible*The discount code for Tails from a Vet Tech listeners is Tabitha for anyone who is interested in receiving $100 off the lifetime access purchase (The regular cost of the course is $199)Support the show via social media: Twitter: https://twitter.com/TailsFromRVT Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TailsFromAVetTechPodcast Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tailsfromavettech

Ever wondered how trauma transcends species boundaries, impacting both humans and dogs alike? Here's your chance to unravel this complex topic with us and our esteemed guests, Dr. Linda Randall, a seasoned veterinarian, and Dr. Kathie Nurena, a medical doctor with a wealth of knowledge. Together, we'll explore the multifaceted nature of trauma, the invisible scars it leaves, and how understanding it as a 'wound' can illuminate its impact.The Aggression in Dogs ConferenceThe Bitey End of the Dog Bonus EpisodesThe Aggression in Dogs Master Course and Expert Webinar Bundle --- LIMITED TIME SPECIAL OFFERABOUT LINDA:Linda Randall, DVM is a Board Certified Companion Animal Veterinarian focused on the behavioral aspects of training in dog sports. She also brings positive reinforcement handling to junior handlers, who excel under her tutelage. A proponent and practitioner of the LIMA methodology, Linda brings multiple fields of expertise to the work of trauma informed care. She is certified in Living and Learning with Animals (LLA), Tag Teach (Level 3), and is also a KPA-CTP of distinction.Linda is a past president of the Ohio Veterinary Medical Licensing Board, past president of the Board of the Medina Battered Women's Shelter, and currently heads the Leadership Medina County Agriculture Day, where she emphasizes farms working with increasingly positive reinforcement handling and care with beef and dairy cattle. She was recognized by The Ohio State University College of Veterinary Medicine as an Outstanding Alumni 2022, and Medina County's Outstanding Leader, 2022.Linda owns a full-service training facility in Seville OH, One Smart Dog. You can reach her at: 330-958-9224,  1smartdog.LR@gmail.com,ABOUT KATHIE:Kathie Nurena is a doctor and a dog trainer. She graduated for Albert Einstein College of Medicine in 1999. She completed her Family Medicine Residency at Stamford Hospital. She is now faculty at that program, with an interest in social determinants of health and scholarly activity. She also graduated from Karen Pryor Academy (KPA-CTP) and earned her Certified Nose Work Instructor (CNWI) certification. She currently teaches nosework classes at Port Chester Obedience Training Club.  She is a member of APDT and IAABC. Kathie helped organize the first interdisciplinary conference for animal control officers, Department of Children and Families social workers, and other professionals in Connecticut, when cross reporting of child abuse and animal abuse became a law in that state. She has long appreciated how the principles of learning theory and the positive reinforcement principles she learning in animal training were relevant to her work with human learners. And, perhaps, some of the theories in the medical literature may be useful to animal trainers.Support the show

Ready to start your dog training business but feeling overwhelmed? Fear not, because today, we're joined by industry veteran and author Veronica Boutelle. Together, we're walking you through the journey of launching your own venture or enhancing your current business, from defining clear goals and vision to striking a balance between work and life. We're not just training dogs here; we're teaching trainers to take the reins of their business, ensuring they not only love their work but the life they're building around it.  So, listen in, and get ready to take notes - this episode is packed with insights to help you launch and grow your dog training business.The Aggression in Dogs ConferenceThe Aggression in Dogs Master Course and Expert Webinar Bundle --- LIMITED TIME SPECIAL OFFERThe Bitey End of the Dog Bonus EpisodesAbout Veronica:Veronica and her team have been helping R+ dog trainers create their dream businesses since 2003.Veronica is the author of How to Run a Dog Business and writes for multiple industry journals, including regular business columns in PPG's Barks from the Guild, APDT's Chronicle of the Dog, as well as APDT Australia's Clicks and the APDT New Zealand member newsletter. She is a sought-after speaker at conferences and dog training schools across the country and internationally, teaching R+ dog trainers how to help more dogs while better enjoying their businesses in countries ranging from North America to South America, Europe to Down Under. She is also a Clicker Expo faculty member.Veronica combines her experience as a professional dog trainer and business owner with her former career as a classroom teacher, teacher educator, and curriculum developer to create unique and effective programs and products to help dog trainers start, grow, and enjoy successful businesses. Fun Fact: Veronica grows much of her own food and is rarely seen at home without dirt under her fingernails. She's also a compulsive weed puller. See weed, must pull.www.dogbizsuccess.com www.dogbizsuccess.com/thrive facebook: dogbizsuccess instagram: dogbiz_successSupport the show

Linda Randall, DVM, KPA-CTP, LLA, TagTeach Level 3 Owner: One Smart Dog, Seville OH, USA Linda sold her veterinary hospital in 2019, where she had practiced as an ABVP Board Certified Diplomate, Companion Animals, for 20 years, and also worked with exotics. She then opened One Smart Dog, a full-service dog training facility, the month Ohio shut down for the pandemic in 2020, which, she says, was “exciting”. Linda has been engaged in dog sports, obedience, agility, and field trials with her Flat Coated Retrievers, and sheep herding, agility, and Scent with her Border Collies. Her passion for behavior grew from learning about training from a variety of trainers (she is a cross-over trainer) and realizing that although all the trainers she worked with felt they had a method that worked, only a few took the time to develop insight into why animals did what they did, or had the curiosity needed to want to understand what function their behavior had. Most had a “top-down” method of working with dogs which, the more she learned about the science of behavior, she found uncomfortable. And then: a friend came back from one of the first clicker conferences and talked about clicker training.  Linda couldn't get enough information about it. She started attending positive reinforcement conferences such as Clicker Expo and taking classes (Living and Learning With Animals is a favorite!) and joining intentional R+ communities such as the Animal Training Academy.   Linda works hard to maintain a positive presence in her daily interactions with friends, clients, students, and instructors. It can be difficult to run a full-service dog training facility, maintain her relief veterinary business and find time to do webinars and conferences, but Linda feels strongly the effort is worth it.  She especially finds joy in working with kids who want to learn to train their dogs. With their increased ability at a young age to have excellent hand-eye coordination (hello cellphones and video games!), kids make wonderful, compassionate trainers. She believes that engaging with another species and working in age-appropriate spaces helps develop compassion for others and encourages acceptance of diversity.  Linda has produced a 4-hour series on Kids, Race, and Positive Reinforcement for the Heart Album and, along with her co-host Kathie Nurena, MD, KPA-CTP, NACSW Cert. Instructor, Linda has spoken at The Convergence of Human Behavior, Animal Training, and Technology (CHATT) conference, The Lemonade Conference, and is speaking this fall at APDT. Linda and Kathie discuss Trauma Informed and Trauma Assumed Care in animals and people, with an emphasis on the intersection of animal training, human caregivers, and behavior. As a Black woman in the majority white professions of veterinary medicine and dog training, Linda has had experiences that have been life-changing and soul-searching at the same time. She is inspired to support others who have ventured into these worlds and to seek a deeper understanding of why we do what we do and why we believe what we believe. Behavior can help, and it can hurt, both the giver and the receiver. In a world of increasing compartmentalization of groups, and anger directed towards those considered “other”, she hopes encouraging a behavioral view and positive reinforcement interactions will, in some small, but tangible way, make a difference. As Linda says: we have to try. For links visit here >>> https://atamember.com/2023/07/06/linda-randall/

Michelle Mullins CDBC is the owner of Honest To Dog, LLC in Richmond, Virginia, USA and serves as the IAABC Foundation president. Michelle has been training dogs for 20 years and all of her work has the same objective—developing long, enriching relationships between pets and their people. In addition to her work in the pet product industry, she has worked with private clients for basic manners, puppy socialization, cooperative care training and through aggression issues. Michelle works closely with other trainers, certified behavior consultants and veterinary professionals.  She is an IAABC Certified Dog Behavior Consultant(CDBC), holds certificates as a Karen Pryor Academy (KPA) Certified Training Partner (CTP), a Fear Free Certified Animal Trainer, TAGteach Level One Certified and has completed the Master Course – Aggression In Dogs. Currently, Michelle focuses on providing educational content, presentations and mentorships for pet professional organizations including the IAABC Foundation, Fear Free Pets, APDT and as a guest speaker at Ohio State University. She contributes to and is available for conferences, panels, podcasts and consultations both on behavior cases and pet product development. She is dedicated to the IAABC Foundation mission to inspire, develop, and provide quality, evidence-based education, research and charitable activities in animal training and behavior. For links, visit here >>> https://atamember.com/2023/04/06/michelle-mullins/  

Kat has a master's degree in both Psychology and Applied Animal Behaviour, a COAPE diploma and is an APDT trainer with experience in a broad spectrum of scent detection disciplines including explosive, drug & conservation detection dogs.  Kat lives alongside and works the only operational Japanese Knotweed Detection dogs within the UK.Join us to take a deep dive into Scentwork and its role within the rehabilitation of dogs how it can help to build confidence and resilience. 

A bite from a dog can have many ramifications. These can include the emotional impacts on the dog's guardians, or the dog practicing an undesirable behavior, or even the potential fate of the dog. And of course in our litigious society, we often will see civil and even criminal ramifications when a dog inures a person or other animal. For this episode of Fresh Bites on The Bitey End of the Dog, I chat with Melissa McMath Hatfiled who is an expert on expert witness work in dog bite cases.  Melissa does an excellent job of breaking down what can happen when a bite incident ends up in court, and what to expect from both the plaintiff and defendant sides. For additional resources on helping dogs with aggression, visit:https://aggressivedog.comAbout Melissa:Melissa McMath Hatfield, MS, CBCC-KA, CDBC, has combined her experience as a trial consultant and her passion for the human-canine relationship to develop and strengthen the canine-human relationship through understanding, knowledge, and empathy.  Hatfield earned a master's degree in counseling psychology (1981) and is a retired Licensed Psychological Examiner. As owner of McMath Trial Consultants for 42 years, her area of specialization has been in jury selection, developing jury profiles, focus groups, case presentation, voir dire, and witness preparation. She has been published and presented to numerous state and national bar associations and is considered an expert in jury selection for both state and federal courts. She has participated in high-profile cases in both civil and criminal courts across the country.  Hatfield is a Certified Canine Behavior Consultant and a Professional Member of both the International Association of Animal Behavior Consultants (IAABC) and the Association of Professional Dog Trainers (APDT). She has been published in the IAABC Journal, the APDT The Chronicle of the Dog, the Royal Spaniel, and the Cavalier King Charles Spaniel The Bulletin. Her articles have received numerous nominations in the Dog Writers Association of America's writing competition. Relative to this presentation, she was published in the IAABC Journal, August 2017, “Witness for the Prosecution” and the APDT, Chronicle, Spring, 2018, “Witness for the Prosecution…Dog trainers, behaviorist may be called for expert testimony.” She presented a 2015 E-Training Webinar, “Identifying and Assessing Mental Health Issues in the Dog,” and “Attachment Scales as a Tool for Trainers, Shelters and Behavior Consultants,” at the APDT 2017 fall conference in Richmond Virginia.  Currently, Hatfield has a private practice in which her skills as a trial consultant and certified canine consultant can be combined to assist the professionals who find themselves in litigation.  However, her primary focus is temperament assessments and behavior evaluations of dogs that are exhibiting mental health issues, such as anxiety, aggression, fear, and other behavior problems. Hatfield lives in Fayetteville, Arkansas, with her very supportive husband, Dick, and two Cavalier King Charles Spaniels, Haviland and Huntington, who is currently aspiring toward his AKC Championship. However, her love of dogs could not be summarized fully without mentioning her beloved first Cavaliers, Champions Truman, Princeton, and Stetson McMath. Oh, the bittersweet of the human-canine relationship!For a list of her publications and further information, please go to:www.lovingdogs.netwww.mcmathtrialconsultants.com  Support the show

We are so excited to introduce you to Jamie Diaz, Owner and Training Director of Lucky Dog Training Club & Dynamite Dog Training . She has been passionately training dogs for over 15 years using strictly positive reinforcement/force free methods.  She is a certified Dog Trainer with a CPDT-KA certification and is licensed under Victoria Stilwell. As part of Victoria Stilwell's Positive Dog Training Team, Jamie is an ambassador for force free methods and serves as a mentor to aspiring force free trainers around the country.She is also a certified K9 Nose work instructor, CGC evaluator, Trick Dog Certified Trainer, and is working on case studies for the Treat/Retreat Certification that focuses on dog to people reactivity. She is also proud to serve as an evaluator and instructor for the great new program C.L.A.S.S. which was formed by the APDT to promote training focused on the use of positive reinforcement and to strengthen relationships through positive training methods.Jamie also owns Dynamite Dog Training, which currently has two training centers; the original location in Deerfield Beach that has been successfully operating for 10 years, and a second center in Delray Beach that has been in operation for 4 years now.Jamie and her team offer online training sessions.Don't miss to check out her TikTok video with 1 million views!! Yes, you read it right:)https://www.tiktok.com/@dynamitedogtraining/video/7138841881227562283?is_copy_url=1&is_from_webapp=v1Connect with Jamie Diaz:https://www.dynamitedogtraining.com/ and https://luckydogtrainingclub.comIG:may https://instagram.com/luckydogtrainingclubhttps://instagram.com/dynamitedogtrainingFB:https://www.facebook.com/LuckyDogTrainingClubhttps://www.facebook.com/dynamitedogtraining Upcoming events for Petpix World *******Petpix Birthday - September 28th Check out our amazing Petpix world free courses:https://www.petpixworld.com/free-coursesJoin our free Petpix community:https://www.petpixworld.com/petpix-world-community Advertise your business with us on our top go-to platform for all pet lovers and pet business owners across the globe.https://www.petpixworld.com/advertise-with-petpix-world

If you're on social media, or just have an interest in dog training and behavior in general, you might have seen the controversy surrounding a research article that was published around the end of April, so just a couple months before the release of this podcast episode. The paper is titled "Ancestry Inclusive Dog Genomics Challenges Popular Breed Stereotypes". It's a bit of a mouthful, but the short summary of controversy is that many in the mainstream media or on social media were saying that "breed totally matters, while others were staying, see, breed doesn't matter at all." So the first thing that came to my mind was, let's get one of the authors of the paper onto the podcast. And the next thing that came to my mind was, let's get Kim Brophey to be my guest host on this episode, as she is someone that has talked so much about breed and behavior tendencies in her past appearances as a guest on this show. And so I brought Jessica Hekman, who is one of the authors and Kim Brophey together, and and let's just say, these two brilliant minds do not disappoint in this episode, as we take a deep dive into not only dispelling some of the misunderstandings from the research, but also into genetics and aggression in general.  For additional resources on helping dogs with aggression, visit:https://aggressivedog.comIf you want to take your knowledge and skills for helping dogs with aggression to the next level, check out the Aggression in Dogs Master Course and get a FREE preview here:https://aggressivedog.thinkific.com/courses/aggression-in-dogsDon't miss out on the third annual Aggression in Dogs Conference  9/30-10/2/22:https://aggressivedog.com/conference/About Jessica:Jessica Hekman, DVM, PhD, is a behavioral geneticist. She is one of the founders of the Functional Dog Collaborative (functionalbreeding.org), a non-profit which seeks to change the conversation around dog breeding in the dog loving community. She also teaches behavioral biology at the Virginia Tech online Masters program for Applied Animal Behavior and Welfare, and offers webinars online and consults with breeders about genetic testing and breeding choices. Jessica lives in Raymond, NH with her husband and three dogs.About Kim:Kim Brophey, CDBC, CPDT-KA, FDM, is an applied ethologist and owner of The Dog Door Behavior Center in Asheville, NC. Kim's commitment to Family Dog Mediation® has been recognized internationally, awarded the APDT Outstanding Trainer of the Year and the Best Dog Trainer of WNC seven years in a row. She is a member of the International Society for Applied Ethology and the APDT, and a certified member and past board member of the IAABC. Kim Brophey's L.E.G.S. ® model of integrated canine science has been endorsed by prominent canine scientists such as Raymond Coppinger and embraced by reputable academics and dog trainers worldwide. From her applied ethology content in Michael Shikashio's Aggression in Dogs Master Course to her market-disrupting L.E.G.S.® Applied Ethology Family Dog Mediation® Course, Kim's work is a celebrated contribution to the field. Her groundbreaking sold-out first edition book, MEET YOUR DOG, TED talk, Beyond The Operant (BTO) collaborative, many public speaking venues, and countless radio and podcast features have made profound waves throughout the dog behavior world. Support the show

Kerry from Howl School for Dogs is a certified dog trainer based in London, England, a member of the APDT and also a practising Nichiren Buddhist, working to promote ethical and compassionate methods of dog training and behaviour modification in the UK and beyond. Kerry works 1:1 with dogs and their guardians, as well as groups - and is available for online sessions with anyone across the globe, with dogs of any age or background. She has a particular fondness for dogs struggling with reactivity and, with her Yorkie mix Norma, is on a mission to help people learn to recognise that small dogs are valid and have needs too! Once a month Kerry hosts an Instagram Live designed to share reward based methods of training and get the education out there to people who perhaps can't afford to work with a professional, or for whatever reason won't. Howl: School for Dogs Website: www.howldogs.org Instagram: www.instagram.com/howl.school.for.dogs Study Kerry Mentioned about Stress Levels of Daycare Dogs: Albright Ng UNT JVB.pdf UK Government Website: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/animal-activities-licensing-guidance-for-local-authorities/dog-day-care-licensing-statutory-guidance-for-local-authorities#:~:text=There%20must%20be%20a%20clear,the%20same%20periods%20of%20time.

Stress, hormones, emotions, impulse control, arousal, cognition --- a lot of different words that get thrown around in our conversations about dogs and behavior. In this episode with the incredibly informative Dr. Kristina Spaulding, we unpack many of those terms, and why they are so important to define correctly when discussing aggression in dogs. Kristina does an amazing job of breaking down these concepts in the show, and I hope to see the conversation continue in the dog training community. For additional resources on helping dogs with aggression, visit:https://aggressivedog.comIf you want to take your knowledge and skills for helping dogs with aggression to the next level, check out the Aggression in Dogs Master Course and get a FREE preview here:https://aggressivedog.thinkific.com/courses/aggression-in-dogsDon't miss out on the third annual Aggression in Dogs Conference  9/30-10/2/22:https://aggressivedog.com/conference/Woof Cultr swag!https://woofcultr.com/collections/the-aggression-in-dogs-conferenceAbout Kristina:Dr. Kristina Spaulding has been in the dog training and behavior profession for over 20 years. She has a PhD in biopsychology—the study of the biological basis of behavior—and is a Certified Applied Animal Behaviorist. She also has a B.S. in Wildlife Ecology from the University of Wisconsin – Madison. She is particularly interested in stress, neurobiology, cognition, emotion, and wellbeing and how to apply these concepts to the prevention and early intervention of behavior problems in dogs. In addition to working with behavior clients, Dr. Spaulding teaches a variety of online courses and webinars on the science of behavior through her website, www.smartdogtrainingandbehavior.com. She also regularly presents on canine behavior science at conferences and other events. In 2019, Dr. Spaulding received the Association of Professional Dog Trainer's (APDT's) Member of the Year Award. She currently serves on the IAABC Foundation Board and the Fear Free Advisory group.https://smartdogtrainingandbehavior.com/online-services/ https://www.facebook.com/KristinaSpauldingPhD https://www.instagram.com/science_mattersllc/Support the show

The APDT put out a new statement about their stance on LIMA and acceptable training methods, so Lynne, Kim, and Alice, of course, had to get into it and bark for a while, along with an almost live reaction to the IACP's response. This is a great example of how certain wording is harmful to the entire pet industry by causing more of a rift between trainers. LIMA Definition per Stephen Lindsay: Correction procedures should not be used lightly or haphazardly. The rule of thumb is to select the least aversive and intrusive procedure that is reasonably expected to succeed. According to the least intrusive and minimally aversive (LIMA) model, aversives are ranked in terms of their relative severity and intrusiveness, requiring that the trainer apply a less aversive technique before advancing to a more aversive one. Adhering to this model and selection process ensures that the least necessary and sufficient aversive procedure is used to produce the intended behavioral objective. In addition to minimizing the potential for producing pain and discomfort, correction procedures should be governed by a principle of minimal intrusiveness. Training procedures should intrude minimally on the human-dog bond and avoid adversely affecting the dog's quality of life. Overly constrictive restraint and confinement techniques should be avoided in favor of techniques that most rapidly and humanely achieve training objectives without causing undue distress or discomfort to the dog. APDT Position Statements: https://apdt.com/about/position-statements/ IACP Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/CanineProfessionals Follow us on Facebook and Instagram! https://www.facebook.com/talksitpodcast https://www.instagram.com/talksitpodcast/ Music: Good Times - Patrick Patrikios Support by RFM - NCM: https://bit.ly/2xGHypM

Dog Parks.  If you live in an urban area they are often a lifeline for owners eager to let their dogs run, play, and burn off a little steam. But dog parks also spark vitriol from owners, especially those who have had a dog injured (or attacked) while visiting one.Not surprising, a successful dog park experience depends as much on the human as it does the dog.  And keep in mind, dog parks aren't a fit for every dog.In this episode of the pawdcast, Karen's friend Elizabeth joins as a co-host, while Jean is traveling.    Elizabeth is a resident of Washington, DC and has learned to navigate her local dog park with her Aussie mix Roxie.  Together, Karen and Elizabeth chat with Sandy Modell about the dos and don'ts of dog parks.  A favorite guest on the pawdcast, Sandy is a member of the Association of Professional Dog Trainers (APDT) Board of Directors and founder of Wholistic Hound Academy in Alexandria Virginia.   APDT has great resources for owners, including this one on dog parks https://apdt.com/resource-center/dog-parks-good-bad-ugly/

Este programa especial será um espaço para dialogarmos sobre o mercado de trabalho existente para o/a profissional da iluminação cênica em várias regiões brasileiras. Queremos conhecer sobre as diversas realidades existentes no país. Para isso, chamaremos alguns convidados da Bahia para compor essa “mesa” de diálogos. Mediador: Eduardo Tudella ingressou na Escola de Teatro da UFBA em 1975 para a graduação no Curso Superior: Direção Teatral, depois de haver frequentado um curso de teatro, no antigo nível médio, da mesma escola. Ao concluir, em 1979, Direção Teatral, se transferiu para o Rio de Janeiro em 1980, onde cursou Cenografia na UniRio [Universidade Federal do Estado do Rio de Janeiro]. Ao final dessa nova graduação, em 1984, retornou para Salvador, afim de continuar seu trabalho na nossa Universidade. Em 1990, foi aceito para o concorridíssimo mestrado da Escola de Artes Tisch da Universidade de Nova York. Concluiu o programa no tempo mínimo e retornou ao Brasil, em 1994, para continuar seu trabalho na Escola de Teatro, trazendo o título Master of Fine Arts – Theater Design, até esse momento não outorgado no Brasil. Em 2010, iniciou o doutorado em Artes Cênicas, no Programa de Pós-Graduação em Artes Cênicas da UFBA (PPGAC), que concluiu em 2013. Em 2014, foi homenageado com o Prêmio Capes de Teses. Em 2017, sob os auspícios da EDUFBA, foi publicado seu livro, A luz na gênese do espetáculo, que, no ano de 2018, recebeu o segundo lugar do Prêmio ABEU (Associação Brasileira das Editoras Universitárias). Debatedores: Rafael Andrade inicia seus trabalhos como ator em 1996 e com com iluminação em 1999, na Associação Pauloafonsina de Dança e Teatro. Durante sua estadia na APDT, cria projetos de iluminação, como também faz operações de vários espetáculos, tanto na cidade de Paulo Afonso, como em alguns festivais de teatro, em algumas capitais, como: São Paulo, Aracaju, Salvador. Foi um dos fundadores da ABRIC Associação Brasileira de Iluminação Cênica, em 2005 em São Caetano do Sul - SP, onde fez parte do Conselho Fiscal. Em 2008, cria a Candeeiro Iluminação, uma empresa voltada para criação e execução de iluminação para vários tipos de eventos, como espetáculos de teatro e dança, shows, eventos corporativos e sociais. Mariana Passo: Taurina, atriz Bacharela em Artes Cênicas formada pela UFBa e vive de luz, pois é iluminadora cênica. É fundadora e CEO da Cicloramaah, uma Edtech de Ensino Híbrido Pedro Benevides: Iluminador Cênico e Professor Assistente na Universidade Federal da Bahia e entre os anos de 2015 e 2020 foi membro efetivo do quadro de Professores da UnB (Universidade de Brasília). É graduado em Direção teatral e Mestre em Artes Cênicas pelo PPGAC/UFBA - cuja pesquisa de mestrado foi publicado pelo Edital de publicação promovido pelo SEMINALUZ -MG com o título: “Em_Cena o Iluminador”. No campo da iluminação, desenvolve Desenhos de Luz para as mais variadas áreas culturais, com maior ênfase em peças de teatro e dança. Acumula experiências pontuais em eventos corporativos e projetos com características arquitetônicas. Com três anos de indicações consecutivas, ganhou o Prêmio Braskem de Teatro 2011, com o Desenho de Luz para o espetáculo “Protocolo Lunar”. Otávio Correia é iluminador e diretor teatral, formado em direção pela Escola de Teatro da UFBA, mestre em Artes cênicas pelo Programa de Pós-Graduação em Artes Cênicas da UFBA com a pesquisa em iluminação e dramaturgia na qual desenvolve os conceitos de idioma-luz e vocabulário visual para a luz.

Happy New Year!  January is “National Train Your Dog Month” and in this episode of the pawdcast, Karen and Jean chat with Trevor Smith, of the Association of Professional Dog Trainers (APDT). APDT was founded in 1993 by renowned veterinarian, animal behaviorist, dog trainer and writer, Dr Ian Dunbar.  With a goal of helping trainers improve their knowledge and skills through education, APDT provides an industry standard of excellence for the dog training profession.With over 5200 members in 48 countries, APDT has grown to be the largest association of dog trainers world-wide.It's important to note that there is no formal training, state licensing or national criteria to become a dog trainer.  Anyone can become a trainer without following an approved, regulated, or standardized training curriculum.  Too often owners are enticed by flashy marketing and the promise of quick results and entrust their dogs to unscrupulous, unqualified or under-qualified trainers.  APDT is working to rectify that. A first step was the creation of the LIMA standard.  LIMA stands for LEAST INTRUSIVE MINIMALLY AVERSIVE.  Members of APDT pledge to learn and then provide training that does not involve dominance tactics or use of aversive tools such as choke collars, prong collars or shock and E collars. Trevor shares questions owners should ask when speaking with potential trainers and why all dogs and owners will benefit from some form of training activity.You can learn more about APDT, their work, their standards and how you can identify a qualified trainer here - https://apdt.com/

Today Cindie is joined by Alyne Welch, Head Trainer at Walks and Wags. Alyne just returned from the APDT convention and has lots of new tips and inspiration for you and your dog. Join them as they talk about the exciting new training techniques, tips, products and adventures for you and your dog straight from the APDT conference. They will be taking your calls live on air if you have any questions or could use some advice to help you and your dog. GUEST NAME: Alyne Welch GUEST BIO: Alyne is an APDT member and Head Trainer at Walks and Wags and Head Evaluator for their dog daycare. Her motto is, “A trained dog is a safe dog!”

In advance of School For The Dogs April 24th screening of Bob Bailey's short film, Patient Like The Chipmunks, Annie is reading aloud some works by Dr. Bailey and his late wife, Dr. Marian Breland-Bailey. Today she is reading from their 2001 article, The ABCs of Behavior, from The Trainer's Resource: The APDT Chronicle Of The Dog. The ABCs are Antecedent, Behavior, and Consequences. Sign up for the screening at http://schoolforthedogs.com/bailey Purchase The Dog Trainer's Resource by The APDT Chronicle Of The Dog https://amzn.to/2Rv3ZsU

Michael is a an internationally sought after keynote speaker and presenter on the topic of aggression at numerous events, conferences, and universities worldwide. He has mentored and presented to thousands of animal professionals in twelve different countries and has been a guest at every major dog training conference in the U.S. and Mexico including the APDT, IAABC, FDSA, Clicker Expo, Victoria Stilwell's DBC, PPG, CICA, Owners of Dog Daycares, and The Aggression in Dogs Conferences.Michael is fully Certified through the International Association of Animal Behavior Consultants and is one of fewer than 300 CDBCs worldwide. He is the founder of the Aggression in Dogs Master Course  at aggressivedog.com and currently teaches trainers and behavior consultants in more than 25 countries how to work with aggression cases.Michael also has a great podcast called The Bitey end of the Dog. Interview Questions:Define dog aggression?What are the different types of dog aggression?How do dogs become aggressive?How important is sleep for young puppies?What about fear, anxiety, and stress?What about the owners stress and anxiety?What are dog behavior consultants and dog trainers seeing more of since COVID-19?Have you seen more young puppies with dog aggression?What are the first signs that new puppy owners should look for with their dog being aggressive?How can we help prevent or minimize the possibility of our puppies developing dog aggression. Do male dogs that get neutered become more aggressive?Visit Michaels website at https://aggressivedog.com/ Be sure to visit our website  https://www.puppytalkpodcast.com/Our sponsor is Top Gun Dog Training at https://topgundogtraining.com/Support the show (https://www.buymeacoffee.com/puppytalk)

Guest: Nicole Ellis, Maggie And Nicole - MaggieAndNicole.com Show Notes: In this week's episode, hosts Jasen Arias and Sylvia Wes chat with Nicole Ellis of Maggie And Nicole, as she shares with us what it's like working in a "Celebrity Dog World;" as well as,  some trainers tips that might not just change your life. . ..but your dog's life too!  Nicole is a Certified Professional Dog Trainer (CPDT-KA), American Kennel Club CGC evaluator, author of Working Like A Dog - Coffee Table Book, APDT trainer, Rover.com celebrity dog trainer, and expert dog trainer on Amazon Prime Video's #ThePack. Using positive reinforcement methods she has trained thousands of animals from basic behavior and puppy manners, to trick training, therapy work, and service dog training. Nicole believes with love and positive reinforcement, she can train any dog. She grew up riding horses, bonding with family pets and was always the fearless kid in the class who volunteered to hold the giant boa constrictor or pet the cheetah (didn't every kid want to pet a cheetah?). She went on to study animal training with top trainers, learning to work with everything from exotics like bears and big cats to household pets like dogs and cats! Resource Links: FureverUSA.com DogUpInThisBitch.com FenixMedia.us ***License to use music contained in this program was issued by ASCAP (License #: 400009234) and BMI (License#: 60993608) for use by Fenix Media, Sparks, NV.

Today on the Biohack your Pet Podcast we have Malena DeMartini! Malena DeMartini-Price is renowned in the dog training world for her expertise in dog separation anxiety issues. She is the author of the book Treating Separation Anxiety in Dogs and has contributed articles on separation anxiety to multiple publications such as the Association of Professional Dog Trainers' (APDT) Chronicle of the Dog, Pet Professional Guild's (PPG) Barks From the Guild, and various national magazines such as The Bark. She lectures on SA at professional dog training workshops and conferences around the world, including everything from large professional conferences to small venues. She also has been interviewed widely on this topic and multiple videos and podcasts have been produced. Malena is an honors graduate of the esteemed  Academy for Dog Trainers, where she studied under Jean Donaldson, and is a member of the APDT, the Pet Professionals Guild, and the International Association of Animal Behavior Consultants.   We hope you like this content and if you do, please follow us on Facebook or YouTube, check out the website, subscribe and leave a review! 

In this podcast we spoke about how to run a successful dog business including some common mistakes people make and what you can do to avoid them. Veronica is the former Director of Behavior & Training for the San Francisco SPCA. She has been helping dog professionals create their dream businesses through dogbiz since 2003. Veronica is the co-founder of DogBiz. She is the author of How to Run a Dog Business and The Business of Dog Walking, the co-author of Minding Your Dog Business, and writes for multiple industry journals, including regular business columns in PPG’s Barks from the Guild and APDT’s Chronicle of the Dog. She is a sought-after speaker at conferences and dog training schools all over the world. Find Veronica's Thrive membership at: https://dogbizsuccess.com/thrive/

WELL JINGLE US LIKE A JAPANESE AKITA! Things are starting to smell Festive around Barks HQ! And what better way to spread some pre holiday goodness than with a brand spanking new episode!? This week we dive head first into the often talked about and much misunderstood world of Seperation Anxiety with the awesome Malena DeMartini-Price. If smashing myths and blowing minds is what you're after settle down you're in for a treat. Also expect the usual banter-tastic shenanigans from Nat and Steve, look out for a new jingle and basically have some fun... WOOF! Malena Facts Malena DeMartini-Price is renowned in the dog training world for her expertise in dog separation anxiety issues. She is the author of the book Treating Separation Anxiety in Dogs and has contributed articles on separation anxiety to multiple publications such as the Association of Professional Dog Trainers’ (APDT) Chronicle of the Dog, Pet Professional Guild’s (PPG) Barks From the Guild, and various national magazines such as The Bark. She lectures on SA at professional dog training workshops and conferences around the world, including everything from large professional conferences to small venues. She also has been interviewed widely on this topic and multiple videos and podcasts have been produced. Malena is an honors graduate of the esteemed Academy for Dog Trainers, where she studied under Jean Donaldson, and is a member of the APDT, the Pet Professionals Guild, and the International Association of Animal Behaviour Consultants. Links Link to Malena's main website https://malenademartini.com Link to the Separation Anxiety Certification Program informationhttps://malenademartini.com/for-trainers/separation-anxiety-training-certificate-program/ Link to Malena's amazing online self-paced course for dog owners called Mission:POSSIBLEhttps://malenademartini.com/for-owners/separation-anxiety-in-dogs-mission-possible-online-course/ Link to Malena's bloghttps://malenademartini.com/blog/ Link to Steve & Corrins Goodall Dog Training Facebook pagehttps://www.facebook.com/goodalldogs/ Link to Nat's Training & Behaviour Facebook pagehttps://www.facebook.com/Natdogs/ Link to Drax's Galactic Adventure Facebook page (Nat's rescued Irish Wolfhound)https://www.facebook.com/Draxthewolfhound/ Link to Steve & Sallys Childrens book 'Jack & Billy Puppy Tales'https://www.facebook.com/JackandBillyPuppyTales/ Link to Grant Sharkey's Spotify page (Grant's amazing song 'Grow' features each week as our outro tune. https://open.spotify.com/artist/13PaCwwgVR77TbJH6XAVHQ?si=EOQGmWdCRCiXdECNmJvNAQn

Join Niki Tudge as she chats to Louise Ginman, the President of APDT Australia one of the co-hosting organizations for Geek Week. Louise is also doing two presentations at Geek Week and we discussed the topics of My Dog Has Cancer: Navigating Cancer from a Pet Parents' Perspective and Home Alone Program for Puppies and Dogs of All Ages. About Louise Louise Ginman PCT-A is a Delta Accredited and Professional Canine Trainer – Accredited dog behavioural trainer who runs a dog training business, Positive Dogs, in Sydney, New South Wales. She has served on the Association of Pet Dog Trainers (APDT) Australia committee since 2008 and been president since 2012. She also serves on the PPG Australia committee. Ginman has several qualifications including a BSc and Certificate IV in companion animal services, as well as over 27 years' experience with both domestic and exotic species in both a training and husbandry/management capacity. She worked as a veterinary nurse, dog and cat groomer and animal attendant in a busy and large practice in the Eastern Suburbs of Sydney for several years before moving to Taronga Zoo in 1994 to work on the Carnivore Unit where she is the unit supervisor. Her role is varied and covers duties such as carnivore husbandry and management, animal training and enrichment, diets and nutrition, staff training and supervision, media work, conference presentations and other forms of public speaking, research, education and conservation work. Ginman is guardian of a Shetland sheepdog and a Siberian husky and competes at agility, Rally O and obedience. Her book, The Art of Introducing Dogs. A guide to conducting dog to dog introductions, was published in 2013. She strives to educate people about living in harmony with their dog through her writing and pet dog training courses. About Geek Week Geek Week is the ultimate virtual event for professionals working in the fields of pet care, animal behavior and training, as well as for guardians who want to learn more about their pets! So, join us for more than 130 sessions delivered by 85 world class presenters over 24 hours a day for a fabulous five days! Register Today

In this episode I chat with Sue Sternberg, a world renowned dog behavior expert who has devoted her personal and professional life to helping dogs and people live together happily.  We talk about the street dogs we had the pleasure of observing when we were together in Valle De Bravo, Mexico, and the profound difference in behavior with dogs in the United States. I also pick Sue's brain on her fascinating insight into dog body language and red flags for aggression, and we dive deeper into the reason why we might be seeing an increase in aggression cases overall. Hopefully, this episode will generate some much needed conversation about how we are getting dogs and bringing them into our human lives. AggressiveDog.comAggression in Dogs ConferenceSue's website:https://www.suesternberg.comAbout Sue:Sue has been working in shelters and as a dog trainer since 1981. Sue was the 2016 recipient of the APDT's Lifetime Achievement Award. She founded the shelter featured in the HBO documentary: Shelter Dogs. Her over 40 years of canine behavior experience includes as a dog control officer, behavior consultant at the ASPCA, shelter owner, successful competitor in a variety of dog sports (with Nose Work being her current wild favorite) and a teacher of dog trainers world-wide. She has published many books and DVDs  on all aspects of dog behavior, training and assessments, available through www.Dogwise.com and www.TawzerDog.com.​Her latest book from Dogwise, is Assessing Aggression Thresholds in Dogs —Using the Assess-A-Pet Protocol to Better Understand Aggression. Sue has been developing and refining assessment techniques for decades to help shelter workers and trainers determine the likelihood that a dog will engage in aggressive behaviors. This book includes Sue's newest protocols based on the theory that sociability is the key predictor of a dog's potential for aggression.  Sue's newest DVD project is a giant, lifetime video collection of discrete behaviors serving as a catalog of body language—over three hours of an intensive study guide to dogs, available through Dogwise. Sue is a hobby paleontologist, and spends as much free time as she can exploring the desert with her dogs looking for fossils and also pretty rocks. She loves all things Star Trek, is an avid tea drinker, and plays the fiddle, too.

Quais os benefícios da aPDT na Endodontia? Nesse programa Excellence Endo, a professora Renata Dália comenta sobre o assunto!

Howdy Bookshelvers!In this episode of Barks From The Bookshelf Nat and Steve get to have a good ol' chin waggle with their good buddy Karen WildKaren is a force of nature in the Dog World (not to mention other furries). We focus on her awesome Book 'Being a Dog - the world from your dog's point of view'. First published in 2016 this is a truly fact filled book on the subject of what its like to be a dog. Written from the dogs point of view it is charming and a fabulous reference book which you'll end up returning to again and again!Nat and Steve then delve deep into some of the topics (and there are plenty to pick from) featured in 'Being a Dog'. Look out for the new segment called The Gregg Wallace Moment and also brace yourselves for when Steve decides to get "sciency" with hilarious results.Karen's bio from the Paw Print Pets Website Karen Wild: As part of my commitment to high standards, I am a Certificated Clinical Animal Behaviourist (CCAB), Animal Behaviour and Training Council Clinical Animal Behaviourist (ABTC-CAB) and a Full member of the Association of Pet Behaviour Counsellors (APBC) and I am an ABTC (Animal Behaviour and Training Council) Registered Animal Training Instructor I am also a graduate member of the British Psychological Society (MBPsS). I also qualified as a dog training Instructor (First grade, Honours) with the British Institute of Professional Dog Trainers in the days before the APDT even existed and have kept my skills and knowledge up to date ever since attending regular training courses including a recent Certificate of Excellence from Dr Susan Friedman’s Living and Learning with Animals course. I write on dog behaviour and training for Dogs Today, Pet Product Marketing, PETS International, Dogs Monthly, Pet Gazette and Pet Focus. I have written three best-selling books on training and behaviour, published by Hamlyn, translated into several languages worldwide. I’m also a guest blog writer for Dr Ian Dunbar’s revolutionary website, Dog Star Daily. I also lecture on Behaviour practice, practical training and consultation for the Professional Diploma for Clinical Animal Behaviour at Central College for Animal Studies (CCOAS) and was guest instructor for Anglia Ruskin University in Cambridge, U.K. I speak regularly on this same subject in webinars and seminars, most recently in Dublin, Ireland and Shrewsbury, Shropshire and addressed the APBC Annual Conference in 2014. Over the years my work has ranged from class teaching, obedience, flyball, agility and working trials competition to running a popular dog display team. When I started my family I realised there was a genuine need for one-to-one help for family dogs; I formed Pawprint for behavioural consultations and training. My passion is to create and rebuild the ‘enjoyment factor’ that can come from owning your pet dog. Link to 'Being a Dog' by Karen Wild on Amazon. https://www.amazon.co.uk/Being-Dog-world-your-point/dp/0600631508/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?keywords=karen+wild+being+a+dog&qid=1582634210&sprefix=karen+wild&sr=8-1 Link to Karen's Paw Print Pets Website http://pawprintpets.comLink to Steve & Corrins Goodall Dog Training Facebook pagehttps://www.facebook.com/goodalldogs/Link to Nat's Training & Behaviour facebook pagehttps://www.facebook.com/Natdogs/Link to watch Nat's APBC webinar: Settling in a traumatised rescue doghttps://www.f

Jen Burns is a certified professional dog trainer, certified behavior consultant, certified canine good citizen evaluator, CATCH mentor trainer, and a member of the Pet Professional Guild, Member of the APDT, and on the board of directors for the certification council of professional dog trainers. And On the show this week, we're talking about dog-family dynamics, and how to best prepare to welcome a furry new family member to your home. You can find Jen at her WEBSITE, on INSTAGRAM, and FACEBOOK.     Talk About It: Each week we challenge you to set a time with your spouse to have a conversation that matters. Here's your conversation starter question: What does / would having a dog add to your family?    Additional Resources:  Break out of the Roommate Zone, with the 7 Secrets of Legendary Marriages, our FREE resource!  Subscribe rate, and review the show on Apple, Spotify, Stitcher, or anywhere else you listen to podcasts!  (Try asking Alexa to "play the Legendary Marriage Podcast") If you haven't already, please rate and review the podcast on Apple Podcasts

Laura Ryder  - Bio Laura is the Head Dog Trainer at Morley Vet centre in Perth, Western Australia. She is a Certified Professional Dog Trainer (CPDT-KA) a Karen Pryor Academy Certified Training Partner (KPA CTP), a Full Member of the Institute of Modern Dog Trainers (IMDT) and is also on the Fear-Free Speakers Bureau. Laura has three passions when it comes to dog training: As a member of the Fear-Free Speakers Bureau, she passionately brings low-stress handling and Fear-Free training into veterinary clinics – focusing on both the physical and emotional health of patients. Laura is one half of the Institute of Modern Dog Trainers Australia education team. IMDT Australia launched in January 2019, and Laura hopes to see it follow in the IMDT UK’s footsteps – where it is known as the leading education provider for dog trainers and behaviourists. Laura also spends a lot of her time creating fun and engaging training courses for pet dogs. 2014 saw Laura create The Canine Adventure course – a non-competitive dog sport, for the family dog to enjoy. The Canine Adventure Course saw Laura travel to Las Vegas in 2016 to presents at the annual APDT conference, and then to London in 2017 where she presented at the Institute of Modern Dog Trainers Conference. There are now trainers all over the world running their very own fun Canine Adventure Courses – which for Laura, means more dogs out there, having fun with their families! Laura shares her home with her husband, daughter, her four Border Terriers – Wicket, Malani, Lando and Rogue - and her 30-year-old horse, Arnie. LINKS Morley Vet centre https://vetcentre.com.au/ https://www.facebook.com/VetcentreMorley/ Institute of Modern Dog Trainers Australia https://www.imdt.com.au/ https://www.facebook.com/IMDTAustralia/ https://www.facebook.com/groups/641813072887843/ Institute of Modern Dog Trainers UK https://www.imdt.uk.com https://www.facebook.com/TheIMDT/ Fear Free https://fearfreepets.com/ https://fearfreehappyhomes.com/ Canine Adventure Course https://canineadventurecourse.com/  

You might consider your dog your "baby," but what happens if you decide to add an actual infant to your family? Jessica Jacobson, owner of NYC's Dapper Dog Training, has spent years coaching families on prepping their dogs for the arrival of a tiny non-furry new family member. Annie and she discuss how she built her career, and go over some key things to consider when training a dog for interspecies sibling-hood. Notes: Dapper Dog Training - Marilyn Ullman of the "Discover Your Dream Career" course - Association of Professional Dog Trainers' annual conference - Nursing Your Baby by Karen Pryor - Snuggle Puppies - Annie's baby! - Music: "Hello Ma Baby" ukulele cover by The Channel Drifters --- Partial Transcript: **music** Annie: Hi everyone. Thank you so much for listening. Before we get into the meat of today's show, I just wanted to say thank you to everyone who has left reviews on iTunes. It's a really great way to let people know about this podcast. If you're enjoying it, please do leave a review. And Instagram stories has also been a fun way that people have let others know about the podcast. If you take a screenshot and share in stories and tag School for the Dogs on Instagram, we will reshare it. And it really feels good to know that we're reaching people. So today I am talking to my friend, fellow dog trainer, Jessica Jacobson, who has her own dog training business in New York City. And I wanted to talk to her both to just find out how she got into dog training and built her business, but also specifically because she has something of an expertise on preparing dogs for the arrival of a baby. And I have a baby on the way so I was hoping she might be able to give me some tips on getting Amos, my Yorkiepoo ready for this life event. Jessica: Hello? Hi. My name is Jessica and my company is called Dapper Dog training and I'm stoked to be here. Annie: And we've known each other actually for a long time now. Jessica: Yeah Annie: We met in Atlanta at the APDT dog conference dog conference. Jessica: 30000 years ago. Annie: 2010 it was. I remember it was 2010, cause it was right after I finished Karen Pryor Academy. Jessica: Oh yeah. Annie: Was that the first time you'd ever been to the association? APDT is the Association for Professional Dog Training? Jessica; Yes. I think it was my second conference or maybe my first. I don't remember, but I remember when I saw you and we had gotten together because I think I was listed on the APDT website as having a dog trainer meetup. Annie: Yeah, yeah. Which is actually also, I think how I met Kate was through your meetup. But that was like a real seminal moment for me because it was the first time that I was sort of immersed in a group of dog trainers outside of the two other people in my class at KPA. Jessica: It's like social crack. Annie: Yeah. It was a bit. It was also, it was just so interesting to meet people doing it, like all people from all over the country and also meeting different kinds of dog trainers and cause Association Professional Dog Training is not strictly, um... Full Transcript available at SchoolfortheDogs.com/Podcasts/

In this podcast we discuss the role of different dog training associations and how to find the correct one for you. We also covered regulation - will it ever happen? would it be a good or a bad thing and what should it look like? Sarah is the president of the International Association of Animal Behaviour Consultants. She has written articles for the APDT and Karen Pryor's ClickerTraining.com and was included in Ken Ramirez's book Better Together: The Collected Wisdom of Modern Dog Trainers. She's also spoken at the APDT Conference multiple times and teaches workshops throughout the U.S and Canada. Show Notes: www.nickbenger.com/sarah-dixon IMPACT Pet Business Success Summit: https://www.growyourpetbusinessfast.com/impact Dom's 33 ideas: https://www.growyourpetbusinessfast.com/33ideas/

Summary: This episode we talked to 3 long-time FDSA students...  Alla Podkopaeva has been taking classes at FDSA since August of 2015, when she took Engagement at bronze for the first time — and last session, Denise asked her to be a Teaching Assistant for that same class! She since has earned her Fenzi Dog Sports Trainer Certificate, and is currently training for all the things… and sharing takeaways from her journey on her new blog, thedognerd.ca. Andrea Woodcock has been taking classes at FDSA since December of 2013, after hearing Denise talk at an APDT conference earlier that year. At that point she had been been training service dogs for about 7 years — and today she continues that work as the training manager at Dogs for Better Lives. Sara Pisani has been taking classes at FDSA since it began offering obedience classes, and has taken a gold class every single session — except for 2 sessions in 2015 when she had both knees replaced. Before finding FDSA, Sara and her first performance dog, Jazz Marie, who she began with in Novice A, knowing nothing about dog sports, went on to earn over 350 OTCH points and a Champion Tracking title. Next Episode: To be released 12/28/2018, with Leslie McDevitt.

Summary: Mike specializes in working with aggressive dogs — we had him on the podcast to share how he defines the term and what tools and analogies he finds useful in working with these dogs and their owners!  Next Episode:  To be released 11/02/2018, our follow up on bringing home an adult dog series with Dr. Jessica Hekman, PhD, DVM TRANSCRIPTION: Melissa Breau: This is Melissa Breau and you're listening to the Fenzi Dog Sports Podcast brought to you by the Fenzi Dog Sports Academy, an online school dedicated to providing high-quality instruction for competitive dog sports using only the most current and progressive training methods. Today we’ll be talking to Mike Shikashio. Mike is the past president of the International Association of Animal Behavior Consultants (IAABC), and provides private consultations working exclusively with dog aggression cases through his business Complete Canines LLC. Michael is fully certified through the IAABC and is a full member of the Association of Professional Dog Trainers (APDT). He also offers mentoring and training to other professionals. Mike is sought after for his expert opinion by numerous media outlets, including the New York Times, New York Post, Baltimore Sun, WebMD, Women’s Health Magazine, Real Simple Magazine, The Chronicle of the Dog, and Steve Dale’s Pet World. He is a featured speaker on the topic of canine aggression at conferences and seminars around the world, and he currently teaches “Aggression Cases: A to Z” through The Dog Trainers Connection and the “Aggression in Dogs Mentorship” through the IAABC. Hi Mike! Welcome to the podcast. Mike Shikashio: Hi Melissa. Thanks for having me. I’m excited to be here. Melissa Breau: I’m excited to chat. To get us started, can you give us a little background about your dogs and what you work on with them? Mike Shikashio: I’m kind of a mixed blended family of dogs right now. My girlfriend just moved up from Chile, and she brought her black Lab/mixed-mutt dog up. But she makes me look good, this dog, because she was already trained because my girlfriend is also a trainer. So I haven’t been doing a whole lot, but I do enjoy some off-leash hikes with her, and she’s got a great recall, and so I’ve got it easy right now with dogs. Melissa Breau: Hey, that’s the best. New dog comes in fully trained? You can’t beat that. Mike Shikashio: Yeah, bonus! Melissa Breau: How did you originally get into dog training and end up in this crazy world? Mike Shikashio: I actually started out in the rescue world. I did a lot of fostering dogs when I was much younger, and as you get good as a foster parent, the rescues will start sending you more and more difficult dogs, so that’s how I caught the training bug and the behavior bug, so to speak. I wanted to learn more about how to work with these foster dogs. At the same time, I always wanted to open my own dog business and dog-related business, so my original aspiration was to have a dog daycare/dog boarding kind of place. But then I got more into this training and behavior side of things, and that led me down the road of doing more research on my own and learning, and going to my first conferences and seminars, and doing things like that, and that’s how it led me to where I am today, really getting focused on training behavior. So those foster dogs, I can give them the credit for making me want to learn more. Melissa Breau: Starting without necessarily a specific background in dogs or what have you, were you always a positive trainer? Is that where you got started, or what led you down that path? Mike Shikashio: I started out as more of a “traditional balanced trainer.” One of my first mentors had a working military dog background, so that’s what I started with, and some of the more traditional tools — pinch collars, e-collars, and things like that. Coincidentally, I was at the APDT conference this week and finally got to meet Jean Donaldson in person, believe it or not. I hadn’t met her in person ever, and she mentioned to me she’s not big into traveling, and so I think that’s one of the reasons I hadn’t met her at any of the previous conferences. But I got a chance to finally thank her, because one of the first books I read about the positive training world was The Culture Clash, and that really had an effect on my training methodology and getting into that side of the training world. So I finally got to say thank you to her. So I didn’t start off as a positive trainer. I started off more on the balanced training side of things to where I moved on to where I am today with my training methodology. Melissa Breau: Would you mind talking a little bit about what your methodology is today? How do you describe it or what have you? Mike Shikashio: My work is exclusively with aggression in dogs, so I only take aggression cases. Most of the work I do, the methodology I use, is through behavior change strategies using desensitization and counter-conditioning, and also differential reinforcement or positive-reinforcement-based strategies to teach the dogs that … the old saying we hear, “What do you want to do instead?” So a lot of it is focused on that, and of course antecedent arrangements. A lot of it isn’t just training and behavior modification. A lot of times I’m working in conjunction with vets in terms of addressing underlying health issues. So most of it is a combination of management and safety, environmental changes, and then working in conjunction with ancillary folks like the veterinary field, and then of course using those differential reinforcement and counter-conditioning strategies in my work with the aggressive dogs. Melissa Breau: Why aggression? You mentioned you do that exclusively now. What led you down that path and what keeps you there? Mike Shikashio: That’s a question I get a lot. First and foremost, if people listen to this and they want to get into aggression, or they’re taking a lot of aggression, I will say that you do have to love working with aggressive cases, or aggression cases, because there’s weeks that can go by where I can work a bunch of cases and not even pet a dog. So you have to be prepared for that. You have to be prepared to have lots of dogs want to bite your face off the first few times you meet them, and see that day after day after day. So that’s part of it is being able to have that, being able to cope with that and be able to come home and pet your own dog and meet a nice puppy every once in a while. But I think one of the most significant factors that got me into this is really helping the people and helping the dogs reestablish that human-animal bond. I think that’s fractured a lot in aggression cases. A lot of clients are on their last leg or really struggling emotionally, and I found that repairing that and focusing on helping that relationship and affording the best outcome for the dog is what really got me into it. I saw I was able to make some significant changes in the future for these dogs by focusing on it. I also think that specializing — we see a lot of this now, and Denise Fenzi’s a good example of that — specializing in certain areas of the dog-training world. Now we have the CSATs that focus on separation anxiety, we have people focusing on certain aspects of dog training, the dog sports world. If people asked me how to teach a dog how to go through weave poles, I would say, “I have no idea,” and I would refer that on to somebody else. I think specializing allows you to get much better at the thing that you’re specializing in much faster than if you were taking a variety of different cases. I also found that was one of the reasons I wanted to get just solely into aggression — because I wanted to be really good at it. So I said, “Let me try just taking aggression cases exclusively,” and it’s worked out really well. I think because you get to see the same things over and over, and so you’re able to troubleshoot much faster. You’re able to see the same things happening and get a general idea of what is happening in a case even before you step into it you’ll start to see the same things over and over. I think that has a lot also, what to do, I want to focus on one area. Rather than being good at a lot of different things, I want to be great at one thing, so that’s what led me down the road of working with just aggression. Melissa Breau: I think that’s really important for professionals to realize that sometimes niching down is a great way to grow a business. It’s not limiting the business. It’s actually a way to become more successful. So I think that’s a great point. Mike Shikashio: Absolutely, absolutely. I just listened to one of your recent podcasts and it was focused on business, and I think that’s such an important point. A lot of folks are worried about, “I do this one thing exclusively, and now all those other clients I could take doing other behavior problems are off the table,” but believe it or not, once people know you specialize in something, the business really takes off because you become that go-to person for that one area. Melissa Breau: Absolutely. Just to make sure everybody’s on the same page in terms of terminology and what we’re talking about here, when you say you only take aggression cases, what’s the range of severity there? What does each end of that spectrum look like? Dig into that a little bit for me. Mike Shikashio: That’s a great question, Melissa. I think piggybacking off the last question, I define aggression as basically whatever the client thinks is happening when they call me. I advertise for aggression in dogs, or people having problems with aggression, that keyword right there, because that’s usually what people are searching for online, and that can fall into a wide range. Aggression itself, that’s a construct or a label, so it can have different definitions. Even when you’re talking to experts, or behavior experts, depending on who you’re talking to, that definition is going to differ, so I just classify it or define it as whatever the clients are calling me for in the first place. That can be anything from a dog barking and lunging on leash at people and dogs, but no bite history, and it’s perfectly social when they are close to people or other dogs, and so that might be labeled “reactive,” or may not be labeled aggression, but the client contacted me because they think it’s aggressive, so they will call me for that. The other end we might have true aggression, like aggressive behavior with biting, severe bite injuries, and things like that. So you can get any one of those extremes. You might even get, I get this sometimes, where it’s a client that’s got a puppy that’s new to the home and they’re just mouthing, and the client’s not savvy with dogs, or it might be their first dog, and I’ll get an e-mail: “Help, my dog is being so aggressive and is mauling me.” You get there and it’s just a typical case of a very mouthy puppy and those sharp puppy teeth. In my area you get a lot of retirees, so I’ll get an elderly couple on blood thinners with a young Golden mouthy puppy, and it’s a perfect storm of it looks like a horror show when you get there because the poor folks have all these Band-Aids and marks all over their arms. It’s kind of a mismatch at that point of young puppy with elderly folks, but that’s not of course what we would classify as aggression. Melissa Breau: Sometimes it’s what you show up for, which leads really well into my next question, which is, how do you prepare for that first session? Sometimes owners definitely don’t describe things the way that we would. What kind of information is “need to know,” and how do you figure out what’s really going on? Sometimes, like you said with that puppy situation, they’re going to think the puppy is crazy-aggressive, and you show up and it’s like, “Oh, this is actually pretty normal.” How do you approach that? What do you do to prepare for a new client? Mike Shikashio: In terms of communicating with clients in aggression cases, one of the most important things to focus on in your initial contact with that client is getting information about any kind of bite incidents or the aggressive incidents which are why they’re contacting you about. You want to know about the level of biting that’s occurring, the severity of the biting, and also the context in which it’s happening, so that way you can set things up safely for your arrival. That’s what I focus on during my initial contact. I don’t do a long intake form. I don’t spend a whole lot of time on the phone or e-mailing clients. What I shoot straight for is that context of when the actual aggression incidents happen, so I can get information about how I’m going to set it up safely for my arrival, because even when you can go into very thorough, detailed information with a client on the phone, you still might not get a full picture. So I always err on the side of caution and assume that a bite might happen, if the dog has a bite history, so I’m always setting things up very safely. A good question to ask is, “What do you do with the dog now when people come over?” A lot of the clients will have already set up a system. Most of the time it’s, “Oh, I just put him away,” and that works really well also when I arrive, because then I can get detailed information during the first 15 to 30 minutes or so, where I do the information-gathering step of my consultation. That’s usually, again, going to give you the most information about how to safely set up the dog, or get the dog out. That way, I can then get thorough information in front of the client and see the environment, and then determine the best way to meet the dog after that. I always stress that you always want to be very, very safe during your initial greetings with dogs, and your initial consult, until we have more information. Melissa Breau: I guess the hard question: Do you think that all dogs can be rehabilitated? Mike Shikashio: That term “rehabilitation” is sort of arguable in a sense, because it depends if you look at it from a behavioral standpoint when people talk about rehab, as sort of it leads you toward the dog having a certain illness, because that’s sort of an ugly term in the human world, and if you look at physical rehabilitation, it implies fixing an issue. We know with behavior, once it’s in the animal’s behavior repertoire, it’s technically always there. So I’m very careful about when clients use that term “rehab.” I want to know their definition of it, because if they’re implying that we’re going to fix the problem, or the dog’s never going to do the behavior again, that’s going to skew potentially their goals. So I always explain to clients that the behavior — our goal is to make it less likely to happen. We reduce the likelihood of it to happen and to management and to behavior modification. So to say all dogs are rehab-able, again that’s an arguable term. I think all dogs we can change behavior. In all animals we can change behavior. So that’s what I focus on — making sure the clients understand how behavior works and how we can reduce the frequency of behaviors, and then they can start to understand. And also, of course, looking at the variables that affect behavior, the antecedent arrangements and the antecedents and things that can affect behavior. Once the client starts understanding and grasping those concepts — and using the layman’s terms, not using the behavioral terms with clients — but I think once they start to understand those concepts, then they realize that this is something that is not going to be like a light switch which we turn it on or off. So that’s how I approach it generally with clients. Melissa Breau: You mentioned earlier some of the tools that you use. Can you talk a little more about those? What things do you use most often? Feel free to break it down into layman terms for us. I know we have a wide range of backgrounds in the audience. Mike Shikashio: With aggressive behavior, or aggression, you’re looking at two components. The simple way that I explain to clients is that you have factors that make the behavior more likely to happen, but that doesn’t mean the behavior is going to happen unless you have the antecedent. I use this analogy a lot with clients, where if you have an empty fuel drum or fuel can, and what we can do is add more fuel to it, we can add layers of fuel, which the more fuel you have, the more likely you are to get an explosion, or that progressive behavior we don’t want. And those are what we refer to as distant antecedents in the animal world. So when you have those factors, if you add in more and more layers, you’re going to have at one point a fuel can that’s ready to explode. But again, you need a spark or a match to actually make that explosion happen. Those sparks or those matches are the antecedents, or what sets that behavior in motion, so you need both often to see the aggressive behavior. So I start to teach clients about how to recognize factors that can influence behavior. For instance, a dog that is growling near the food bowl, or biting people when they come near the food bowl, factors that can increase the likelihood of that are a dog that is really hungry, or a dog that is stressed, or a dog that might be on medication, for instance, or underlying medical issues that make it more likely to do that behavior, because those are what we call distant antecedents, or again, factors that are adding layers of fuel. So if you have a dog that just ate a full, huge meal and then you put a food bowl down, you’re less likely to see that behavior if somebody approaches. Now, the person approaching, that’s the match, that’s the antecedent or what can spark that explosion, so one day it might be somebody approaching from 10 feet away and the dog explodes, or the next day it might be the person can literally reach near the food bowl because the dog doesn’t have all those fuels fueling it. Once the client starts to understand that, rather than them assigning personality traits to the dog, or underlying reasons for the behavior, you know, “My dog is dominant,” or “My dog is like, 90 percent of the time he’s good, 10 percent of the time he’s bad, I just don’t know when,” once the client starts to understand how there’s got to be fuel there and then there’s those matches, those matches are not always present, there’s going to be times when those antecedents or those matches come into play, and that’s when you’re going to likely to see the behavior. Once we see that, then we can start modifying those behaviors. So then, again with the food bowl we present the match, or the person approaching from maybe 11 feet away, and we can change the dog’s association with that match approaching. That’s the desensitization and counter-conditioning that I mentioned before. We’re changing the association: somebody approaching the food bowl means something good is about to happen. A lot of times I’m often using food in my work with dogs, so it may be as simple as somebody approaching means they’re about to throw a treat, a higher-value treat than what you have in the food bowl, from 11 feet away. We’re doing it at a safe distance where we’re not causing the explosion, and we’re changing the dog’s association. Then you may also incorporate differential reinforcement of an alternative behavior. That’s just a fancy term for “What do you want the dog to do instead?” when that match approaches, and so lifting the head up out of the food bowl. We can start to catch that, and if we’re doing marker training with our dog, we can say “Good,” or “Yes,” or even click for lifting the head up out of the food bowl, which is an alternative behavior to growling or barking or lunging or biting. So we can start to catch that. So you’re doing two different things at the same time: you’re doing operant conditioning, which is teaching the dog what to do instead, and you’re doing the classical counter-conditioning — you’re changing the association for the dog with the very simple procedure of, “Anytime I approach, if you lift your head up out of the food bowl, something good is about to happen, and when you lift your head up out of the food bowl, I will reinforce that.” That can be incorporated with a number of aggressive behaviors. Think about your typical dog that barks and lunges at other dogs on leash. Set the dog up, set the stage correctly, keep enough distance from the other dog so there’s no explosion. You’re presenting the match of the other dog, so instead of starting from 5 feet away, you might start from 50 feet away, where the dog is not close enough to cause that explosion, and you wait for your dog, the one that has that issue with barking and lunging, to just notice the other dog, and then you would reinforce that. That’s a behavior you like, just notice the other dog, you’re going to mark and reinforce that, and what happens at the same time is the associated learning, so that way the dog knows, “Oh, when I see another dog, the person handling me is going to mark and then feed me.” So again, two things happening at the same time: the dog learns what to do instead, and the association starts to change. As the dog gets better at it, as you’re reducing fuels because you’re reducing the stress of that situation. You might also be addressing the fear or the anxiety, the arousal, all of those other fuels that might come along in that package. You’re reducing the fuel, but you’re also changing the dog’s behavior around that match so you can get that match closer and closer and closer to that fuel without any kind of explosion. That’s exactly how I explain to clients without using the technical terms. I explain that fuel and match analogy, and clients really start to get it, because they’re assigning things like “territorial dog,” or “red zone dog,” or “alpha dog,” which really isn’t helpful, again, because we know those are constructs or labels. So I focus on what we want the dog to do instead and in those contexts. That’s pretty much the tools I use most of the time, most times food, and sometimes it’s play, and sometimes it’s toys, depending on the dog and the context. Melissa Breau: That’s awesome, and I think that analogy works really, really well. It explains all the right pieces and it’s still a concept that people definitely quickly grasp. That’s neat. I hadn’t heard that one before, so I like that. Mike Shikashio: Thanks. Melissa Breau: We were introduced because you’ve got two webinars coming up at FDSA on some of this stuff. For those listening, they’ll be back-to-back, they’re on the same day, and Mike will be talking about intra-household dog-to-dog aggression. So Mike, I was hoping we could talk a little bit about those. First, can you explain the terminology there for anybody who might not know what intra-household dog-to-dog aggression means? And then can you share a little bit about what you’ll be focusing on? Mike Shikashio: Sure, sure. Intra-household dog-to-dog aggression, a.k.a., two or more dogs fighting in the same home when they live together, is the topic that I’ll be focusing on. We’ll be talking about things like common factors in dogfights or why dogs fight in the home. We’ll talk about factors that can influence dogs fighting and having those conflicts. We’ll talk about the overall prognosis in these cases and what the typical outcome can be, depending on a certain number of variables, because each case is going to differ and some cases are going to be more difficult than others, depending on those variables. And we’ll talk about how to start changing the behavior and how to get dogs to live harmoniously again, using a variety of techniques and management tools. And we’ll again focus on the aspects of differential reinforcement and counter-conditioning with most cases as well, because it works on intra-household cases. That’s it in a nutshell. We’ll briefly touch on how to break up a dogfight safely, because I think all clients that have dogs fighting in the home should be able to do that safely as well. Quite a bit to cover and squish down into those two webinars, but I hope to be able to cover it all and we’ll have some fun. Melissa Breau: The first one’s, if I remember correctly, talking through some of this stuff, and the second one is more case studies. Is that right? Am I recalling that correctly? Mike Shikashio: Yes. I’ll be showing a couple of cases that show two dogs that had a history of conflict in the home and how we worked on those cases to resolve it with the clients. And the first webinar will be detailing the reasons why dogs fight, safety and management strategies. The second one feeds off of the first, so it’s good, if you can, to attend both of them so it all makes sense in the second one when we start working with the dogs in those videos. Melissa Breau: Absolutely awesome. I’m trying to pull up the exact date and time, because I should have pulled this up in advance and of course I didn’t. So, for anybody listening, they will be on November 1, that’s an easy date to remember, and the time for the first one is at 3 p.m. Pacific time, the second one is at 6 p.m. Pacific time, and they are currently on the FDSA website if anybody wants to go sign up. Mike Shikashio: That makes them 6 p.m. and 9 p.m. Eastern time, if I’m correct. Melissa Breau: You’re absolutely correct. I’m Eastern, and I have to do that time conversion way more times in the day than I care to count. So I have a couple of questions I usually ask at the end of every episode when I have a first-time guest. I’d love to work through those. The first one is, what’s the dog-related accomplishment that you’re proudest of? Mike Shikashio: That’s a good question. I would have to say after this weekend, speaking at APDT and then talking to Jean Donaldson, I would say that I’m just really, really humbled and very happy to be able to share the information that I have now with others. I think that’s how I, of course, learned from many folks that were generous enough to share information about how they work with behavior, and I’m just really happy that I’m able to do that now. If you had asked me seven or eight years ago, when I was attending these conferences, if I would ever imagine myself speaking to an audience, I would say, “No way. I’m just doing my thing, learning training and behavior.” There is no way I would have thought I would be speaking to a crowd at APDT and other conferences and traveling the world giving these workshops. So that’s the thing I feel really good about is being able to share that information. And I think a big part of it is validating for what other trainers are doing. I hear that a lot. Trainers will come up to me and say, “Thank you so much for validating what I’m doing now,” because what I’m doing now isn’t a whole lot different than what a lot of other trainers are doing. It’s just a lonely world sometimes, this dog training world, because some people don’t have a local network, or they don’t really know anybody else taking aggression cases, so they’re not sure if what they’re doing is the latest-greatest or whatever technique, or if they’re doing things correctly. And what I’m doing a lot of times is validating. I’m not showing them much different techniques or strategies. They’re just seeing that, “Oh, OK, Mike’s doing a lot of what I do.” So that’s very validating for them. I feel like that’s something I love about traveling and meeting other trainers and just making the world a little bit smaller for them. Melissa Breau: When you think about it, aggression, it’s one thing if you’re trying to teach a dog to sit with a cookie. It’s a whole other story when you’re talking about, “OK, this dog has serious behavior problems, and do I know what I’m doing, and can I really fix this.” I can see how that would be really validating to say, “Look, here’s somebody who’s doing it, and doing it successfully on a consistent basis.” So that’s awesome. Next question, I’m afraid it’s not much easier: What’s the best piece of training advice that you’ve ever heard? Mike Shikashio: I don’t know if it’s a piece of training advice, but I think, again, because I’m working in training and behavior, they’re kind of two of the same, when I use the term “behavior world,” I’m talking about just general behavior with all animals, and one of the things I started to really hone down on is just this empowerment thing. One of Susan Friedman’s quotes is, “The central component of behavioral health is the power to operate on the environment to behave for an effect.” She’s one that really opened the world of empowerment and allowing animals to act on their own environment, rather than always micromanaging all their behaviors. Giving them the power of choice can have a significant impact, especially in aggression cases. An example I use sometimes is that we focus on getting the dog to watch me, if they’re reactive to other dogs, or we tell them to go to a mat, or we add these behaviors that we ask for, which, don’t get me wrong, they work really well as a great alternative for incompatible behaviors. If the dog’s looking at me, they’re not going to be barking and lunging at other dogs. Or if they go to their mats, they’re not going to be  charging the door. The issue sometimes doing that is it’s not fully allowing the animal to act on their own environment. Follow me for a second here. You ask a dog to go to their mat in the home, and say they have a fear of strangers coming through the door. If I put that mat in a place that’s going to not allow them enough distance, so we’re now introducing strangers past their critical distance, getting into their critical distance, in other words this bubble around them, that we are artificially removing their flight option. So it looks great on paper. “Go to your mat” — that’s better than biting the person that comes through the door. However, if we artificially remove that flight option, what we’re basically asking the dog is to not move away if you’re scared of that person, which doesn’t fully empower them to act on their environment. Now, of course we don’t want them charging and biting the person, because that’s acting on their environment, but we want to preserve that option, that choice of being able to move away. Similarly with dogs that are barking and lunging at other people or dogs on the streets or on a leash, we can say, “Watch me, watch me,” and again, it works really well because the dog’s focused on the handler. Again, however, that doesn’t allow the dog to assess the provocative stimulus or the threat. And what you can run the risk of is that you’re not really changing the association if the dog is watching the handler. So it’s a great alternative behavior, however it puts us at risk of not allowing the dog to act on their own environment and move away if they want to, or just notice the threat and assess that threat and then move away. So a lot of what I focus on now is allowing the dog to act on their own environment. However, I reinforce desirable behaviors without cuing them, so I wind up capturing behaviors I like. Sometimes I will cue, but most of the time I’m just allowing the dog to say, “Hey, there’s a person over there.” I’ll reinforce the heck out of those behaviors, so that way the dog starts to learn that, “OK, I can do this instead, and that will pay off for me,” and then we can increase distance. So there’s a lot of benefits to allowing the dog have that choice and control over their environment. Melissa Breau: That’s a great philosophy for thinking about really what it’s like to be in the dog’s shoes for all of that. Mike Shikashio: Absolutely. Melissa Breau: Last question: Who is somebody in the dog world that you look up to? Mike Shikashio: Oh boy. I have a long list of people I look up to. I would say … I think I have to give that one to Susan Friedman again because … and again, she’s not necessarily in the dog world, she’s in the animal behavior world. Melissa Breau: That works. Mike Shikashio: I’m sure a lot of listeners could agree if they listen to Susan. You could listen to her for hours. She could talk about watching paint dry and you’d be sitting there with your mouth open, like, “Wow.” And she’s got that soothing voice, too. She’s got such a soothing voice. You could put a Susan Friedman podcast on and go to sleep to it every night because she’s got a soothing voice as well. But she’s just amazing the way she understands animal behavior, so I would definitely put her as one of the top on my list for people I look up to in the animal behavior world. Melissa Breau: Awesome. Thank you so much for coming on the podcast, Mike. This has been fantastic. Mike Shikashio: I really appreciate you having me. This was fun. Melissa Breau: I look forward to the webinar! Thanks to all of our listeners for tuning in! We’ll be back next week, this time with Jessica Hekman for Part 2 of our series on adopting an adult dog. For that episode we’ll be focusing on what is genetic and what isn’t … that is, what can we likely change! If you haven’t already, subscribe to our podcast in iTunes or the podcast app of your choice to have our next episode automatically downloaded to your phone as soon as it becomes available. CREDITS: Today’s show is brought to you by the Fenzi Dog Sports Academy. Special thanks to Denise Fenzi for supporting this podcast. Music provided royalty-free by BenSound.com; the track featured here is called “Buddy.” Audio editing provided by Chris Lang. Thanks again for tuning in -- and happy training!

Today Cindie is joined by Alyne Welch, Head Trainer at Walks and Wags. Alyne just returned from the APDT convention and has lots of new tips and inspiration for you and your dog. Join them as they talk about the exciting new training techniques, tips, products and adventures for you and your dog straight from the APDT conference. They will be taking your calls live on air if you have any questions or could use some advice to help you and your dog. GUEST NAME: Alyne Welch GUEST BIO: Alyne is an APDT member and Head Trainer at Walks and Wags and Head Evaluator for their dog daycare. Her motto is, “A trained dog is a safe dog!”

Malena DeMartini and Irith Bloom are our two amazing guests today. Separation Anxiety for dogs is one of the most difficult disorders to manage, so we hope this episode educates and inspires. *Always consult with a separation anxiety disorder expert.* Irith Bloom - Episode Guide 1:28 Irith Bloom, different cases of Separation Anxiety Disorder 5:14 potential causes of Separation Anxiety Disorder 8:55 possible treatment plans and the need for consistency 15:17 Irith Bloom mentions Malena DeMartini as an important resource Malena DeMartini - Episode Guide 18:56 Malena DeMartini starts her journey with dog training and separation anxiety 25:17 Malena discusses the importance of video-conference technology 26:45 The development of her Separation Anxiety Disorder training program 29:54 How does Malena define Separation Anxiety? 34:43 What are the first questions Malena asks? 38:51 Is there an average treatment plan? 41:42 How does moving to a new place impact my dog? 44:52 How many dogs have Separation Anxiety? 48:06 Malena and her dog, Tini! 54:00 Malena’s website, book, and resources 58:20 If Malena had a magic wand, what would she do? Malena’s Website https://malenademartini.com Malena’s Book, Treating Separation Anxiety in Dogs http://a.co/1JLgNZK Malena De Martini-Price is renowned in the dog training world for her expertise in canine separation anxiety disorder. She is the author of Treating Separation Anxiety in Dogs and has contributed articles on separation anxiety to the Association of Professional Dog Trainers’ (APDT) journal, Chronicle of the Dog. She lectures on SA at professional dog training workshops and conferences throughout the country, including the APDT annual conference. Malena is an honors graduate of the esteemed San Francisco SPCA Academy for Dog Trainers, where she studied under Jean Donaldson, and is a member of the APDT and the Pet Professionals Guild. Irith’s Website http://www.thesophisticateddog.com Irith Bloom is the Director of Training at The Sophisticated Dog, a pet training company based in West Los Angeles. Her “Ask Irith” episodes are some of our most popular. Irith has been training animals since the 1980s, and has the following credentials: Certified Professional Dog Trainer - Knowledge & Skills Assessed (CPDT-KSA) Certified Dog Behavior Consultant (CDBC) Victoria Stilwell Positively Dog Trainer (VSPDT) Karen Pryor Academy Certified Training Partner (KPA CTP) Certified Behavior Adjustment Training Instructor (CBATI) Certificate of Excellence from Natural Encounters Inc. (for exotic bird training) FAR Beyond Licensed Trainer Charter Member, The Pet Professional Guild Vice Chair, Education Committee, Association of Professional Dog Trainers (APDT) Faculty, Victoria Stilwell Dog Training Academy Other Resources Don't Leave Me! Step-by-Step Help for Your Dog's Separation Anxiety by Nicole Wilde http://a.co/3O6xUU0 https://www.academyfordogtrainers.com Jean Donaldson is a well-known and influential dog training instructor and mentor http://dogtec.org Dogtec is a full-service business and marketing support organization for the dog pro industry. Run by Veronica Boutelle and Gina Phairas http://www.dogwise.com DogWise is a dog-oriented online retailer About Nancy and Harold Rhee We have been married over 20 years, fostered over 60 dogs in the past four years, and we love animal rescue and the amazing people who dedicate their lives. And of course, the dogs and cats! If you want to learn more about Nancy and Harold, go to our About Us page at http://thisispawprint.com/about or listen to our introductory podcast episode, "Fifty Puppies and a Podcast." http://thisispawprint.com/000 About Pawprint Pawprint (or Paw Print) is a weekly podcast dedicated to animal rescue, adoption, and the heroes who make it happen. Volunteer, walk, adopt, or foster a dog, cat, rabbit, or other wonderful pet through your local shelter, humane society, SPCA, pound, and animal control. Stop abuse, and help increase animal protection, welfare, and rights.  http://thisispawprint.com http://animalrescuepodcast.com Don’t miss any new episodes. Sign up for our email list. If you want to join our animal rescue community and receive two free bonus dog-training resources from Irith Bloom, positive reinforcement dog trainer, go to http://thisispawprint.com/ask. Irith can be found at http://www.thesophisticateddog.com/ About Pawprint’s Music All of Pawprint's music is composed by Luke Gartner-Brereton. Luke is based in Australia, and he composes a wide variety of songs and musical loops http://vanillagroovestudios.com http://soundcloud.com/luke-gartnerbrereton

SUMMARY: Dr. Patricia McConnell is a Zoologist and Certified Applied Animal Behaviorist who has made a lifelong commitment to improving the relationship between people and animals. She is known worldwide as an expert on canine and feline behavior and dog training, and for her engaging and knowledgeable dog training books, DVDs and seminars. Patricia has seen clients for serious behavioral problems since 1988, and taught "The Biology and Philosophy of Human/Animal Relationships” for twenty-five years at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Her radio show, Calling All Pets, was heard in over 110 cities around the country, where Patricia dispensed advice about behavior problems and animal behavior research for over fourteen years. She is the author of the much-acclaimed books The Other End of the Leash, For the Love of A Dog: Understanding Emotions in You and Your Best Friend and Tales of Two Species. Her latest book is a memoir that came out earlier this year, titled The Education of Will: A Mutual Memoir of a Woman and Her Dog. Links The Other End of the Leash (blog) The Other End of the Leash (book) For the Love of A Dog: Understanding Emotions in You and Your Best Friend Tales of Two Species The Education of Will: A Mutual Memoir of a Woman and Her Dog Next Episode:  To be released 11/10/2017, featuring Sarah Stremming, talking about effective behavior change. TRANSCRIPTION: Melissa Breau: This is Melissa Breau and you're listening to the Fenzi Dog Sports Podcast brought to you by the Fenzi Dog Sports Academy, an online school dedicated to providing high-quality instruction for competitive dog sports using only the most current and progressive training methods. Today we have a special guest -- I'm talking to Dr. Patricia McConnell. Although she probably needs no introduction, I will share a bit from her bio. Dr. Patricia McConnell is a Zoologist and Certified Applied Animal Behaviorist who has made a lifelong commitment to improving the relationship between people and animals. She is known worldwide as an expert on canine and feline behavior and dog training, and for her engaging and knowledgeable dog training books, DVDs and seminars. Patricia has seen clients for serious behavioral problems since 1988, and taught "The Biology and Philosophy of Human/Animal Relationships” for twenty-five years at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Her radio show, Calling All Pets, was heard in over 110 cities around the country, where Patricia dispensed advice about behavior problems and animal behavior research for over fourteen years. She is the author of several much-acclaimed books The Other End of the Leash, For the Love of A Dog: Understanding Emotions in You and Your Best Friend and Tales of Two Species. Her latest book is a memoir that came out earlier this year, titled The Education of Will: A Mutual Memoir of a Woman and Her Dog. Welcome to the podcast, Patricia! Patricia McConnell: Thanks for having me, Melissa. What fun. Melissa Breau: I'm so excited to be talking to you today. To kind of start us out a little bit, can you just share a little bit about the dogs and the animals you currently share your life with? Patricia McConnell: Oh, absolutely. The most important animal is the two-legged one, my husband, my wonderful, accommodating husband who puts up with my obsession for dogs and sheep and cats and animals and gardening. So that's Jim. And so we have three dogs. We have Willie, a 10-year-old border collie who is one of the stars of The Education of Will, and we have Maggie, a 4-year-old border collie who's my competition sheepdog trial right now and the silliest, funniest, most adorablest dog that ever lived, of course, and Tootsie, who's the other most adorablest dog, she's a little Cavalier who was a puppy mill rescue. And we have two cats, Nellie and Polly, and we have 16 sheep. Melissa Breau: That's awesome. Patricia McConnell: Here we are. And we have Teresa the toad, who's living in the cat bowl often, and I could go on and on. We have a little farm, it's about 12 and a half acres, and so there are lots of critters on there, but the family ones I've already mentioned. I'll stop there. Melissa Breau: Excellent. Well, I know that you've shared kind of in some of the other interviews you've done that you've been in love with dogs and behavior for as long as you can remember. So I wanted to ask a little bit about kind of when you decided that was what you wanted to do with your life, and see if you could just share a little bit about those early days. Patricia McConnell: Oh yes, you know, it's almost like a feminist manifesto, because when I was … I was born in 1948, and when I was 5 — there's a story about me being asked what I wanted to do when I was 5, and I said, “I want to marry a rancher,” because in 1953 in Arizona, women made babies and casseroles. They didn't make, they didn't have careers, they didn't, you know, make shopping centers and business deals or even be veterinarians. And so gradually over time I had all kinds of different careers. I moved a lot with my first husband, and eventually I got to the point where I thought, You know what, I'm going to go back to school and I'm going to study animal behavior. And what I envisioned is that I would teach it. I would teach at some small private college, and I would teach animal behavior because I loved animals and I loved behavior. And I finally realized in my 30s, early 40s, you know, this is a way I could really enmesh myself in my passion and what I love. But then I went to an animal behavior society conference — it's a conference of academics, people who study behavior, mostly wild animals, mostly in the field — and I ran into John Wright, who was an academic, actually a psychologist who was an applied animal behaviorist, and so he took all of his training and behavior and used it to help people solve problems with family dogs. And I was like, Oh, really? I didn't know that was a possibility. So it ended up that my colleague, Dr. Nancy Raffetto, and I opened up Dog's Best Friend as a consulting service. Most people had no idea who we were, what we were doing. Nobody did it then. I mean, nobody did it then. People would call us up, Melissa, and say, “Do you guys groom poodles?” Melissa Breau: Oh goodness. Patricia McConnell: Yes. So this was in the late '80s, and this was a really new field. So it all progressed from there, but it certainly wasn't linear, and anybody who's in a path right now of, like, who do I want to be and what do I want to do, or maybe I'm going in a direction that I don't want to go, is don't lose heart. I mean, I didn't get into this until I was in my 40s. Melissa Breau: And you've quite clearly achieved quite a bit of success, so … Patricia McConnell: It's been very satisfying, you know. I feel so lucky. I feel very grateful and lucky and privileged and honored to be able to find the right niche, you know? Yeah. Melissa Breau: I think the rest of us have been pretty privileged that you've decided to do this too, so … Patricia McConnell: Well, thank you. Melissa Breau: So I wanted to ask, you mentioned that, you know, you've been in the field for quite a while, and I wanted to ask kind of how your philosophy is today and maybe a little bit of kind of how even it's changed over that time. Obviously the world is a very different place for dogs. Patricia McConnell: Oh, man, so true. I mean, I've written quite a few places about the first dog training class I went to when I was, I think, probably 19. The dog trainer was a Marine, and he hung a Basenji — as in, with a choke-chain collar — picked the dog off the ground, so all four feet were off the ground, and hung him there until he started running out of breath and was dying. Actually, it was not all that long, shockingly, not all that long ago somebody, a dog died from that and someone tried to sue, except they didn't … they weren't successful because they were told that that was standard in the industry. That was standard practice, so you can't blame the person for doing it. Yeah, so boy, have things changed. Boy, have things changed. My philosophy now is very much along the lines of “least intrusive minimally aversive,” you know, the LIMA protocol that I think is fantastic. I would say 99.95 percent of what I do with dogs is positive reinforcement, and I do use, I will use a correction. I mean, if Maggie starts to eat something I don't want her to eat, sometimes I'll say “Leave it,” or sometimes I'll go “Ah-ah,” you know, and that's positive punishment because I added something to decrease the frequency of a behavior, right. So, but, I think, you know, besides the really important focus that you see now on positive reinforcement, which I think is just so vital, I think interspersed with that, entwined with that, is a change in our relationship and the way we see our dogs. I mean, it was all about dominance before. It was all about control, and you're in charge, and sometimes it was just simply, like, well, you know, “You have to be in charge,” and other times it was suggested as a way, as something your dog needed, you know, the old “Your dog needs you to be the alpha of the pack.” But it was always about control. And now it seems to me, don't you think, it's more with many of us about relationship. They are our best friends, you know. They're great friends of ours, and that's what I want. You know, my dogs have to do what I ask them to do. Sometimes they have to. They have to lie down if they're chasing a rabbit towards the road or something. But I value them as members of my family and friends. I don't think of them as furry people. I think that's disrespectful to dogs. But they are an integral part of my life and my family and my love. Melissa Breau: That's definitely something that is kind of a core part of the kind of Fenzi philosophy, so I mean, I definitely think that we're seeing more and more of a shift to that, obviously. Not everybody's there yet, but hopefully they will be one day, right? Patricia McConnell: Absolutely, yeah, and I think the kind of work that, you know, Fenzi Dog Sports Academy is doing is vital to that, you know? We just, we all need to be out there as much as we can, just spreading the word, because it's, you know, it's not just more fun, because it works better. I just heard, I was just at APDT not too long ago and somebody was … it was Pat Miller was talking about Bob Bailey saying — who was a professional animal trainer, he trained for movies and commercials — and he said, “I use positive reinforcement because it works better,” he said. “I don't do it for welfare, I don't do it to be nice, I do it because it works better and it's more efficient. I would do, if I had used punishment if it worked better in order to do my job, that's what I'd do, you know, but,” he said, “it just, it works better.” But so it does work better, but it's also so much more fun, you know. It's so much more fun to not have to be a drill sergeant in your own living room. Melissa Breau: I did hear that you were awarded an award at APDT. Is that right? Patricia McConnell: I was so honored. They gave me the Lifetime Achievement Award, yeah. Melissa Breau: That's awesome. Patricia McConnell: Yeah, thank you. I was really honored, yeah. Thank you. Melissa Breau: Obviously, you're really well known for your work in dog behavior, but I know from your first book that early on in your career you did quite a bit of research on cues, especially across languages. And I know that cues are always kind of a big topic and of interest to people, so I wanted to ask you to kind of share your top takeaway or two from that work. Patricia McConnell: Oh, thanks for asking, because, you know, that's how I got into this. I mean, I was … I started as an undergraduate looking for a project, a research project. As an ethologist, somebody who studies animal behavior, I had no thought of working with domestic animals or being an applied animal behaviorist. I was working with a professor who worked with fish, and so what I did is … the question at the time that was really hot in the field at the time was, why do animals take the risk of making noise, you know, what are they doing, are they just sort of expressing an emotional state because they can't help it, are they, is there some function of what they do? People honestly were asking questions about why are animals making noise, because it's risky, right, it attracts attention. So I used working domestic animals, the relationship between handlers and working domestic animals, as a kind of a model for that system. So I recorded the acoustic signals from over 110 handlers who work with racehorses and all different kinds of dogs, different kinds of horses, and they spoke, I think I got 16 different languages, and what I found was I found patterns in how people speed animals up and and how they use sound to slow animals down. And so basically what I learned was short, rapidly repeated notes are used all over the world, no matter what language, what field, to speed animals up, and long, slow, extended ones are used to soothe them, and quick, abrupt ones with an instant onset are used to stop them. So, you know, so it's the difference between [makes sound] or [makes sound] right, those are all used to speed animals up. “Whoa, lie down,” soothe, slow versus “Whoa!” to stop a quarter horse, for example. And so yeah, so what I learned was it's not what you say, it's how you say it, and that's had a profound influence on how I work with animals and how I think of how we communicate. Melissa Breau: So how does that kind of continue to influence what you do today? Patricia McConnell: It does professionally and it does personally. So, you know, with clients I was always paying attention, and I think we all are. All good trainers, when we're working with dog owners, we're paying a lot of attention to how people use sound and how they say things, you know. So, I mean, this probably happened to everybody who's listening is you had a client who would say, “Jasper, come!” and Jasper would stop in his tracks, you know. And that was standard obedience, by the way, is to shout it out like that, and to stand really stiff and really still and look straight at your dog and, like, “Come!” you know. And dogs had to get over, like, OK, I guess I'm supposed to come forward, rather than their natural instinct, which is, I clearly should stop right now because they're telling me not to come here. So I pay a lot of attention to how clients would speak, and, you know, I have to work on it too. I mean, I work with working border collies and who are sometimes 500 yards away from you, so you really have to pay attention to tone, you know, and how you sound. I mean, I've learned … Maggie, for example. Maggie's super sensitive and she can get really worried, and so when I ask her to lie down, I say, “Lie down, lie down,” just really sing-songy, really easy, and she's so responsive that she'll do it right away. So both personally and professionally I just pay a lot of attention to that. Am I perfect personally? No, of course not. But the other thing I learned, Melissa, after I finished my dissertation, after I finished all that research on sound, when I started doing dog training classes is I discovered how, yeah, sound has a huge effect on how dogs behave, but they're primarily watching us, and how unaware most of us are of how our … the movement of our body affects dogs. So that's the other big takeaway that I've learned about cuing is that just whether you're leaning forward a half an inch can make a profound difference in whether your dog is comfortable coming towards you, or breaks its stay, or you turn your head away from a dog who's uncomfortable, or stare at it, make it uncomfortable. So, you know, all my training as an ethologist, and study communication and subtle, subtle, tiny, subtle little signals, I think stands everybody who loves dogs in good stead because it's so important to be aware that less is more. The tiniest little change in inflection, the tiniest little movement, can have a huge effect on your dog's behavior. Melissa Breau: And it goes back to, like, the example you mentioned kind of of somebody standing straight up and strict as they yell “Come.” It's not just the language. It's also the body language there that's just so counter, counter to purpose. Patricia McConnell: Yeah, exactly. Melissa Breau: I wanted to make sure we talked a little bit about the new book, because I know there are a lot of people who are very excited that you wrote it. So how does The Education of Will differ kind of from some of the other books that you've written? Patricia McConnell: Oh, well, thanks for asking about it, first of all. It's hugely different. It's … this is a totally different work than I've ever done before. It's a memoir, so it's very personal. It's a memoir about me and Willie. That's why the subtitle — on the hard cover, anyway —  is A Mutual Memoir of a Woman and Her Dog. I intertwine stories about getting Willie as a puppy who came as if he comes straight from Afghanistan with some canine version of PTSD. He was the most, he was fearful, he was sound reactive, he was pretty much a mess as a young dog. He really was. But he also, you know, he was … when he was good, he was like the best dog ever. He has a face on him that can just melt your bones, and he still does. I mean, there's something about Willie's face. That's why the publisher put his face on the cover of the book, which I still am not crazy about because I don't think it tells people what the book is really about. But his face, he's just got the most gorgeous face, and he's so loving and so friendly and so playful, you know. The best of Willie is, like, just the dog everybody wants, but he came with all this baggage, and his baggage, as it turned out, triggered all kinds of stuff that I thought I had resolved from my past. I had a lot of traumas in my past. I was raped, I was molested, I had somebody fall and die, literally out of the sky and, like, fall by surprise out of the sky and fall at my feet and die. Yeah, and you know when things like that happen, it really changes … structurally, physically, changes your brain. I mean, when individuals get traumatized with that kind of a trauma and they can't, they don't, have enough resilience to bounce back from it, it literally structurally, physically, changes your brain structure. Your amygdala gets more active, your hippocampus shrinks, I mean, all kinds of things happen. And so I had my own version of PTSD and I thought I'd resolved it, but when I got this super, super sound-reactive little puppy who, when a butterfly in China came out of its chrysalis, would leap up barking, and it set off, it triggered, all this old stuff and all these old symptoms with me. And so I basically figured out eventually that I couldn't heal Willie until I really healed myself. So he forced me to go farther down and face some of the things I thought I dealt with but I really hadn't finished. So I didn't start writing it to publish it. I actually started writing just segments of it, of some of the traumas that happened to me, as part of therapy, because it's very therapeutic to write out just about anything. I highly, strongly advise it to any of us. I write in my journal almost every morning and I find it so balancing. But so I started … I wasn't going to publish this, Melissa. I was just therapizing myself and trying to get better. And then, as a part of that process, I read a couple of books that literally changed my life. I mean, you know, that sounds, it's used so often and I know we can overuse it, but they really did. That really is how it felt. And I started thinking if I could write this book where I intertwined Willie's story and my story to show people that both people and dogs can, that the effects of trauma on both people and dogs, because dogs can be traumatized, and I think a lot of people don't acknowledge that. Horses too, any mammal, but to also that we are ultimately so resilient, and that if we have the right support around us, people can heal from just an amazing amount of things and so can dogs. So that's why I ended up finishing it, publishing it, and putting it out in the world. Melissa Breau: How are you and Willie both doing today? Patricia McConnell: Oh, we're good, we're good. He's 10. I can barely believe that he's 10 years old. He's really happy. I think he loves having Maggie there. Maggie is great with him. You know, he's so much better now. I mean, he recovered so much. He's still super reactive, but now it's like happy reactive, you know, it's not panic, scared reactive. But he's also … he's not the best dog around other dogs, and so when Maggie came she'd, like, try and play, and he'd get grumpy and, you know, do a little one of those little tiny little, you know, grumpy tooth displays, you know, like, [makes sound] and she literally would be, like, “Oh Willie, come on, let's play,” and you could just see he'd be, like, “OK.” So yeah, they play, he gets to work sheep, he gets, he and I still cuddle, and he gets a belly rub, he's really good, he's really happy, and it makes me really happy, yeah. Melissa Breau: Good. Patricia McConnell: Thanks for asking. Melissa Breau: Yeah. When you wrote the book, what do you hope people will take away from it? I know you mentioned that you wrote it kind of inspired by these other books that changed your life, but when somebody finishes reading the book, what do you hope they've kind of learned or that they walk away with? Patricia McConnell: Yeah, yeah, thanks for asking. I would say, one, that about that resilience, about the fact that it's amazing if you know how to handle it, you know. You have to have the tools, you have to have help, you have to have a village. That if you have help and you know how to handle it, it's astounding how resilient people can be. And I've since heard stories, and we've all heard stories, about people who have been through just unbelievable nightmares and yet they're doing good, you know, like, how do you live through that? So people are really resilient. I really want to emphasize and get out into the world, past sort of the Dog Fancy world, that dogs can be traumatized, you know. I'm sure I don't have to tell you or listeners is that so much of “aggression” and “disobedience” are is basically behavior that's motivated by fear, you know. And I see … I saw a lot of dogs who I think were traumatized, I mean, even just in the dog park they got attacked from behind by some dog and then they become dog aggressive. And so knowing that, you know, this is not about dominance, this is not in the, this is not a bad dog, you know, that we need to be really thoughtful. Veterinarians need to be really aware of how terrifying it can be to a dog to have certain medical procedures, and I think veterinary medicine is starting to come on board, which is really gratifying. Dr. Marty Becker has a book coming out — it's actually available through Dogwise, it's coming out in April commercially or everywhere else — it's called From Fearful to Fear Free, and a lot of what he's trying to do is to change vet clinics so that they're more conscious, you know, using a lot of the kind of methods that Sophia Yin did such a great job of spreading out into the world. So that's another one of the things that I want people to be aware of — that animals can be traumatized and they need understanding. They don't need dominance. They need understanding. But, you know, the last thing that I would love people to get is that we all have stories, you know. We all have stories, and we all have things that we're ashamed of or afraid of. And I'm a big supporter of Brene Brown and her work about facing those fears, about putting light onto some of that, rather than hiding it in the dark. And, you know, we need to be aware of the person we're sitting next to, or the person who was rude in line at the supermarket or something, you know. We don't know their story. And even when people are successful and productive, you know, you don't know. You don't know. So the more empathy and benevolence and kindness we can have to everybody and anybody, whether person or dog, the better the world will be. Melissa Breau: I think that's such, like, a powerful and important message to kind of get out there and think about and to be aware of, not just in your interactions with dogs but also with people. Patricia McConnell: Thank you. And don't you think — and this is an authentic question I'm asking you — maybe because of social media, I don't know what it is about the world, is it in the water, I don't know, but, you know, it's true in many fields, and sort of parts of social behavior of humans, but there is a certain amount, in the dog world, of snarkiness, of, you know, of snappiness, of a lack of real thoughtful, benevolent consideration of other people, and I think that's too bad. I do think it's partly because of social media, but I just want everybody who loves dogs and is promoting positive training with dogs, if we all — and we all need to be reminded of, believe me, I am no saint, I have to take a breath sometimes too — but we all need to remember that no matter what method somebody uses or how much we disagree with them, we need to be as positive with people as we are with dogs. Melissa Breau: I think especially in kind of the sports world, or the competitive world, you've got a dichotomy there between competition where people want to be better than the others around them and they also do have that relationship with their dog, so I definitely do think that there's a snarkiness, and we all have to be conscious of our own behavior and our own words and kind of fight against that a little bit. Patricia McConnell: Yeah, yeah, you know, I don't do, I don't go to agility, I never competed in it, but I don't go. I watch it sometimes, but I don't do it a lot, but I'm in sheepdog handling and, you know, we all know how competitive some people can be. And I love the people who are competitive in a really good way, you know? They want to get better, and they love to, and yeah, it's way more fun to win. I mean, it's way more fun to do well. No question about it. It's way more fun to do well. But overriding all of these has got to be the health and happiness of our dogs and our relationship with them. Melissa Breau: I could not agree with you more. Patricia McConnell: Oh good. Melissa Breau: So I know we're kind of getting towards the end of the call, but there are three questions that I ask everyone who comes on the podcast and I wanted to make sure we kind of got them in and I got your perspective … so to start out the first one is what is the dog-related accomplishment that you're proudest of? Patricia McConnell: Well, you know, I have to separate it out. Personally, I think I'm proudest of giving my dogs a good life. I feel all wussy when I say that. I could just get all soppy and Oprah-ish. But I, you know, I'm not perfect and, I mean, I can beat myself up over things I haven't done perfectly and I could have done better, but I think, in general, I think I've provided quite a few dogs a really, really good life, and understanding them as individuals rather than just dogs and making them fit into some kind of a slot that I wanted them to fit into, so I'm really proud of that. And I also, I guess professionally, I think I'm proudest of combining my respect for good writing and my passion and love for dogs and my interest in science, combining all those three things. I love to read, I love good writing, I don't think anybody needs to hear how much I'm just stupid in love for dogs, and I think science is really important, and I found a way, sometimes, you know, I get on the right track and I combine all those three things in a way that I feel is good enough, and when that happens I feel really good about that. Melissa Breau: I love that, especially the bit about just knowing that you've provided a good life to your dogs. That's such an awesome thing to be proud of. I really, I like that answer. Patricia McConnell: Thank you, thank you. Melissa Breau: So this one may be a hard question, but what is the best piece of training advice that you've ever heard? Patricia McConnell: Oh man, oh wow, oh wow, let's see. Do I have to pick one? OK, I'll be really fast. Melissa Breau: You can share more than one if you want. I'll let you get away with that. Patricia McConnell: Good. The thing that pops up in my mind the first time I hear that is actually … it's not a piece of advice. It's just a saying and it makes me want to cry. I sound like such a crier. It makes me want to cry. The saying is, “We train by regret.” It just hits home so hard to me because I think every one of us who cares deeply about dogs and is really honest, and insightful, and learned, and grows, you know, admits that there's things we've done that we wish we'd never done and, you know, some of them are just tiny little stupid things. It's like, “Oh, I can't believe I didn't think of that,” or, you know, so I think that's a really important saying. But I think that the most important part about it is to remind all of us to be kinder to ourselves. I think a lot of the people I work with who are progressive dog trainers who just adore their dogs and move heaven and earth for them, we're so hard on ourselves. Don't you think? I mean, we're just, you know, I work with clients who are just … they're just, oh, they're being so hard on themselves because they haven't been perfect. They made this one mistake and it's like, oh man, you know, we are all human here. So I think that strikes home with me a lot. And I guess the other just sort of solid, quick, concise piece of advice is basically “Say less, mean more.” I just made that up, but I've heard people say versions of that, you know, so basically another version is “Just shut up.” I think, I mean, you can hear I like to talk, right, so I can get badly with my dogs, and I think it's confusing and tiring to our dogs. And I think, you know, some of the people who, you know, those people who dogs just don't ever want to leave, you know, they meet them, and the second they meet them they sit down beside them and don't want to leave. There aren't many of them, and I was never one of those people. I sometimes am now, which makes me really happy, but those are often people who are really quiet. So I think being very mindful of the way we use words and sound around our dogs is really, really important because, I think, frankly, our dogs are often just simply exhausted trying to figure out what the heck we're trying to convey to them, you know? So I guess I'd just stick with those two things. Melissa Breau: Excellent. Well, thank you. Kind of the last one here is who is someone else in the dog world that you look up to? Patricia McConnell: If you had asked that first we would still be talking. That's cold to ask me last when we run out of time! OK, I'll talk really fast. Susan Friedman — I'd kiss the hem of her skirt or her pants. I bow down to her. I think she's brilliant, funny, amazing, wonderful. I love Fenzi Dog Sports. I think that incredible work's being done. Suzanne Hetts is doing great work. Her husband, Dan Estep. Julie Hecht at Dog Spies. Karen Pryor, oh my goodness. Trish King. Steve White. Chris Zink, the … everybody in, you know, dog sports knows. Those are the people who just, like, rattle off the top of my head right now, but I could go on and on and on. There are so many amazing people in this field right now. It's just so gratifying. Melissa Breau: That's awesome. Patricia McConnell: Those are just a few of them, yeah. Melissa Breau: We'll have to see if we can get a few of them to come on the show. Patricia McConnell: Oh absolutely, yeah. Melissa Breau: Well thank you so much for coming on the podcast Patricia! I really appreciate it. Patricia McConnell: Oh, it was really fun. Thanks for having me. Melissa Breau: Awesome. And thanks to all of our listeners for tuning in. We'll be back next week with Sarah Stremming. Sarah and I will be talking about life with your dog outside of training… and how what you do then impacts that training. Don't miss it! It if you haven't already, subscribe to our podcast in itunes or the podcast app of your choice to have our next episode automatically downloaded to your phone as soon as it becomes available. CREDITS: Today's show is brought to you by the Fenzi Dog Sports Academy. Special thanks to Denise Fenzi for supporting this podcast. Music provided royalty-free by BenSound.com; the track featured here is called “Buddy.” Audio editing provided by Chris Lang.

Malena DeMartini and Irith Bloom are our two amazing guests today. Separation Anxiety for dogs is one of the most difficult disorders to manage, so we hope this episode educates and inspires. *Always consult with a separation anxiety disorder expert.* Irith Bloom - Episode Guide 1:28 Irith Bloom, different cases of Separation Anxiety Disorder 5:14 potential causes of Separation Anxiety Disorder 8:55 possible treatment plans and the need for consistency 15:17 Irith Bloom mentions Malena DeMartini as an important resource Malena DeMartini - Episode Guide 18:56 Malena DeMartini starts her journey with dog training and separation anxiety 25:17 Malena discusses the importance of video-conference technology 26:45 The development of her Separation Anxiety Disorder training program 29:54 How does Malena define Separation Anxiety? 34:43 What are the first questions Malena asks? 38:51 Is there an average treatment plan? 41:42 How does moving to a new place impact my dog? 44:52 How many dogs have Separation Anxiety? 48:06 Malena and her dog, Tini! 54:00 Malena’s website, book, and resources 58:20 If Malena had a magic wand, what would she do? Malena’s Website https://malenademartini.com Malena’s Book, Treating Separation Anxiety in Dogs http://a.co/1JLgNZK Malena De Martini-Price is renowned in the dog training world for her expertise in canine separation anxiety disorder. She is the author of Treating Separation Anxiety in Dogs and has contributed articles on separation anxiety to the Association of Professional Dog Trainers’ (APDT) journal, Chronicle of the Dog. She lectures on SA at professional dog training workshops and conferences throughout the country, including the APDT annual conference. Malena is an honors graduate of the esteemed San Francisco SPCA Academy for Dog Trainers, where she studied under Jean Donaldson, and is a member of the APDT and the Pet Professionals Guild. Irith’s Website http://www.thesophisticateddog.com Irith Bloom is the Director of Training at The Sophisticated Dog, a pet training company based in West Los Angeles. Her “Ask Irith” episodes are some of our most popular. Irith has been training animals since the 1980s, and has the following credentials: Certified Professional Dog Trainer - Knowledge & Skills Assessed (CPDT-KSA) Certified Dog Behavior Consultant (CDBC) Victoria Stilwell Positively Dog Trainer (VSPDT) Karen Pryor Academy Certified Training Partner (KPA CTP) Certified Behavior Adjustment Training Instructor (CBATI) Certificate of Excellence from Natural Encounters Inc. (for exotic bird training) FAR Beyond Licensed Trainer Charter Member, The Pet Professional Guild Vice Chair, Education Committee, Association of Professional Dog Trainers (APDT) Faculty, Victoria Stilwell Dog Training Academy Other Resources Don't Leave Me! Step-by-Step Help for Your Dog's Separation Anxiety by Nicole Wilde http://a.co/3O6xUU0 https://www.academyfordogtrainers.com Jean Donaldson is a well-known and influential dog training instructor and mentor http://dogtec.org Dogtec is a full-service business and marketing support organization for the dog pro industry. Run by Veronica Boutelle and Gina Phairas http://www.dogwise.com DogWise is a dog-oriented online retailer About Nancy and Harold Rhee We have been married over 20 years, fostered over 60 dogs in the past four years, and we love animal rescue and the amazing people who dedicate their lives. And of course, the dogs and cats! If you want to learn more about Nancy and Harold, go to our About Us page at http://thisispawprint.com/about or listen to our introductory podcast episode, "Fifty Puppies and a Podcast." http://thisispawprint.com/000 About Pawprint Pawprint (or Paw Print) is a weekly podcast dedicated to animal rescue, adoption, and the heroes who make it happen. Volunteer, walk, adopt, or foster a dog, cat, rabbit, or other wonderful pet through your local shelter, humane society, SPCA, pound, and animal control. Stop abuse, and help increase animal protection, welfare, and rights.  http://thisispawprint.com http://animalrescuepodcast.com Don’t miss any new episodes. Sign up for our email list. If you want to join our animal rescue community and receive two free bonus dog-training resources from Irith Bloom, positive reinforcement dog trainer, go to http://thisispawprint.com/ask. Irith can be found at http://www.thesophisticateddog.com/ About Pawprint’s Music All of Pawprint's music is composed by Luke Gartner-Brereton. Luke is based in Australia, and he composes a wide variety of songs and musical loops http://vanillagroovestudios.com http://soundcloud.com/luke-gartnerbrereton

SHOW NOTES:  Summary: Julie Flanery has been working professionally with dogs and their handlers since 1993. She focuses on the needs of the dog and helping people form a strong relationship through clear communication and positive reinforcement. She has placed Obedience, Freestyle, Rally-Obedience, Rally-FrEe, and Agility titles on her dogs. She began competing in Musical Freestyle in 1999 and was the first to both title and earn a Heelwork to Music Championship on the West Coast. In 2001 she was named Trainer of the Year by the World Canine Freestyle Organization and has been a competition freestyle judge since 2003. Five years ago Julie developed the sport of Rally-FrEe to help freestylers increase the quality and precision of their performances. It has since become a standalone sport enjoyed by dog sports enthusiasts all over the world. Julie has been a workshop and seminar presenter both nationally and internationally. She currently trains and competes with her Tibetan Terrier in both Musical Freestyle and Rally-FrEe. Links mentioned: www.wonderdogsonline.com VIDEO: Examples from Imitation and Mimicry VIDEO: More examples from Imitation and Mimicry VIDEO: Rally FrEe Compilation / Class Trailer Next Episode:  To be released 6/2/2017, featuring Mariah Hinds.  TRANSCRIPTION:   Melissa Breau: This is Melissa Breau and you're listening to the Fenzi Dog Sports podcast, brought to you by the Fenzi Dog Sports Academy, an online school dedicated to providing high quality instruction for competitive dog sports using only the most current and progressive training methods. Today we'll be talking to Julie Flanery. Julie has been working professionally with dogs and their handlers since 1993. She focuses on the needs of the dog and helping people form a strong relationship through clear communication and positive reinforcement. She has placed Obedience, Freestyle, Rally-Obedience, Rally-FrEe, and Agility titles on her dogs. She began competing in Musical Freestyle in 1999 and was the first to both title and earn a Heelwork to Music Championship on the West Coast. In 2001 she was named Trainer of the Year by the World Canine Freestyle Organization and has been a competition freestyle judge since 2003. Five years ago Julie developed the sport of Rally-FrEe to help freestylers increase the quality and precision of their performances. It has since become a standalone sport enjoyed by dog sports enthusiasts all over the world. Julie has been a workshop and seminar presenter both nationally and internationally. She currently trains and competes with her Tibetan Terrier in both Musical Freestyle and Rally-FrEe. Hi, Julie. Welcome to the podcast. Julie Flanery: Hey, Melissa, thanks for having me. Melissa Breau: So excited to have you on. This is going to be a lot of fun. Julie Flanery: Yeah, I'm looking forward to it. Melissa Breau: So to start us out, do you want to just tell us a little bit about the dog or dogs you have now and what you're working on? Julie Flanery: Yeah. I'm actually down to one dog now. I've lost three dogs in the last couple of years, which has been a little bit hard, but all of them were about 15 years old so I'm down to just Kashi, and Kashi is my 6-year-old Tibetan Terrier. She is a great little worker, in spite of some severe food allergies she's had since she was a puppy and that kind of limits our training with food rewards a little bit, so we've really had to work hard to come up with some ways that she really enjoys her training and make every reward count. We do show, as you said, in Freestyle and Rally-FrEe, and we just showed our intermediate Heelwork routine last weekend and started work on putting together our new routine. It's a kind of a Las Vegas show-style illusionist routine, I'm kind of excited about it and Kashi plays my disappearing assistant and we just moved into... Melissa Breau: Sounds so fun. Julie Flanery: Yeah, it is, it is. I have the ideas kind of swirling around in my brain, nothing complete yet, but that's kind of where you start with freestyle is with an idea or some type of inspiration and you go from there. And then we also just moved into the Elite Division for Rally-FrEe after completing our Grand Championship last year. That was really exciting for me as well. Melissa Breau: That's awesome. Julie Flanery: Yeah. Melissa Breau:So I want to start kind of at the beginning. You know, I talked a lot about your history there and you've accomplished a lot, but how did you originally get into dog sports? Julie Flanery: That was a long time ago. If I'm really honest I would say it was about 25 years ago when I took my 5-month-old Border Collie to a pet class. I was a new pet dog owner, and I watched one of the instructors do a demo of how many tricks his 5-month-old Border Collie could do in a minute and I thought, wow, I want to do that with my dog. I mean I'm just a pet person here, but I saw that and I was so impressed and so intrigued at what training could do, that and having a great dog to start with got me really immersed into training, and my competitive nature kind of kicked in a little bit. And I didn't really start competing until probably a couple years in agility to start and then obedience, and both of those were rather short-lived due to my discovery of freestyle I'd say probably in the...oh, I don't know, mid-90s at an APDT conference after seeing a freestyle demo and again I thought, wow, I want to do that with my dog. And unfortunately, there was no freestyle available in the Pacific Northwest, or much really anywhere in the country at that time. It was just a fairly new sport then and there wasn't really the luxury of any online training back then, so if I wanted to do this I was going to have to learn this on my own, and because I didn't really want to do it alone I dragged a few of my students along with me, and today we have one of the largest freestyle clubs in the country and those first few students are still competing, are active members in the club today. So, that's kind of how I got started competing in general, first with obedience and agility and then really became enamored with freestyle, but I competed off and on in a variety of dog sports, as you said, so I think I have a little bit of a competitive nature at heart. Melissa Breau: Well, that's awesome. It's kind of cool that you managed to really...I guess you could almost start a movement in that area, right, like for the sport. Julie Flanery: I don't want to take that kind of credit, but I knew I wanted to do it, and I knew it was not going to be something I could probably do alone. Freestyle's not an easy sport to stick with and it really takes some perseverance to stay involved in it, and I just felt very passionate about it, and so anytime anybody would listen or anytime anybody wanted me to give a workshop on it I would go and I would oftentimes...early on with the club I would give free workshops just to get people interested and involved in it so that we could have a group that could put on competitions here. Melissa Breau: Well, I wanted to make sure that I told you, you know, I watched some of the videos of you and I think most of them actually you're working with Kashi on the FDSA website. Consistently she looks so happy to be working with you, and even the other dogs that you have in the videos, they all look so thrilled to be there and to be performing. So I really was curious what it is, or what you attribute it to in terms of how you train or the sport specifically that leads to that. Julie Flanery: Oh, I love...I love that that is what you noticed. So to me there really isn't much point in training unless you have a willing and happy partner, and in freestyle it's a sport where emotion shows through and emotion is something that you want to convey, and for most of us we want our dogs to be happy out there working, and as I said earlier, it's a very difficult sport and if you don't have a dog that's really enjoying it, it can be very, very difficult to progress in the sport. For me really, the shift to really wanting a happy, joyful dog out there came about when I started using operant conditioning and shaping specifically with al clicker. I'd always used treats in my training. I primarily have always been a positive reinforcement trainer early on in obedience. I did learn how to use a choke chain and I was quite skilled at that, but I did train with rewards and mostly the reward training, but when I started using a clicker and shaping it became a much more reciprocal learning process where both the dog and the handler have a vested interest in listening to each other and that that outcome includes a sense of enjoyment and a desire to keep going, and I think for me having that experience of learning about shaping and clicker training and really  listening to the other dogs was very impactful for me and impactful about how I structured my sessions and what I wanted out of those sessions in terms of emotional fulfillment for both me and the dog and I think the most effective way to build that is through positive reinforcement training and really important is clear communication, with that communication being a two-way street. For years training has always been about the dog listening to the handler and I think it's just as important, even more so, that the handler learn to listen to the dog. So, I think just making sure you're paying attention to how the dog is feeling and responding in a session makes a huge difference in the outcome of that session and whether there is mutual enjoyment in that session. So, I think it's a combination of both the sport that I chose and the techniques and methods that I choose to apply in my training. Melissa Breau: That's really interesting. I mean I'd imagine in something that's typically set to music where really part of it is a performance aspect, like in obedience precision is precision and it's possible to a fairly precise performance, even if you're not super positive in your training, and I imagine it's much, much more difficult in a sport where the goal is really to have it look joyful and to have it look really pretty. Julie Flanery: Yeah, it certainly can be, and that's not to say that there aren't freestylers that use or have used aversive techniques, and to be quite honest you can't always tell, the dog's being just as happy out there. But for me personally, I really enjoy the fact that I know that what I see in my training is what I see in the ring, and that's all about that enjoyment of working together and bringing that joy to the audience as well because you're right, freestyle is an audience participation sport, so to speak. It's a sport that they're not only for competition but for entertainment as well. Melissa Breau: You kind of mentioned shaping and luring in there, but you wrapped up a class on Imitation and Mimicry and I have to say that's like such a fascinating concept. If you could start by just kind of explaining what that is for the listeners in case they're not aware of it, and just kind of sharing how you got into that, that would be great.  Julie Flanery: Yeah. No, I'd love to. Imitation and Mimicry is a form of social learning or learning through observation, and we've long known it to be effective in human learning, but it wasn't until probably the last 10 years or so that we've really seen any studies on its use in dog training. I first heard about it at a ClickerExpo, a talk that Ken Ramirez gave on concept training in dogs, and then further researched Dr. Claudia Fugazza's study that she did, and in 2006 she created a protocol that showed that dogs can learn these new skills and behaviors by mimicking their owners and it's her protocol that we use in class. Also what's fascinating is that Ken Ramirez has developed a protocol for a dog-dog imitation and mimicry, and some of the videos I've seen on that are just truly, truly amazing. So, things that we didn't think were possible now we know are and we're actually able to bring to more people now. The class was really quite inspirational for me because my experience of course had been limited with it in working with it with my own dog and then some of my live classes, my students there in my live classes, we work through it, and when Denise asked me to do a class on it I was really excited, but I wasn't quite sure what to expect and I have to say my students in that class are just amazing. They have really shown me what this protocol can do and how truly capable our dogs are of learning some of these concepts, so it's been a really exciting class for me. And matter of fact, I'm going to go ahead and put it back on...I think it is already...Terry's added it to the schedule for August, and so I'm really excited about doing it all over again. Melissa Breau: It's so cool to watch. Julie Flanery: Yeah. I think you've seen some of the videos that were on the alumni page, and they've really drawn a really great response, so it is very exciting for me and I hope for the students too that are taking the class. Melissa Breau: Other than just being an additional tool in the toolbox, and of course we all want as many of those as possible, right, what are some advantages to using that as a technique? Julie Flanery: Well, first off, mimicry is not necessarily suited to all behavior training. It's really best used for broad or more general behaviors, behaviors that require a high degree of accuracy or precision may be better learned through shaping or some other method or reward, however mimicry can be quite useful and at least one study has shown that behaviors learned through mimicry were learned as quickly as they were through shaping which really surprised me. I was quite surprised by that. Some service dog work for example, retrieving items, turning on lights, opening drawers or cabinets, not only can the dog learn these skills very quickly through mimicry, but once the mimic cue is in place, even inexperienced handlers can teach the dog these behaviors with very little training themselves, so it allows inexperienced handlers to train these more complex behaviors much more quickly which I think is really quite cool. It can also give the dog the big picture, so to speak. So in most training the dog has no idea of what the end result is, only we know what that looks like and the dog needs to muddle along, and he may not even know that when we reach the end result that is the end result. So, mimicry allows the dog to know what he's working toward and may even help him to better able to guess steps toward that end result, so it could very easily shorten that training process, at least the big picture, at least the broad strokes of that behavior. I think too it forces us to look at the dog's perspective in how or what we are communicating. In mimicry the only information you're giving the dog is your demonstration of the behavior. If your demonstration doesn't make sense to the dog, he won't possibly be able to perform it. It's really no different than other forms of training. If we aren't giving the dog the information he needs then it's not that he's unwilling to do the behavior, it's that he's unable, and unfortunately all too often errors are blamed on the dog rather than our inability to communicate, so to me this really gives us that perspective from the dog's viewpoint. What am I communicating to the dog, and how can I make this more clear, and we learn that through our demonstrations in the mimic protocol and how we actually demonstrate these behaviors. I think it's been very fun to see some of the students realize, oh, wow, that demonstration couldn't possibly make sense to my dog, how could he possibly do that? So, I think that's a really interesting thing is that we gain a new perspective on the dog. I've also had several students tell me their dogs are more attentive to them, they appear more relaxed in training. The process itself, the protocol itself, is very predictable and so it sets the dog up to succeed. For me though I think it really comes down to a connection. I think I have a pretty good relationship with my dog, but the emotion I felt...the first time she truly mimicked the behavior that I had demonstrated was unlike anything I had ever felt before. Not only did I feel a different kind of connection with her, but I think she felt a different connection with me as well, or at least I'd like to believe that was what I was seeing. So, it's an amazing feeling that first time your dog mimics something that all you've done is demonstrated for them and then asked them to repeat it and like I said, for me it comes down to a different...maybe a deeper connection with my dog. Melissa Breau: Do you remember what that first behavior was for you? Julie Flanery: I do. It was a spin. Melissa Breau: That's awesome. Julie Flanery: It was amazing. I taught her...went through the protocol of teaching her the mimic cue, and then I did my spin and I told her “do it” and she glanced at me for a second and she did it and I was like, oh, my God. It was really quite exciting for her. I get a little teary thinking of it right now. I know that sounds kind of weird, but it really is such an amazing feeling. It's a different feeling than what I felt...I can't say that. You know it's funny. The first time I used shaping and had my dog offer something that I did not command him to do because that's the term we used then, “give your dog a command,” the first time my dog offered something just because I had clicked and rewarded it, that to me was almost the same kind of feeling, it showed me the power that that technique and method had and I felt that same way with the mimicry too. It really showed me the power this method could have. Melissa Breau: I just think it's so interesting, the different ways our dogs are really capable of learning if we take the time to teach them how.  Julie Flanery: It is. It's amazing. It's really amazing. It reminds me, Ken Ramirez once said in a lecture and it's actually one of my favorite mantras, I keep it on my monitor. He says, “We limit ourselves and our animals by assuming things aren't possible” and that is so true I think. It's so important that we keep an open mind to some of these techniques and methods because we don't know what we don't know, and it's up to us to explore these techniques that can really bring out the best in our dogs and our relationships with our dogs. Melissa Breau: Now this session you're offering Rally-FrEe class, right? Julie Flanery: Yes. Melissa Breau: So, I want to make sure we talk a little bit about that too. In the class description you explain it as a combination of Rally and Freestyle. My understanding is you're the founder of Rally-FrEe so I'd love to hear what led you to develop the program and why those two sports? Why did you choose to combine them? Julie Flanery: Right. Originally I wanted to develop a structured way for freestyle teams to focus on their foundation skills and build their heel work and transition skills primarily to better their performances and really to increase their longevity in the sport, and then ultimately improve the quality of the sport. Since I've been involved in freestyle I compete, I'm a judge, I've been teaching it for almost 20 years now, and I was seeing a lot of attrition in the sport. Freestyle is not easy. I would say it's probably one of the more difficult sports out there. There's a lot more involved in freestyle than just training behaviors. Teams would get through the novice level and then they would really struggle in the intermediate class and they'd end up leaving the sport. In freestyle you can train any behavior you want. You have a lot of options and so you do, you train anything you want and mostly that's the really fun, cool, complex sexy tricks, and generally they didn't train any foundation in to support the complexity of the tricks they were training. So like any sport, freestyle has a specific set of foundation skills, but these skills, these foundation skills, I know when I first started in freestyle nobody told me what they were, I'm not sure anybody knew what they were, it was such a new sport back then, and even if we knew what they were freestylers were so spread out around the country and there was no real instruction available to it, the information just wasn't accessible, and the information wasn't really given the importance and value I think. You know, having foundation skills didn't seem as important because of the perception that freestyle was free and you could do anything you wanted. And I remember...I remember one of the reasons I wanted to do freestyle was I didn't want to teach my dog to heel anymore, you know, heeling was, oh, my God, I don't want to teach my dog to heel, it's so awful. Of course heeling was taught quite a bit differently than we do now, but I didn't really understand at that time how important heel work and positions really are for freestyle. Melissa Breau: When you say foundation behaviors, is that what you're referring to is kind of the positions and... Julie Flanery: Yeah, the positions, the transitions, yeah. Those are considered foundation skills, and then there are certain foundation tricks in which all of the other more difficult, more complex tricks are more easily built off of as you know that anytime we start building a skill without a foundation it can be really easy to get frustrated in the training because it's not built on the foundation skill. The dog doesn't have any support for that skill, and so the skill tends to fall apart a little bit, and so as teams were moving up both the dog and the handler would start to get frustrated and not have that foundation to support the more difficult criteria and those routines would start to fall apart, and when they fall apart and it gets frustrating it's no longer enjoyable, and so as a result the quality of freestyle wasn't really getting any better and we were losing a lot of competitors. So, Rally-FrEe was a way for freestylers to build skill in their foundation and heel work so that they could be more successful in the sport and find more enjoyment in competing in freestyle, and in the long run improve the quality of freestyle that we were seeing in the ring. What I didn't realize is that teams from other dog sports Rally-Obedience, Agility, they were starting to participate. I didn't realize that this was going to become a worldwide competitive dog sport with participants in over seven countries, I mean I was like, wow. I was like wow. I remember one morning waking up and going how did this happen? I don't understand how this happened. This was supposed to be a fun little game for me and my students, and I'm not the first one that has put together these two sports in an effort to help freestylers or have more fun with Rally. There are many instructors that have done this. Somehow I was able to and I had the support of many, many people to have this grow into a worldwide competitive dog sport, so I'm very thankful for that happening, but really I have no idea how that happened.  Melissa Breau: Hey, it was a lucky break, right?  Julie Flanery: I guess. I guess. I'm sure glad it did though. It truly has met some of my goals. We are seeing a much better quality of freestyle. We are seeing teams coming into it with a stronger foundation, and we're seeing much more skilled teams staying in it longer, so for that I'm really thankful. And we're seeing new people coming into the sport, coming into freestyle that maybe never would have considered it partly because of the choreography and dance aspect to it, and partly because it is a difficult sport to understand the foundation for how to start training, and Rally-FrEe really allows the new exhibitor, the person that just is considering wanting to get their feet wet in freestyle but really don't know much about it, Rally-FrEe is the perfect sport to learn the foundation skills and then maybe ease into freestyle if you find you enjoy that. So, I've really actually been quite pleased at where we've gone in the last five years and how a lot of my goals have already been met with it. Melissa Breau: That's awesome. Hey, good ideas catch on, right? Julie Flanery: Yeah, I guess so. Melissa Breau: So I did want to ask you, you mentioned kind of in there something about novice and intermediate levels, and as somebody who hasn't competed in the sport. I was just kind of curious what some of the different things are I guess that they look at in the competition. Julie Flanery: Yeah. So for most freestyle organizations the scoring or the judging is broken down into several categories, one would be content and execution. So, content and execution would be what do you put into your routine? What is the variety of behaviors and how well are those behaviors executed? What is the accuracy and precision of those behaviors? Another thing that is looked at would be difficulty or creativity. How difficult are the behaviors that you're including in your routine? Are you using hand signals because hand signals indicate lesser difficulty than behaviors that are solely on verbal cues? Another aspect of it would be musicality and interpretation. How well do your behaviors and your sequences match the phrasing in the music? What is your attire, does it match the genre of the music? We also look at transitions and flow, and transitions are behaviors that allow the dog and/or handler to change position and/or direction in a way that creates ease of movement and a visual aesthetic or flow to the routine. And then Rally-FrEe Elements, which is the organization that I created that also conveys titles in freestyle, we also look at the teamwork and engagement between the dog and handler team. How well do they enjoy working together? How well does the handler support the dog? And I think we're probably the only organization that actually looks at teamwork as a judged criteria, so that's something that's a little bit different from most other dog sports. Melissa Breau: That's really interesting, and you kind of mentioned something about the verbals and the visuals in there. I was really curious how much of the cueing is verbal versus visual and what the role of each is in the sport, so do you mind just talking a little more about that? Julie Flanery: Sure. So in freestyle we use three different kinds of cues. We use verbal cues and generally we like those verbal cues to be not loud and obtrusive, but loud enough for the dog to hear them but not so loud that they are disruptive to the routine or distract from the enjoyment of the routine. In using those verbal cues we're aloud to talk to our dogs through the whole routine. There's nothing like in obedience where you need to give one cue. In freestyle you may give multiple cues. Obviously, you don't want your dog refusing cues or not responding to cues, but we are allowed to talk to our dogs the whole time, and so oftentimes we are giving our cues continually throughout a routine. We also use subtle physical cues. So my sweeping arm might mean for the dog to back around me or go out to a distance, but we want those cues to be hidden somewhat within the choreography, we don't want them to be very obvious like what a lure-like hand signal would look like. And then we also use something called choreography cues, and choreography cues allow us to teach new physical cues that we can then use within the routine as our choreography, so they are physical cues that appear counter to a hand signal. So for example, I can teach my dog that when I throw both my arms up into the air that's actually a cue to spin or to take a bow or whatever behavior I attach to it through training, and I can change those choreography cues for each routine as long as I understand and apply correctly the process for putting new cues onto behaviors. But truly, verbal cues are extremely important in musical freestyle and they're probably the most important cues in musical freestyle. It's those strong verbal cues that allow the handler to include their movement and their interpretation into the ring. If you're tired to hand cutes then you're really restricted in how you can interpret the music and that's part of what you're scored on, but having those verbal cues doesn't mean that we don't use some visual or body cues. We just really want those to be subtle and portrayed as part of the choreography. The goal in freestyle is to make it appear as if the dog is not being cued, that he or she is in total sync with the handler, and while the handler is leading the dance the dog is a voluntary partner. We want to create that illusion I guess, that illusion of dance partners, not one of telling the other what to do. If you've ever watched ballroom dance, even though you know one is leading it's really hard to tell because they're both so engaged in that process. So yeah, we have a lot of options in terms of cueing, but we work hard to avoid cues that appear lure-like or showing the dog or leading the dog into what to do. Melissa Breau: How long is your average performance? I mean it seems like...in agility even you have signs out to help you and I mean you kind of have to memorize the whole thing in a freestyle routine. Julie Flanery: Right. Yeah. For beginners, generally a routine is going to be about a minute and a half to two minutes. As you get up into the upper levels they're going to go three minutes plus, and these are routines that you choreograph, so you're actually memorizing them as you choreograph them. But make no mistake, it's not an easy task to choreograph two minutes of behaviors. You're probably looking at anywhere from I would say 30 to 80 cued behaviors in a two to three minutes period. Not only are these cued behaviors, but the dog needs to perform them in a timely manner with the music, so your timing of your cues is actually well before you need the dog to perform it so that he can actually perform it at the point in the music where it makes sense. So there's a lot to cueing in musical freestyle, and so it's something that I've had to learn an awful lot about and it's something that once you get involved in freestyle it becomes a really important part of your success. Melissa Breau: It seems like that would be a really interesting thing, even for somebody who wasn't interested in freestyle, to take a class on just because it feels like there's so much carryover there. Julie Flanery: Yeah. And I think actually, is it Mariah? One of the instructors I think is doing a class on cueing. Melissa Breau: Yeah, I think it's Mariah. Julie Flanery: Yeah. It's an amazing concept in and of itself and all of the different ways that we can teach our dogs to take our cues and all of the different ways that they can read our cues, so yeah, I think it's fascinating and I've spent a lot of time in my own personal training development learning how to do that and what's the most effective and efficient means of doing that. Melissa Breau: So, I wanted to kind of round things out with the three questions I ask everybody who comes on the show. So first up, what's the dog-related accomplishment that you're proudest of? Julie Flanery: Well, that's easy. Creating a venue that allows teams to really succeed and enjoy a sport that I love, but if you're talking personally I'd say that earning our Rally-FrEe Grand Champion MCL title. I really did not realize how hard that accomplishment would be and how fulfilling it was to get there. I created it and I didn't realize how hard that would be, I mean, I had to work hard for that title and it was very, very satisfying to be able to accomplish that. Melissa Breau: Well, congratulations. That's awesome.  Julie Flanery: Thanks. Thank you. Melissa Breau: So possibly my favorite question every single episode, what is the best piece of training advice that you've ever heard? Julie Flanery: The best? Oh, wow. So I've heard tons of great training advice. Certainly something we all do, which is to make our training sessions enjoyable for all involved, that learning doesn't really happen under duress and to keep it fun and light and amusing and enjoyable and amazing. I don't remember where I heard it, but a quote that always stuck with me is that “criteria is joy” and if we don't have that within our sessions then it's really all for naught. That and what I talked about earlier, Ken Ramirez who said that we limit ourselves and our animals by assuming things aren't possible. That hangs in my office because so many of the things that I'm doing with my dog now that I would have said weren't possible just a few years ago, so staying open to that. But I think the one piece of advice that has really benefited me the most as a trainer, I heard from Hannah Branigan. I bet she gets this a lot that she's responsible for most people's success in their training, but for me really she talked about being aware of when and where our peak in a training session and not letting them slide down that backside of the bell curve. I am the queen of just one more, and that little lesson from Hannah has made me so much more aware of when it's time to end a session and how much that really impacts the success of that session. So that's probably one that I have benefited the most from, most recently and that sticks with me. I try to remember that every single session, all right, where's my peak? Don't want to go down the backside of that bell curve. Melissa Breau: So that's three, but I think they were three excellent ones. That's awesome. Julie Flanery: Yeah. Sorry, sorry. Melissa Breau: No, that's okay. They were worth it. Julie Flanery: There's just so much training advice out there, you know? Melissa Breau: That's awesome. No, it's my favorite question for exactly that reason because I feel like It's solid takeaways and you kind of walk away with a really solid reminder of something, and I think those three tie together nicely too. Julie Flanery: Yeah. Melissa Breau: So, my final question is who is someone else in the dog world that you look up to? Julie Flanery: You mean aside from all the great instructors at FDSA? Melissa Breau: Preferably, I mean, they're all awesome. Julie Flanery: Yeah. That's right. They really are so passionate, so compassionate about what they do. I couldn't say goodbye without saying it's a real honor to work with them all and learn from them all, but outside of Fenzi, boy, the list is almost as long. I think probably Kathy Sadao has had the most long-term impact on me starting from probably about 15 years ago. Diane Valkavitch, my hero in freestyle, who taught me everything I know about transitions. I can't leave out Michelle Pouliot who inspires and pushes me to do better every single day really. And Cassandra Hartman, she's another really fabulous freestyler who is...she's like the complete package when it comes to training, performance, relationships with her dogs. She's just a real inspiration...all of them, super inspirational trainers and I'm really, really honored to learn from all of them.  Melissa Breau: That's awesome because there are some new names in that list, so that's super exciting. Julie Flanery: Yeah. Melissa Breau: I'm always interested in more trainers that I can go out and look up and read about and see what they have out there in the world, so that's awesome. Thank you.  Julie Flanery: Oh, yeah. They are great, and they all compete in various dog sports as well, so in spite of their current interest in freestyle and them being such great freestyle trainers they really have a wealth of information in regards to all different dog sports and training in general, you know, training is training is training and these folks have really impacted how I train and who I am as a trainer today. Melissa Breau: Awesome. Well, thank you so much for coming on the podcast, Julie. Julie Flanery: Thank you so much. It was really fun. Melissa Breau: It was really fun, and thank you to all of our listeners for tuning in. We have a super special announcement this week. You'll no longer have to wait two weeks between episodes. That's right. We're taking the podcast weekly. That means we'll be back next Friday, this time with Mariah Hinds, who Julie mentioned there in the podcast, to talk impulse control, positive proofing, and competitive obedience. If you haven't already, please subscribe to our podcast in iTunes or the podcast app of your choice to have your episode automatically download to your phone as soon as it becomes available. CREDITS: Today's show is brought to you by the Fenzi Dog Sports Academy. Special thanks to Denise Fenzi for supporting this podcast. Music provided royalty-free by BenSound.com; the track featured here is called “Buddy.” Audio editing provided by Chris Lang and transcription written by CLK Transcription Services. Thanks again for tuning in -- and happy training!

SHOW NOTES:  Summary: Hannah Branigan has been training dogs and teaching people for more than 12 years. In addition to being a Karen Pryor Academy Certified Training Partner, she is a faculty member for Karen Pryor Academy and a teacher at the Fenzi Dog Sports Academy. Hannah is a Professional Member of the Association of Pet Dog Trainers, and a Certified Professional Dog Trainer. She has presented at APDT and Clicker Expo and teaches workshops all over the USA. Owner of Wonderpups, LLC, Hannah is committed to training both dogs and people with positive reinforcement methods. She has titled her dogs in Conformation, Obedience, IPO (Schutzhund), Agility, and Rally. Links mentioned: Wonderpups, LLC Leslie Nelson, Tails-U-Win Next Episode:  To be released 2/3/2017, featuring Shade Whitesel.   TRANSCRIPTION: Melissa Breau: This is Melissa Breau, and you're listening to the Fenzi Dog Sports Podcast, brought to you by the Fenzi Dog Sports Academy, an online school dedicated to providing high-quality instruction for competitive dog sports, using only the most current and progressive training methods. Today, we'll be talking to Hannah Branigan. Hannah has been training dogs and teaching people for more than 12 years. In addition to being a Karen Pryor Academy-Certified Training Partner, she's a faculty member for Karen Pryor Academy and a teacher at the Fenzi Dog Sports Academy. Hannah is a professional member of the Association of Pet Dog Trainers, and a certified professional dog trainer. She has presented at APDT and Clicker Expo, and teachers workshops all over the US. Owner of Wonderpups LLC, Hannah is committed to training both dogs and people with positive reinforcement methods. She has titled her dogs in conformation, obedience, IPO, agility, and rally. Welcome, Hannah. Hannah Branigan: Thank you for having me. Melissa Breau:  Thanks for joining us. To get started, can you just tell us a bit about the dogs you have now and what you're working on with them? Hannah Branigan: We're actually down to four right now, which is kind of weird. I still keep getting out five bully sticks, and then I wonder why I still have one left in my hand. Right now, I have…Stormy is my oldest and she's pretty much retired from anything competitive. She acts as sort of my guinea pig if I have a new, crazy idea that I want to try out on something. So, I'll often try it out on her because I figure, hey, she's 14, she's not going to be in a dog show again, and so if I completely ruin her heeling, then that's not a big deal. So, she will often show up in some of my videos that you'll see in class or on YouTube. So, she still stays busy and still likes to stay active that way. And then there's Gambit. So he's an AKC Champion. We finished his UDX. He's got an OM--something, I don't even remember which number we're on at this point, finished his CDSP OCH last year. We tinkered a little bit in Nose Work. I think this year we're going to go ahead and finish up his RAE, and he's still showing in CDSP, mostly for fun. He's older and he's had a knee injury when he was younger that's starting to kind of catch up with him, so that we appreciate the lower-jump heights of the CDSP Obedience, and we're still hitting the occasional AKC trial locally, depending on how he's feeling, but that's sort of where he is right now, and also, again, guinea pig and often video star. And then the next one down, in order of age, would be Spark. She's also an AKC Champion. In AKC, she's finished her UD and she has I want to say 25 or 30 OCH points, all in Utility. She has some personal space issues with other dogs that have caused me to be a little reticent to put her back in the open stay ring situation. So, I haven't quite decided what I'm going to do with her in that area yet, and we may just kind of rest on our laurels there. She did, this year, just finished her CDSP OCH, where of course there is no group stay. Right now, our main focus with her  -- with me and her together -- is in expanding our agility skills. So, we've been doing a lot of playing in agility and doing some trials in that. And then the baby of the family is Rugby, who I think everyone on the internet knows, and he is, let's see, he's currently training in obedience and of course also rally and then also cross-trains in agility and flyball. This past year, he debuted in CDSP Novice and picked up his first High-in-Trial and was basically awesome, so I was really, really happy with how he's working there, and I think we're going to set our eyes on going into the AKC Novice Ring this coming year. I need to look at my schedule and actually see when I have a weekend available to aim for, but he likes to do a little bit of everything. So, we're hopefully going to be competing, eventually, in all four of those sports and maybe a little barn hunt, maybe a little nose work. He's a terrier, so I feel like I feel compelled to at least… Melissa Breau: ...Honor that side? Hannah Branigan: Show up. Yeah, exactly, take advantage of that, those instincts, rather than always working against them. I think he would definitely enjoy barn hunt. Melissa Breau: Congrats on the High-in-Trial. That's very exciting, especially with your baby dog. Hannah Branigan: Thank you. Yes. Melissa Breau: Now, I'm lucky because you're here in North Carolina, not too far from me, and I had the pleasure of actually attending one of your workshops…I think it was at Lap it Up, and you tend to describe yourself as a dog-training geek, and I think you started the workshop out by kind of mentioning that. So, I wanted to ask you to tell us a little bit about what you mean by that. Hannah Branigan: Yeah. I usually apologize in advance when people have me in person. There's no editing involved. You know, honestly, it's more in the more modern sense of the word geek, really, rather than the original definition, but well, all I really mean by that is just that I'm sort of inordinately fascinated with dogs and behavior and learning, possibly to the point of obsession, and I really love, you know, like I love really digging into those sort of like microcosmic details of the behavior and really looking at how things can be broken apart atomically and how they're all interconnected, and that's really sort of what I spend my Friday nights doing, watching videos in slow motion and trying out stuff and just really, yeah, okay, obsession is probably the right word. Yeah. Melissa Breau: So, I'm guessing you didn't start out that way. How did you get into dog sports and training and kind of into being interested in all this? Hannah Branigan: Yeah. I'm not even really sure. That was kind of a complete accident. I think, like a lot of trainers, I had a pet dog, who was a rescue, and he turned out to have more challenges than I knew how to handle, and so through the process of learning more about training and learning more about dogs to figure out how to help him, so that he would stop biting me, I got kind of like hooked on this concept of training, and then somehow that turned into, once I had the dog that I could take for walks around the neighborhood and be relatively safe with, then I had to teach him to retrieve beer from a fridge. That one, in all honesty, was also to impress a boy, who I then married, so it turned out to be worth it. So, after the beer retrieve, then it was like well, what can I teach him next, and so we tried a little bit of agility, but that was going to be a lot for him, behaviorally, to manage, to handle that environment, and we kind of just ended up finding our way into a UKC Obedience Trial, and I still don't even really remember exactly how that happened, but there we were, and then I thought, well, that was kind of fun, what if I got a registered dog? And I started from scratch, because of course if you buy a purebred dog or, in my case, were given a purebred dog, it's absolutely a guarantee that they'll be easy to train for sports, right? Melissa Breau: Absolutely. That's everybody's favorite line. I think that may be the first time I've ever heard somebody get into dogs to impress a boy, though. Hannah Branigan: Well, I mean I did get the dog on his own merits, but it was the beer retrieve that was… Melissa Breau: That was to impress the boy? Hannah Branigan: Was really, yeah, to show him up. That's how I impress boys, I prove that I'm better than them at whatever the thing is, and it's actually kind of a funny story because, so, my husband, who I was dating at the time, was a computer engineer, and for his project in college, his team was making a beer robot, a robot that would basically retrieve a beer, and I said that I could train my dog to do that faster than he could make a robot do it, and so I did, and I was right. Melissa Breau: That's awesome. Hannah Branigan: I know, right? Exactly. So, and that's how it happened. Melissa Breau: I mean, I think that's a great story to tell. Now, I know that at FDSA, one of like your big series is the skill-building series, the obedience skill-building series, so I wanted to make sure we talk a little bit about that and the role of foundation skills overall. So, do you mind talking for a moment kind of how foundation skills turn into obedience exercises and kind of why they're so important to start out with? Hannah Branigan: Sure, and I think the skill-building series is kind of a…it's an interesting place to start because it's not structured the way most people who are used to competition obedience training expect. So, your average obedience club will typically have, they'll have, you know, maybe some kind of introductory class, if you're lucky, or they may start right out with novice, but they'll have a novice class where you learn how to do novice, and then you go to the dog show and you get your novice title, and then you start attending the open class, and you go to the open classes and learn how to teach that, and you get your open title, and then you go to the Utility class and you learn how to do those exercises, and that's really what most people are expecting when they're thinking about sort of a training progression, but that's not how the experienced elite dog trainers actually train their own dogs. Nobody who is really successful in obedience teaches that way, so, or trains their dogs that way, at any rate. So, when we designed the skill-building series, the goal was really, or our priority was let's set up a series of training progressions that actually mirror the way we would actually train our own dogs. So, you know, when I get a young dog and I intend to compete with that dog in obedience, I don't start with novice. I actually start with most of Utility, so, you know one of the first things that I teach a puppy is scent discrimination and we get started with some of the beginning steps that are going to become go-outs and directed jumping, and also there are things that will lead into heeling, but I don't wait until I have the novice title. We're actually, you know, mostly almost teaching it in reverse, right? So, with the skill-building series, we've very much done that. So, like the skill building one class, we're giving you the building blocks for scent discrimination, for directed jumping and go-outs, for the retrieve, for signals, drop on recall, all of the jumping-related exercises, all of the retrieving-related exercises, and getting those first steps trained, and then as we move through the progression of the classes, we build on those and we start to put them together and form sequences that become the exercises. So, it's a much more logical progression from a behavior standpoint, assuming that you're planning to take that dog into Utility at some point. The way that I think about it is really, like, well it's sort of like Legos, right? So, if you open up a box of Legos, which I was just playing with a minute ago, so that's where my mind is, there's really only like 5 or 6 different types of Lego blocks, right? So, they come in lots of different colors, but there's really only a couple of different shapes. There's the ones with like the 2 dots, and then there's the ones with the 4 dots that are kind of square, and then there's the 6 and then 8 and 12, and using just those blocks, you can really build almost anything, right, like anything from a Millennium Falcon to a dining room table, and it's just by putting those blocks together in different orders and repeating different ones, and I'm kind of getting lost with this metaphor. I don't remember where I was going with it, but…yeah, yeah, yeah, okay, so my point is that all of these exercises really only break down into kind of a handful of behavioral units that we can then sort of change the colors of, right, like we can put them together in different ways and we can modify them in kind of cosmetic ways, but there's not that much, really, to teach, and so if we concentrate on building these really strong, ubiquitous units of behavior that go into all of these advanced exercises, well, the exercises don't turn out to be quite that hard, right? So, the challenge is in getting those really strong little individual units, and then I can build lots of different things out of those, so, a dog that really understands concepts of targeting, that really understands the concept of stimulus control. I can teach a new behavior with a target, fade the target, get a cue on it really, really fast, and it's a strong behavior because they really understand how it works and how we're communicating that way. So, a large part of what we're doing, when we're talking about those foundation skills, is establishing these kind of, you know, we're looking at kind of two categories, right? There's the movement skills that I need the dog to know how to use his body in a certain way, so I need him to be able to shift his weight back and forth and I need him to be able to control his body and then use that to form these positions and understand the communication strategies that we're going to use to communicate with each other, and once I have those things, I can build so much out of it, and I get very excited, so, sorry. Melissa Breau: No. Absolutely. Hannah Branigan: So, yeah, so that's my goal. I want to take this like really mystical, challenging Utility exercise or any of the obedience exercises — I think heeling is more mystical than scent discrimination, really, but that's just me —and how can I break that down into its atomic units, like what are the things that the dog needs to know that then I put together that makes that heeling pictures, makes that scent discrimination picture? Those blocks, those little, individual Lego blocks, are really very achievable for anybody, and that makes it…it takes away that mysticism element, right, and it makes it very actionable, very practical training, and then it also then makes it easy to put them together, and then when they break, take them back apart and fix it and put it back together again. Melissa Breau: I think that leads really naturally into the next question, which is how does having strong foundation skills really help when it comes to proofing and problem solving, when you get to that point where you're starting to prep for competition? Hannah Branigan: First off, I don't love the word proofing, but I know why you're using it and I'm okay with that. I like words like fluency enhancement, just because it puts us in a little bit more of a positive reinforcement mindset, but I understand what you're saying. So, yeah, so having those really strong units of behavior, what I love about that is when I think about training an exercise in sort of a modular way, then if something does break, it's really easy for me to separate out the broken piece and figure out what's wrong here, what does he not understand, because the problem with teaching, and it's just as much of a problem while working human-to-human as gosh, well working between species, human-to-dog, is are they actually learning what I'm teaching, and the answer is not always yes. So, when we start putting together more increasingly-complex behaviors and chains of behaviors and sequences, we'll often find out that no, actually what I was laying down is not what he was picking up, and I need to figure out where that miscommunication happened and what I need to do to clarify that, or is there a legitimately missing skill here, you know, just from a mechanic standpoint, my dog can't do the thing. When I've gone through the thought process, the mental process, of breaking that complex sequence into individual behavioral components, then that really saves a lot of time when I need to go back and kind of debug, right? So, like what is wrong here, and I can check. I can pull it out and I can say okay, is it Unit A? No, looks great. Unit B? Looks great. Unit C? Absolutely perfect. Unit D? Oh gosh, oh, this isn't right. So, all right, this is where I need to spend my time. So, it really saves a lot of time because I've done all of that thinking in advance, right, during the original training process. I mean the behaviors are always functioning as behavioral sequences. That's not something that we've invented. It has a lot more to do with our approach for how we're thinking about it and how we go about teaching it that have the advantage. Melissa Breau: So, to take that and kind of, I don't want to take it from conceptual to practical, but kind of to take that idea just to that next step. Is there a common problem that students run into again and again where maybe you can kind of talk us through having strong foundation skills might help? Hannah Branigan: Like so the vast majority of problem-solving issues that people bring to me come down to exactly that thing, right? There's a piece, there's one of those components that was not well-understood, that the human part of the team thought they had taught, and the dog was not learning exactly what the human thought that they were teaching, and in fact I've dropped the term problem-solving or troubleshooting from my workshop materials just because, again, it so often puts us into that mind-space, which then makes it really hard to take a proactive approach to the training when we're trying to come up with a training plan, but so a really common example that I'll get all the time, and I get it online, I get it in person, so it's the drop on recall. It's a really common one. It's, you know, relatively easy to squeak through your novice, and you get into open and there's a really big monster on that drop on recall, and it catches a lot of teams, and a lot of teams struggle with it, and so people come to me that the dog is, you know, classically they're not dropping when I call him or he's dropping very slowly or he's creeping forward or he sits or he just stands and stares at me, and it is a complex exercise. There's a lot going on there, both bio-mechanically and behaviorally, with that exercise. We give a cue 'come,' and then we interrupt that behavior with a cue to do something completely different, suddenly stop and lay down, which is weird, and so there's a lot of stuff that can go on there, and it's a fairly complex training process, and when we have that kind of complexity, that opens a window for a lot of emotional problems when the people get frustrated, and the dog gets frustrated and confused, and so there can be a whole lot of baggage there, and what often it comes down to is that, you know, we start peeling away the layers and digging. Now, what's actually broken here is, well, it turned out the dog didn't actually have stimulus control on the down itself, right? So, the handler thought when I say down, the dog understands to lay down, and of course we're kind of on thin ice for a cognitive science standpoint when we talk about what dogs know and what dogs understand, but we're going to go with it, and what frequently has turned out to be the case, like, we could write a book about it, is the handler has taught the down with some kind of lure or prompt, nothing wrong with that. That's often how I teach it myself, right? But as part of the training process, if we're using some kind of physical gesture to teach the dog to lay down, and it's assuming that it's not a legal one that we can use in the ring, which in the case of food lure, of course you can't, and under no circumstances, for the drop on recall, can you step towards the dog, put your hand in front of his nose, and point towards the ground, right? That's not a valid cue at any venue that I compete in.  So most of the time we transfer that either to a hand signal, and the classic hand signal, of course, is the one-hand-straight-over-head like a traffic cop, or verbal, down, plotz, whatever, and so we have to do some kind of fading of the prompt or lure, that extra, illegal physical gesture, which often involves some amount of dropping of the head and shoulders towards the ground and/or into the dog's personal space, which is a really common way to teach a drop is we use a little bit of that spatial pressure to push into the dog's space, which causes the dog to lay down, and then we go through the steps of fading that, and then hopefully, we're now completely still and quiet with our body language. We can stand completely neutral, say "down," and the dog hits the dirt, right? What often happens is the handler thinks that's the process that's happened, but what's actually occurred is that the handler's continuing to do some amount of gesturing with the upper body, either at the same time as they say down or even just before it, and then they get in the ring, they say come when the dog is 25 feet away, they say down without that little ducking movement of the head and shoulders that has become the functional cue for the dog, and then, of course, there is no down because you did not give the same cue that you've been giving in training, and classic way to solve that is while you call the dog, and while they're coming towards you, you say down. If they don't down right away, you lean forward, step into them, with or without some amount of intimidation, and then perhaps the dog downs, and then you can say good boy and you can repeat it. Well, we can't do that in the ring, so it still doesn't solve the problem in the ring, and what the problem really is, is that original piece of the behavior, the down, is not actually on the cue that the handler thinks that the dog should be responding to. Melissa Breau: So, for problem-solving that, you then break that piece out and go back and work on just that piece, right? Hannah Branigan: Right. So, you know, what we would do to test it, then, is well, let's try just stand there and give your cue for down, and so, like 99 percent of the time, if we have the hander cross their arms, look at the ceiling, and say down, the dog just looks at them hopefully and wags his tail, right? So, "I know you're talking to me but I've never seen that cue before," and if you have them, you know, how would you normally handle this, and they will often drop their shoulders, lean forward, maybe point at the ground and gesture down, there's some upper-body movement, and the dog goes, "Oh, right, right, right!" and lays down, with or without emotional baggage, depending on what the last six months of that dog's life have looked like, right? My standard protocol is, okay, so now we know this is the situation. Let's just walk through the progression that you used to teach it originally, and so, you know, a lot of the time it's a food lure, which is fine, so we'll lure them down, great, that looks fantastic, fade the lure, now it's a gesture, dog's still dropping really nicely, start fading the gesture, the dog's continuing to drop, and then we'll get to some point in that progression where something's not quite right, like either there's a little bit of a hesitation on the part of the dog or the behavior starts to degrade. Great. That's where we want to act, right? We don't want to wait until we're at a complete failure. We're looking for that first glimmer that there's a question mark. Is it a down? Did you still want me to lay down? And then we shore that up and then continue through the progression from there. Melissa Breau: So, that kind of covers what my next question was going to be, which is what would your recommendation be to a student struggling with this issue. Is there anything you'd want to add there? I just want to make sure that, since I sent you the questions in advance, you get a chance to say anything else that you may have wanted to say. Hannah Branigan: I know. I cheated. They sent me the questions in advance. I think the main thing is kind of my visualization that I would love to share with people is when you use words like foundation, and I think that's a completely valid word to use because we are building our exercises out of these critical supporting concepts — but we often kind of think of it as like, it's like a one and done, like once I've trained these foundation skills, whatever you consider…you know you put these particular items in the foundation box, and you're done, and you tape it closed, and then you keep going.  And I think that that doesn't really do us any favors, and I really kind of prefer the learning model that we'll run across a lot in human learning and human sports, which is really more of a spiral staircase, rather than like the house, right, with the bricks, and then you just start building the house on top of the foundation, but it's more like the spiral staircase because we're never done with these behaviors. Behaviors, always, are dynamic. They're always changing, and they're always responding to their environment and processes of reinforcement and punishment and everything else, and so when I'm thinking about it in the way that I approach training and I think the way that a lot of people do, whether it's conscious or not, is I'm always moving up, I'm always moving forward, and we're always progressing, but we're always also circling past these same concepts and refining them and strengthening them and building on them, and sometimes yes, picking up gaps and filling them in as we discover them, because dogs are really good at letting us know when we've left a gap in our training, and so that's, you know, I think that spiral staircase is a really good visualization for me because I do spend a lot of time, so, you know, working on maybe positions, like the mechanics or the positions. Well, all of my dogs have sit down and stand on cue, I think, and then it's not a done thing. So, we periodically, you know, we're circling back around, and now what does my sit down and stand look like? Oh, how could I sharpen that up? What if I improve the latency on this one a little bit, or those mechanics are slipping, I need to make sure that my dog is really planting his rear end before he pushes into that drop, before we get into the drop on recall, and there's always little things that we can keep improving and refining and strengthening as we continue to build on these behaviors and make bigger, more complex exercises out of them. Melissa Breau: Awesome, and I think that that spiral staircase, I actually haven't heard it used quite that way before and I think that's really interesting and really helpful, even for me to just kind of think through training in that way. Hannah Branigan: Yeah. I invented it myself. I just thought of it. You can call it the Branigan Spiral Staircase Method. Melissa Breau: Deal. Done. I'll name the whole episode that. Hannah Branigan: Perfect. Melissa Breau: So, to round things out, I just have three more short questions for you. So, to start, what's the dog-related accomplishment that you are proudest of? Hannah Branigan: Yeah, so now we're into the beauty pageant section of the interview. Okay. So, it's not dog-related, but it's kind of fresh in my mind since we've been out of school and home for a whole week…I mean it's dog related, but not the dogs themselves. I would say that right now, at this stage, life stage that I find myself in, I am most proud of how my daughter Harper has learned to invite the dogs for petting and attention, rather than reaching out for them or grabbing them. That was something that we've worked really, really hard on for, well, four years now, and it's so awesome to watch it starting to solidify into this interaction that they have, and it started out…it's something we still coach her in, and it was very, very coached. We used a lot of tag teach to initiate it, because as a toddler, she's very grabby because she's a small primate infant person, and so I was like okay, we have to invite dogs to be petted. We don't reach out for the dog. She learned to pat her knee, pat-pat, clap her hands, clap-clap, and then she opens up her hands, palms up, and invites the dogs to come and greet her, and what is so cool is she pats pat and they're like okay, and when she opens her hands, they clearly make a choice of yes, and they come push their neck and chest into her hands and she can start petting them, or they'll just do a beautiful, smooth head-turn away, very canine, thank you, not right now, and we're still working on handling disappointment. That's, of course, that's something I, as an adult, continue to struggle with, but watching them communicate that smoothly when I'm cooking dinner and she's sitting there, and she sees Gambit and she really wants to pet him because, of course, who wouldn't? He's gorgeous. And she pat-pat, clap-clap, opens her hands, and he says oh, yes, please, finally someone to rub me, and he just melts into her hands, and she pets him, and it's so smooth and just seamless and natural, and that's another thing that, you know, when I see it, even though it's just one of those little daily miracles that kind of makes me like, oh, I get chills. Melissa Breau: That's awesome. You share lots of parenting and dog stories online, on Facebook and in other forums, so it's kind of neat. Hannah Branigan: It's all the same thing, completely the same. Melissa Breau: So, what is the best piece of training advice that you've ever heard? Hannah Branigan: Oh, that one's easy. So, Leslie Nelson: "When in doubt, throw food." And I fall back on that all the time. Whenever there's a question, something weird comes up in a training session or even at home, I don't know what to do right now, that was a very weird behavior and I have no idea how I should handle it, throw a handful of food on the ground, and while they're gobbling the food, I can think about my solution, and it turns out that there's a whole lot of behavior problems out there in the world that we can solve in very practical ways by throwing a handful of food at them. Melissa Breau: Both to give ourselves five minutes to think and to give them something else to do? Hannah Branigan: Exactly. Melissa Breau: All right. So, the last one, who is someone else in the dog world that you look up to? Hannah Branigan: Oh, okay. So, well, of course, you know I really admire Denise and Deb and Shade and all the other folks in the FDSA community. Outside of that, Ken Ramirez is really somebody that I admire a lot, well, basically because he's perfect in every way. So, I'm definitely a member of the Ken fan club. We're going to get t-shirts, maybe to share. Melissa Breau: I hope he listens to this, just so he can hear you call him perfect in every way. Hannah Branigan: He knows. I've told him. Melissa Breau: That's awesome. Well, thank you so much for joining us, Hannah, and thank you everybody else for tuning in. We'll be back in two weeks with Shade Whitesel to talk about location-specific markers and being a top IPO competitor, using R+ philosophies. If you haven't already, please subscribe on iTunes or the podcast app of your choice, and our next episode will automatically be downloaded to your phone as soon as it becomes available. CREDITS: Today's show is brought to you by the Fenzi Dog Sports Academy. Special thanks to Denise Fenzi for supporting this podcast. Music provided royalty-free by BenSound.com; the track featured here is called “Buddy.” Audio editing provided by Chris Lang and transcription written by CLK Transcription Services. Thanks again for tuning in -- and happy training!

In this episode, Victoria and Holly are joined by concert pianist and Through A Dog's Ear co-founder Lisa Spector to discuss the Canine Noise Phobia Series - the groundbreaking new desensitization tool Victoria developed in partnership with Through A Dog's Ear. Also discussed: update on Kashmir's knee surgery, Victoria's trip to San Diego for the APDT conference, SD Pet Expo and VSPDT evaluation day, Lennox update, and more. Ask Victoria questions included whether you can rush training, the music in It's Me or the Dog, and how to get puppies to stop barking at training classes. More details on this episode MP3 Podcast - Through A Dog’s Ear with Victoria Stilwell & Holly Firfer

In this episode, Victoria and Holly are joined by concert pianist and Through A Dog's Ear co-founder Lisa Spector to discuss the Canine Noise Phobia Series - the groundbreaking new desensitization tool Victoria developed in partnership with Through A Dog's Ear.  Also discussed: update on Kashmir's knee surgery, Victoria's trip to San Diego for the APDT conference, SD Pet Expo and VSPDT evaluation day, Lennox update, and more.  Ask Victoria questions included whether you can rush training, the music in It's Me or the Dog, and how to get puppies to stop barking at training classes.

Join DSPN host Laurie Williams and her guests, Mychelle Blake, CEO and Ann Allums, Special Programs Coordinator of the Association of Pet Dog Trainers (APDT) as they discuss C.L.A.S.S. (Canine Life and Social Skills), its new and innovative educational dog training program. Developed by the APDT to help strengthen the bond between humans and their canine companions, C.L.A.S.S. promotes the use of positive reinforcement as a means to enhance a dog's basic manners and real life skills. It encourages humans and trainers to take training out of the classroom and apply it to everyday life situations. Find out how your dog can have C.L.A.S.S. too! More details on this episode MP3 Podcast -Does Your Dog Have C.L.A.S.S. with Laurie Williams

Dog-loving owners can have unrealistic expectations, and can easily misunderstand normal dog behaviors. They believe dogs purposely act "bad" to get back at the owner, or blame problems on the dog’s stupidity. Too often, these socially inept canines end up in shelters! Yet dog training CAN be easy and fun-- and literally can save your dog’s life and your relationship. To counter this trend, the Association of Pet Dog Trainers (APBT) has declared January to be National Train Your Dog Month, and Mychelle Blake joins Pet Peeves with all the insider details! More details on this episode MP3 Podcast - Don’t Complain, Train! -- APDT’s National Train Your Dog Month with Amy Shojai on Pet Life Radio

Deven Gaston's delayed report from her last day at the 2006 APDT conference, with reports on Dr. Esther Schalke's research on shock collars ("Stress Symptoms Caused by the Use of Electric Training Collars on Dogs in Everyday Life Situations"), and what Dr. Patricia McConnell had to say about her new book, "The Biology of Emotion in People & Dogs". Further Info from the APDT website:Stress Symptoms Caused by the Use of Electric Training Collars on Dogs in Everyday Life SituationsEsther Schalke, PhDThis class will review the research that has been conducted into the efficacy and welfare implications of the use of electric shock collars. After which the reasons why the Institute of Animal Welfare and Behavior at Hanover University of Veterinary Medicine decided to expand on this research. Their methods, findings and the implications for the use of these devices in practice will be discussed in detail.The Biology of Emotion in People & DogsPatricia McConnell, PhDEver looked at your dog and wondered how much of her emotional life is like your own? Learn the biology of emotion in you and your dog, and why it's reasonable to believe that both species share the emotions of love, fear, sadness, happiness and anger. This presentation will introduce Patricia's new book: For the Love of a Dog: Understanding Emotion in You and Your Best Friend. Be the first to learn what emotions are, how the brain controls them and why we share so many of them with our dogs.Links: The Biology of Emotion in People & Dogs, by Patricia McConnell, PhD The Expression of the Emotions in Man And Animals, by Charles Darwin(wiki) Esther Schalke, PhD, DVM Music provided by the PodShow Podsafe Music Network: Anne Heaton: Underdog

Highlights from Day 3 of the Association of Pet Dog Trainers conference in Kansas City. MO. Deven Gaston reports on Acupressure for the Canine Athlete, Assessing the Risk of Injury by Aggressive Dogs, and new products from the show floor.Links:Four Paws, Five Directions, A Guide To Chinese Medicine For Cats And Dogs By Cheryl SchwartzDr. Pitcairn's Complete Guide To Natural Health For Dogs & Cats by Richard & Susan PitcairnAcupressure's Potent Points: a Guide to Self-Care for Common Ailments by Michael Reed GachPremier Pet Products, available via the new Canine Campus StoreMusic provided by the PodShow Podsafe Music Network:DEERFOOT: Hot DogginBoo Boo Davis: Talkin Bout My Dogs

News and Highlights from the First Day of the Association of Pet Dog Trainers conference in Kansas City. MO. Deven Gaston reports on the Keynote from Susan Garrett, the UPENN Canine Behavioral Research Questionnaire, and some great new stuff from Premier. Also, Music from the Podsafe Music Network and info on the new Canine Campus online Store.Links:Susan Garrett: Ruff LoveSusan Garrett: Shaping SuccessuPenn's Canine Behavioral Assessment and Research QuestionnairePremier Pet Products, available via the new Canine Campus StoreMusic provided by the PodShow Podsafe Music Network:Isaac Angel: Come Away - Flamenco Passion MixDEERFOOT: Hot DogginnLee Maddeford: The devil and his dog

Still in the middle of our move so shownotes will be late, but here is the latest K9Cast, #35! Websites mentioned during this cast: CCPDT.org APDT.org