Podcast appearances and mentions of jean donaldson

You can't have any pudding if you don't eat your meat! If you want to have any pudding, join the Amys and their esteemed guest, Jean Donaldson, world-renowned dog trainer, author, and founder of The Academy for Dog Trainers, for a conversation about the state of the training world and how training trainers is serious business.Grab a

Leave us a messageIn this week's episode, I'm really thrilled to be talking to the person who has had the greatest impact on my professional life. My teacher, mentor and friend, Jean Donaldson.It was thanks to Jean and her Academy For Dog Trainers that I embarked on the biggest shift in my adult life. I went from being a professional sound engineer to working with dogs full time. Jean started The Academy For Dog Trainers.... I tell you what. I'll let Jean explain but if, after hearing Jean speak, you'd like to be considered for a place in The Academy go to https://www.academyfordogtrainers.com/And her course for dog guardians is here: https://www.thegreatcourses.com/courses/dog-training-101Thank you for listening to The Sociable Dog Pod. Find us on X/Twitter @sociabledog

Send us a textBark! Fest gets off to a tail-wagging start with a conversation with one of the world's top dog trainers. Jean Donaldson's seminal book The Culture Clash reframed how we think about dogs and has inspired generations of dog trainers to use (or switch to) reward-based methods. Join us to talk about all things dog training, including positive reinforcement, fearful dogs, and education for dog owners and trainers alike.This recording is of a panel at Bark! Fest, the book festival for animal lovers, that took place in September 2024. Bark! Fest was organized to celebrate the launch of Zazie Todd's third book, Bark! The Science of Helping Your Anxious, Fearful, or Reactive Dog. Bark!.All of the Bark! Fest books are available from good bookstores, including from Bookshop (which supports independent bookstores): https://bookshop.org/lists/bark-fest-the-book-festival-for-animal-loversWe talked about:why Jean wrote her book The Culture Clashwhat the Transparency Challenge is and why it's so important for dog trainers to answer these questionsher advice to someone who is struggling with their dog's behaviourwhat is distinctive about the Academy for Dog Trainersa writing tipher favourite thing that's changed in the world of dog training over the yearsand she answered lots of questions from the audienceResources mentioned:Transparency in dog training https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=987644334623619 The Academy for Dog Trainers https://www.academyfordogtrainers.com/Find a PPG professional https://www.petprofessionalguild.com/find-a-ppg-professional/ Karen Pryor Academy https://karenpryoracademy.com/Victoria Stilwell Academy https://www.vsdogtrainingacademy.com/ The Great Courses Dog Training 101 https://www.thegreatcourses.com/courses/dog-training-101 The ultimate dog training tip https://www.companionanimalpsychology.com/2017/04/the-ultimate-dog-training-tip.html (Companion Animal Psychology)Emily Priestley Wild at Heart Dog Training and her book, Urban Sheepdog https://wildatheartdogs.com/ (see also our recent podcast with Emily, https://www.companionanimalpsychology.com/2024/11/what-you-need-to-know-about-herding.html )Cooperative Paws by Veronica Sanchez https://cooperativepaws.com/ More about Jean Donaldson: https://www.academyfordogAbout the co-hosts: Kristi Benson is an honours graduate of the prestigious Academy for Dog Trainers and has her PCBC-A from the Pet Professional Accreditation Board. She lives in beautiful northern British Columbia, where she helps dog guardians through online teaching and consultations. Kristi is on staff at the Academy for Dog Trainers, helping to shape the next generation of canine professionals. Kristi's dogs are rescue sled dogs, mostly retired and thoroughly enjoying a good snooze in front of the woodstove. Kristi Benson's website Facebook Zazie Todd, PhD, is the award-winning author of Wag: The Science of Making Your Dog Happy and Purr: The Science of Making Your Cat Happy. She is the creator of the popular blog, Companion Animal Psychology, and also has a column at Psychology Today. Todd lives in Maple Ridge, BC, with her husband, one dog, and one cat. Facebook Instagram BlueSky

Send us a textIn this episode, Zazie and Kristi answer wide-ranging questions about both dogs and cats that were sent in by listeners. We talked about brain games and the attention span in senior dogs; suggestions for new things to teach dogs; why dogs bark at e.g. people in hats or people going by the house; cooperative care for kittens; creating a local resource list for anxious and fearful dogs; enrichment and caring for fearful cats; the best tone of voice to use when speaking to your dog; whether dogs can detect our levels of stress; how to advocate for your dog; whether to teach a chin rest to cats for cooperative care; teaching cats to be wrapped in a towel for vet care; is watching TV good for pets,; how to teach cats to cooperate with having their claws trimmed; and we shared some tips on desensitization and counterconditioning for anxious and fearful dogs and cats. This episode was recorded with a live audience.Links and resources: Bark! The Science of Helping Your Anxious, Fearful, or Reactive Dog by Zazie Todd is out now and getting rave reviews. It's available from all good bookstores. https://greystonebooks.com/products/barkKristi Benson's course on barking https://www.kristibenson.com/peace-and-quiet-barking-dogsand on grooming: https://www.kristibenson.com/freshandfearlessThe Husbandry project from the Academy for Dog Trainers https://www.academyfordogtrainers.com/husbandry-project/Train Your Dog Like a Pro by Jean Donaldson is also available from all good bookstores. Fear Free directory https://fearfreepets.com/ fearfDebbie Jacobs Fearful Dogs https://fearfuldogs.com/BC SPCA desensitization and counterconditioning for cats. You can find the infographic on Bailey Eagan's website https://www.baileyheagan.com/resourcesCompanion Animal Psychology blog post on desensitization and counterconditioning https://www.companionanimalpsychology.com/2018/07/what-is-About the co-hosts: Kristi Benson is an honours graduate of the prestigious Academy for Dog Trainers and has her PCBC-A from the Pet Professional Accreditation Board. She lives in beautiful northern British Columbia, where she helps dog guardians through online teaching and consultations. Kristi is on staff at the Academy for Dog Trainers, helping to shape the next generation of canine professionals. Kristi's dogs are rescue sled dogs, mostly retired and thoroughly enjoying a good snooze in front of the woodstove. Kristi Benson's website Facebook Zazie Todd, PhD, is the award-winning author of Wag: The Science of Making Your Dog Happy and Purr: The Science of Making Your Cat Happy. She is the creator of the popular blog, Companion Animal Psychology, and also has a column at Psychology Today. Todd lives in Maple Ridge, BC, with her husband, one dog, and one cat. Facebook Instagram BlueSky

Have you ever been surprised by a growl as you tried to take something from your sweet dog? Taken aback when your usually friendly dog bared her teeth as the neighbor's dog came near her toy? Resource guarding is both completely natural AND can be a big problem! We see folks worrying too much in some cases, and not enough in others. In this episode we use Jean Donaldson's book "Mine" as a jumping off point for a discussion on resource guarding: what to watch for, how to use management to prevent issues, how to handle emergencies, and how to keep your dog from becoming a problematic guarder. 

Visit us at shapedbydog.com    Have you ever been triggered by social media dramas about dog training methods? It's likely something we all experience. There was a recent incident at Crufts that flowed into the social channels this week that had a lot of thoughts flooding into my brain, including the question of how can we, as a community of dog loving reinforcement-based trainers, show up as our best selves when we get triggered by things out of our control? I'd love to open a dialogue on this topic and want to convey the compassion and empathy I have for everybody when sharing my experiences and observations in this episode. I understand that, for many, it might be a difficult conversation.    In this episode you'll hear:   • About fog training, controversy and social media dramas. • That we can all be triggered by differing dog training methods. • Thoughts on the core values of reinforcement-based training. • Why I'm not the same person or dog trainer I was 30 years ago. • My experience with being a guest on a podcast with a balanced dog trainer. • Insights into the evolution of dog training perspectives over time. • Why I called Jean Donaldson and had an enlightening conversation. • That we need grace and compassion for ourselves, and the big question.   Resources:   1. Crufts International Dog Show - https://crufts.org.uk/ 2. Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show - https://www.westminsterkennelclub.org/ 3. LickiMat Website - https://lickimat.com/ 4. Podcast Episode 253: 7 Ways To Instantly Make Your Dog's Life Better - https://dogsthat.com/podcast/253/ 5. *Book: The Forever Dog by Dr. Karen Becker and Rodney Habib - https://geni.us/forever-dog  6. Podcast Episode 175: Food Luring VS Shaping In Dog Training: How Science Changed How I Teach Dogs - https://dogsthat.com/podcast/175/ 7. YouTube Playlist: Susan Garrett's Dog Training Philosophy and Training Processes - https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLphRRSxcMHy2An5_3KqDPqFVV6J6dYsYx&feature=shared 8. YouTube Playlist: Mastery of Positive Reinforcement Based Dog Training - https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLphRRSxcMHy20_Ko8p2SaE6B2IT4o6g6K 9. Podcast Episode 196: Why Mastering Reinforcement Is The Linchpin To Reinforcement Based Dog Training - https://dogsthat.com/podcast/196/ 10. YouTube Playlist: The Heart / Mind Connection Side of Dog Training with Susan Garrett - https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLphRRSxcMHy1ruLW0CujlHgzCiTLK2Rfh 11. Podcast: Unlocking Us with Brené Brown - https://brenebrown.com/podcast/the-near-and-far-enemies-of-fierce-compassion-part-1-of-2/  12. Podcast Episode 7: You, Your Dog, Maslow and Lizard Brain - https://dogsthat.com/podcast/7/ 13. Podcast Episode 91: Why Judgement Does Not Help People Or Dogs: ItsYerChoice LWT - https://dogsthat.com/podcast/91/ 14. Shaped by Dog Podcast Episodes Site Index - https://dogsthat.com/podcast-all-episodes/ 15. Book: Shaping Success by Susan Garrett - https://dogsthat.com/product/shaping-success-2/ 16. Podcast Episode 196: Why Mastering Reinforcement Is The Linchpin To Reinforcement Based Dog Training (Buzz Retrieve Video) - https://dogsthat.com/podcast/196/ 17. Podcast Episode 197: Outsmarting Distractions: How To Use Environmental Reinforcement in Dog Training - https://dogsthat.com/podcast/197/ 18. Jean Donaldson Academy for Dog Trainers - https://www.academyfordogtrainers.com/ 19. Podcast Episode 208: Brilliance, Resilience And Gratitude: Inspiration And Motivation With Elliott Connie - https://dogsthat.com/podcast/208/ 20. Watch this Episode of Shaped by Dog on YouTube - https://youtu.be/H3Vn7afXLiY   *Amazon Links Disclosure: As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. Susan only recommends products she uses herself, and all opinions expressed here are her own. The link above is an affiliate link that, at no additional cost to you, we may earn a small commission if you decide to buy from it. Thank you!

Join renowned canine behaviorist and author Jean Donaldson as she delves into the fascinating world of dogs and the human-canine relationship.

Join Niki Tudge, Jean Donaldson, Judy Luther, and Rebekah King as they gather to officially launch PPG's new Pet Training Science Alliance (PTSA)! Learn about what the program is, how the program works, and how you can help support it as an educator or as a learner. Stay up to date on the latest PTSA projects here: https://www.petprofessionalguild.com/Pet-Training-Science-Alliance

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

Visit us at shapedbydog.com    When you cue your dog to perform a behavior, do they respond with lightning speed or a leisurely pace? The lag time between your cue and your dog's response is called latency. When I design a training plan for my dogs, latency is built in, because I want super fast responses to cues. We're covering how why dogs might respond slowly and what you can do to fix it.   In the episode you'll hear:   • What you need to know about latency of behavior. • When to consider a dog's behavior fluent. • Why dogs develop lag times between a cue and response. • What to consider if dogs are slow to respond. • How to leverage arousal states for focused and fast behaviors. • Common mistakes people make that create lag time for dogs. • How to reduce latency with the example of a dog sitting at the door. • Why to take the problem away from the environment. • About using Jean Donaldson's “Push, Stick or Drop” to reduce latency. • When to test the latency of a behavior in new habitats. • That fast responses generalize well to many behaviors.   Resources:   1. Podcast Episode 172: How To Teach Your Dog Anything With My Training Plan - https://dogsthat.com/podcast/172/ 2. Podcast Episode 189: All The Things That Influence Your Dog's Behavior And What Behavior Tells You - https://dogsthat.com/podcast/189/ 3. Podcast Episode 103: Excited Or Suspicious Dog? Dealing With Your Dog's Emotions - https://dogsthat.com/podcast/103/ 4. Podcast Episode 47: Don't Wanna, Don't Hafta: What To Do When Your Dog Refuses To Obey - https://dogsthat.com/podcast/47/ 5. Podcast Episode 86: How to Train Unmotivated or Overexcited Dogs - https://dogsthat.com/podcast/86/ 6. Podcast Episode 117: What's More Important Than Your Dog Training Sessions? - https://dogsthat.com/podcast/117/ 7. Podcast Episode 133: Become Your Own Dog Training Coach With This Video Strategy - https://dogsthat.com/podcast/133/ 8. Podcast Episode 184: Proofing Vs Generalizing In Dog Training To Grow Skills And Confidence - https://dogsthat.com/podcast/184/ 9. Podcast Episode 141: Average Or Better Dog Training Question: What Did You Just Reward? - https://dogsthat.com/podcast/141/ 10. Podcast Episode 144: Teach Your Dog To Listen No Matter What… Even If You Think They Are Stubborn - https://dogsthat.com/podcast/144/ 11. Podcast Episode 155: 10 Ways To Teach A Sit WITHOUT A Food Lure! Unreal Results For Puppies And Dogs Of All Ages - https://dogsthat.com/podcast/155/ 12. Podcast Episode 145: 10 Ways To Teach A Dog To Lay Down And How To Shape It Without Luring - https://dogsthat.com/podcast/145/ 13. Watch this Episode of Shaped by Dog on YouTube - https://youtu.be/j0M9efVJFmk

Join renowned canine behaviorist and author Jean Donaldson as she delves into the fascinating world of dogs and the human-canine relationship.

Resource Guarding in DogsWe talk with Lisa about what resource guarding is and the body language that you should look for to spot it. People often have an emotional response to resource guarding—it can be a shock if your dog growls at you—and we talk about why you shouldn't punish the growl and how to deal with those completely normal feelings. We discuss how to fix resource guarding issues and why aversive methods are not the answer. Kristi and Zazie both share stories about their own dogs' resource guarding behaviour, and we also talk about how to prevent it in the first place.Finally, we talk about the books we are reading right now. Lisa Skavienski is the owner of Dog Educated in Rochester, NY, where she specializes in classes, workshops, and private consultation for dog owners. She is deeply invested in animal welfare, participating at the local community level, as well as holding a seat on the Pet Professional Guild's Shelter and Rescue Committee. Lisa studied with behavior expert Jean Donaldson at the highly acclaimed Academy for Dog Trainers. She is also a Certified Separation Anxiety Trainer and Fear free certified.Facebook Instagram   The books:Zazie Todd's Wag: The Science of Making Your Dog Happy and her upcoming book Shiver. An Immense World: How Animal Senses Reveal the Hidden Realms Around Us by Ed Yong was the Animal Book Club's choice for February and March.The Book of Hope: A Survival Guide for Trying Times (Global Icons Series) by Jane Goodall and Douglas Abrams with Gail Hudson.The Roller Derby Blueprint by Scott Meyer.Still I Cannot Save You by Kelly S. Thompson.Read highlights of the chat here. 

Episode 5 of The Pawsitive Post in Conversation sees Zazie and Kristi talk about the names we give our pets. We chat about how we choose them, what makes a good name, how we use our pets' names, how to change a pet's name, and whether they know their own and each other's names.As well, we talk about the books the book club is reading right now and our own choices of books we love. (There may be some spoilers in this discussion).Pet cats know their fellow cats' names, study shows (Psychology Today) Our heroes by Jean Donaldson and Kristi Benson (The Academy for Dog Trainers) Books:Fuzz: When Nature Breaks the Law by Mary RoachPurr: The Science of Making Your Cat Happy by Zazie ToddPlenty in Life is Free: Reflections on Dogs, Training and Finding Grace by Kathy SdaoHappiness: A Novel by Aminatta FornaHeroes Month is taking place at the Academy for Dog Trainers in June 2022. (On Facebook)

The Pawsitive Post In Conversation Ep 4 with special guest Jean Donaldson. #CAP10.Zazie and Kristi are joined by Jean Donaldson, one of the world's top dog trainers, founder of the Academy for Dog Trainers, and author of Culture Clash. Zazie, Kristi, and Jean talk about what's changed for dogs over the last ten years: the move to reward-based dog training methods, increased enrichment, better education of pet guardians, and fear free veterinary care. As well, they talk about the changes they would still like to see happen.They also talk about Dog Training 101, a 24-lesson course that Jean wrote for The Great Courses, and what students can expect from The Academy for Dog Trainers.In the final section, they share the books they are reading right now.Academy for Dog Trainers: https://www.academyfordogtrainers.com/The Great Courses: https://www.thegreatcourses.com/ (put 'dog' in the search bar and Dog Training 101 will come up)Kristi Benson: http://www.kristibenson.com/Companion Animal Psychology: https://www.companionanimalpsychology.com/Books: Life's Edge: The Search for What it Means to Be Alive by Carl ZimmerThe Anglo Saxons: A History of the Beginnings of England: 400-1066 by Marc MorrisMake It Stick: The Science of Successful Learning by Peter C. Brown, Henry L. Roediger III, and Mark A. McDanielAlfabet/Alphabet: A Memoir of a First Language by Sadiqa de MeijerCompanion Animal Psychology's Amazon store: https://www.amazon.com/shop/animalbookclub

Today Cindie is joined by Jean Donaldson, founder and principle instructor of The Academy for Dog Trainers. The Academy has trained and certified over 800 trainers in evidence-based dog behavior, training, teaching and behavior counseling since 1999. She is a four-time winner of The Dog Writers' Association of America's Maxwell Award, and her books include The Culture Clash, Oh Behave! Dogs From Pavlov to Premack to Pinker, and Train Like a Pro. In 2017, Jean was recruited to create Dog Training 101 for The Great Courses.

An artist is bringing some of our lesser-known endangered animals to the fore. In her beautifully illustrated book Tiaki  designer and native-bird enthusiast Jean Donaldson shifts the focus from kakapo and kiwi to endangered gravel maggots, sea slugs. Jean tells Kathryn it's a conservation call to arms for pre-teens and teenagers.

Visit us at shapedbydog.com    When I first started dog training 30 or so years ago, I was studying the sport of dog obedience because I wanted to compete. We were taught to lure our dog to do what we wanted and then move to the proofing stage. When proofing, we were looking for errors to test how well the dog understood what we'd taught them. And if our dog failed, we were instructed to give them a correction. What if we changed our mindset from proofing to building confidence? We're covering how to help our dogs clearly understand what we want in any location and situation.   In the episode you'll hear:   • How you can have a well-trained dog without using corrections and intimidation. • What proofing in dog training is and why it can create unrealistic expectations. • About the acquisition and fluency stages of training a dog. • How we can look at any behavior we are training as just one trick. • That fluency will let you know what your dog really understands. • How to generalize behavior, so your dog has the confidence to perform anywhere. • Why generalizing leads to environmental neutrality for dogs. • Bob Bailey's 80% rule and using Jean Donaldson's ““Push, Stick or Drop” to determine that 80%.   Resources:   1. Podcast Episode 172: How To Teach Your Dog Anything With My Training Plan – 5C - https://dogsthat.com/podcast/172/ 2. Podcast Episode 24: Help for Dogs who Chase Chipmunks, Bicycles, and Neighbor's Cats (Distraction Intensity Index) - https://dogsthat.com/podcast/24/ 3. Blog Post: Head Games - https://susangarrettdogagility.com/2009/10/head-games/ 4. YouTube Video: Susan Garrett Riffs on Transfer of Value in Dog Training (and water loving Labradors) - https://youtu.be/clFlutZ0mls 5. Watch this Episode of Shaped by Dog on YouTube - https://youtu.be/FKUo3NWXhLE

Welcome to Season Three of The Bitey End of the Dog! For this season, I will be continuing to have great discussions on helping dogs with aggression with the world's foremost experts, and will be introducing a new exciting format to the show, Fresh Bites which will be shorter episodes on a variety of topics focused on understanding dog behavior from a diverse group of dog trainers and behavior pros from around the world. I'm kicking off this season with none other than Jean Donaldson, who has had a profound influence in so many positive ways in my journey, as well as many others in the dog training world. We chat about her seminal book, The Culture Clash, as well as Mine and Fight, two other well known books, and must haves if you are working aggression cases, and go down many other deep rabbit holes in dog behavior. 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 Jean Donaldson:The Academy for Dog Trainers was founded in 1999 by Jean Donaldson.She ran it for ten years as a residential program at The San Francisco SPCA before spending a year and a half re-inventing the curriculum in its current form as a two-year e-learning course. The new format broadens the scope and content of the original program, includes the latest research on behavior and training, and allows students a much longer enrollment time so that they may study, “marinate” and integrate concepts and skills, train and fit their course work around their life commitments.Jean is one of the top dog trainers in the world and has lectured extensively in the US, Canada, the UK, Europe, Australia, New Zealand and Japan. She is a four-time winner of The Dog Writers' Association of America's Maxwell Award, and her seminal book The Culture Clash was named number one training and behavior book by The Association of Pet Dog Trainers. Her other titles are Mine! A Guide to Resource Guarding in Dogs, Fight! A Guide to Dog-Dog Aggression, Dogs Are From Neptune, and Oh Behave! Dogs From Pavlov to Premack to Pinker.Her most recent book, Train Like a Pro, was her first written training guide for a lay audience. In 2017, Jean authored and instructed Dog Training 101 for The Great Courses.Before transitioning full-time to pet dog training, Jean competed in dog sports with dogs of various breeds, earning numerous titles and wins including OTCh, HIT, TDX, and FDCh, as well as a CGC. She ran a successful training school for fifteen years, and spent six years doing primarily referral aggression cases. She holds a degree in comparative psychology and is a keen student of evolutionary biology.The Academy for Dog Trainershttps://www.academyfordogtrainers.comThe Great Courses - Dog Training 101https://www.thegreatcourses.com/courses/dog-training-101Support the show

This week pet trainer Mikkel Becker shares how she combined her passion for animals and serving people to create a business that teaches both pets and people how to communicate and understand fear, anxiety, and emotional issues. Listen in as we break down the pressures of continuing a family legacy, carving your own path through your passions, and why pets and their owners have more in common than you might think. “Pets communicate continually with us is through their body language. We need to not punish our pet for telling us how they feel, but give them coping strategies. Our mental and emotional health are very similar.” – Mikkel Becker About Mikkel: Mikkel Becker is a certified trainer, dog behavior counselor and the lead animal trainer for Fear Free. From early life it was undeniably clear that Mikkel’s number one focus was always going to be animals. Mikkel’s childhood consisted of two joys; horses and dogs. Her training career started early with help from her childhood dog, a Wire Haired Fox Terrier named Scooter, who delighted in fun games like running in the opposite direction when called, leading the neighborhood bark patrol and terrorizing other dogs in a blaze of terrier fueled fury. But, where frustration created what could have been rifts the size of the massive holes Scooter dug in the yard, pure love was able to bridge those gaps and create a wiser, more resilient child and dog who together became grand champions in 4-H obedience. Unlike many children her age, Mikkel traded sports and other hobbies to instead chase after blue ribbons at horse shows and memories on trail rides. Her special passion was taking horses who were deemed less suitable by others and revealing the true champion inside. In pursuit of formal animal training education, Mikkel graduated from the rigorous San Francisco SPCA Dog Training Academy with Jean Donaldson (earning a Certificate in Training and Counseling; CTC), the Karen Pryor Academy (becoming a Karen Pryor Certified Training Partner; KPA CTP), the Purdue Dogs and Cats Course, and Mikkel shadowed Dr. Nicolas Dodman at the Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine. Mikkel’s favorite educational experience was providing enrichment and positive reinforcement guidance to orangutans at Jungle Island in Miami. Along with her growing knowledge, Mikkel achieved other certifications, including becoming a Certified Behavior Consultant Canine (CBCC-KA), a Certified Professional Dog Trainer (CPDT-KA) and a Certified Dog Behavior Counselor (CDBC).Locally in the Seattle area Mikkel is the dog and cat behavior counselor at Homeward Pet Adoption Center, resident trainer for veterinary behaviorist, Dr. Wailani Sung, and a trainer at Doggy Haven Resort. When it comes to home life, Mikkel’s four legged pug kids were eventually joined by a now seven year old daughter, Reagan, who is blossoming into her own rights as a trainer (Reagan’s current passion project is taming farmyard chickens and goats and pursuing ambitions to run an animal rescue and become a veterinarian like her Papa, Marty). Today, Mikkel’s family lives in in a country getaway space outside of Seattle along with the family’s cherished pug genius, Willy who charms guests with his arsenal of tricks and delights in giving his version of wet willy’s with his surprisingly long, frog-like tongue. Mikkel recently co-authored “From Fearful to Fear Free: A Positive Program to Free Your Dog from Anxiety, Fears, and Phobias” with Dr. Marty Becker, Dr. Lisa Radosta and Wailani Sung. You can connect with Mikkel in the following ways: Twitter: https://twitter.com/fearfreepets Website: https://fearfreepets.com/ Stay focused on the mindset, skills, and habits it takes to Have It All with the following: Take the free Have It All Assessment here: https://bit.ly/haveitallquiz Learn the four pillars of performance by reading my book, The Making of a Maverick: https://amzn.to/3oQ7wji Connect with me on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/marlohiggins/ Share your story of Having It All. Apply to be a guest on the podcast: https://bit.ly/marloguestapp See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Megan Arey, AAS, CPDT-KA, CGC Evaluator Owner & Trainer talks today about fear, reactivity, thresholds, and desensitization!  Do you have a fearful or reactive dog?  Most dogs have these reactions at some point in their life and today Megan goes in-depth on each type of reaction and how we can help our dogs in these situations, so they have a successful outcome. Megan talks about common triggers that elicit these reactions, ways to manage them, and why your relationship with your dog is so important in the process of helping them overcome their fears and the way they respond to these triggers. If this is something you struggle with, with your dog, this is an episode you don't want to miss! We discuss topics such as: What are the reasons behind your dog's reactions? Conflict based, fear-based, predatory, and territorial reactions Idiopathic reactions and what is important to consider when your dog has this response Common triggers that can initiate these reactions and how to identify them Management tools to use until you can get into a trainer for help Biting Over-reactivity and threshold points Why your relationship with your dog is so important Timeouts and how to use them Resources and Links: Visit our Inspire K-9's website & see the most up-to-date class schedules. Join our Inspire K-9's Facebook group today!  We'd love to have you! Check out Jean Donaldson's book, Culture Clash: A Revolutionary New Way of Understanding the Relationship Between Humans and Domestic Dogs  

Folge 43: In unserer Rubrik „Hinter den Kulissen der Hundetrainer:innen“ spricht Merle mit unterschiedlichen Trainer:innen über ihre persönliche Geschichte, ihre eigenen Hunde, Philosophie und Lieblingsthemen. In dieser Folge ist Ulrike Seumel zu Gast. Sie ist Coach, Trainerin für Menschen mit Hund, Autorin und Gründerin von Do It Right. Bei Dog It Right werden Mensch-Hund-Teams sowohl vor Ort in Potsdam als auch online begleitet, dabei nimmt das Markertraining eine zentrale Rolle ein. Neben Ullis persönlichem Werdegang wird in dieser Folge unter anderem über Werte im Hundetraining und das Training mit Markersignalen gesprochen. Mehr über Ulli und Dog It Right erfährst du hier: https://dogitright.de Ullis Buch „Marker-Training für Hunde“ findest du hier:* https://amzn.to/3Ikpq4v Ullis Lesetips: – Buch „Positiv bestärken - sanft erziehen: Der Klassiker zum Clicker-Training“ von Karen Pryor:* https://amzn.to/3qav179 – Buch „Verhaltensfragen: Hunde in der modernen Verhaltensforschung“ von Jean Donaldson:* https://amzn.to/3IqX9JS – Buch „Fight!: A Practical Guide to the Treatment of Dog-Dog Aggression“ von Jean Donaldson :* https://amzn.to/3qgoKHn – Buch „Jagdverhalten verstehen, kontrollieren, ausgleichen: Wege in den Freilauf“ von Anja Fiedler:*https://amzn.to/3upwgkz MEHR ZU UNS: Wenn du keine neuen Podcastfolgen, Talks und Events verpassen möchtest, dann folge uns am besten auf Instagram [@tardisandfriends] (https://www.instagram.com/tardisandfriends) und [@cleverdogpodcast] (https://www.instagram.com/cleverdogpodcast) oder abonniere unseren Newsletter: tardisandfriends.de/newsletter Zur Tardis&Friends-Community geht es hier: tardisandfriends.de/community *Bei mit Sternchen (*) gekennzeichneten Links handelt es sich um einen sogenannten Affiliate Link. Wenn du ein Produkt über einen solchen Link kaufst, erhalten wir vom jeweiligen Anbieter eine Provision. Für dich verändert sich der Preis natürlich nicht. Es macht für dich beim Einkaufen also keinen Unterschied - außer, dass du unser Projekt bei einem Einkauf über einen unser Affiliate-Links unterstützt :) Weiteres dazu findest du in unserer Datenschutzerklärung (https://tardisandfriends.de/datenschutz)

#58 Ressourcen zu verteidigen ist völlig normales Hundeverhalten. Die meisten Welpen "kämpfen" mit ihren Wurfgeschwistern schon sehr früh um Ressourcen (Zitze der Mutterhündin), doch manche entwickeln mit der Zeit eine ausgeprägte Ressourcenaggression gegenüber anderen Lebewesen. Die kommt allerdings nie plötzlich, sondern entwickelt sich mit der Zeit - weshalb wir im Welpen- und Junghundealter ansetzen müssen. In dieser Podcastfolge erfährst du, was es mit dem Sichern von Ressourcen auf sich hat, wie es gezeigt wird, was gerne gesichert wird und welche Fehlerquellen ganz häufig das Verteidigen begünstigen.  Mein Name ist Lisa Stolzlechner mehr Infos zu mir findest du hier: https://lisastolzlechner.com Möchtest du am 24.3. beim Webinar "Die Spurensuche" live mit dabei sein? Dann melde dich hier an: https://lisastolzlechner.com/die-hundenase/ Und die Ressourcen-Studie findest du hier: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0167587717301253 Buchtipp zum Thema: "Meins" von Jean Donaldson

What is Fear Free and how does it apply to being a pet sitter or dog walker? Mikkel Becker, from Fear Free and Fear Free Happy Homes, discusses how following the Fear Free philosophy impacts our ability to build trust with the pets in our care. It not only makes our job easier, but also sets up the pet and owner for success. Mikkel shares how fear manifests itself in dogs and cats, and what we can do to help them in those moments. You may encounter client's who don't see eye to eye on these methods, and we discuss ways to talk through Fear Free with them. Topics on this episode: * What is Fear Free? * How do you define ‘fear'? * Preparing before you walk through the door * Communicating with clients * Overcoming our own bad habits Main take away: Going ‘Fear Free' means acknowledging that pets have emotional needs that must be addressed in addition to their physical needs. About our guest: Mikkel Becker is the lead animal trainer for Fear Free Pets. She specializes in reward based training and behavior modification with dogs, cats and occasional other species, including horses, pigs and orangutans. Mikkel is a Karen Pryor Certified Training Partner (KPA CTP), a graduate of the rigorous San Francisco SPCA Dog Training Academy with Jean Donaldson with a certificate in training and counseling (CTC), a Certified Behavior Consultant Canine (CBCC-KA), a Certified Professional Dog Trainer (CPDT-KA) and a Certified Dog Behavior Counselor (CDBC). Mikkel also majored in communications and minored in sociology at Washington State University. Mikkel is regularly featured in publications that include USA Today, today.com, Woman's Day, Real Simple and a nationally syndicated newspaper pet column. She was the resident trainer at vetstreet.com and now is the lead animal trainer at fearfreehappyhomes.com and fearfreepets.com Mikkel has coauthored six books, including the most recent release, From Fearful to Fear Free. Mikkel lives in Spokane, WA with her daughter, Reagan and the love of her life- a Puggle named Indiana Bones. The rest of the critter crew includes an adorably naughty rescue pug mix, Otis, a rescued stray cat- Mylo, and a cuddly, teddy bear of a horse, Chili. Links: 10% off the Fear Free Pet Sitter Certification Program with promo code PSC10. Fear Free: https://fearfreepets.com Fear Free Happy Homes: https://www.fearfreehappyhomes.com Mikkel on Facebook: Facebook.com/Mikkelbecker and Instagram: Instagram.com/Mikkelbecker Her email: mikkel.becker@fearfreepets.com Give us a call! (636) 364-8260 Follow us on: Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/petsitterconfessional/), Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/petsitterconfessional/), Twitter (https://twitter.com/psconfessional) Email us at: feedback@petsitterconfessional.com (mailto:feedback@petsitterconfessional.com) Full show notes and transcript (https://www.petsitterconfessional.com/episodes/256)

Join Niki Tudge, Debra Millikan and Denise O'Moore as they Chat and Chuckle with Dr. Eduardo Fernandez, Michelle Martiya, K. Holden Svirsky, Grisha Stewart and Jean Donaldson about their planned sessions for Geek Week 2021. Find out more about the presenters in our Geek Week 2021 Presenters Guide and explore the sessions discussed in this BARKS Podcast in our Geek Week 2021 Session Descriptions Guide. Geek Week 2021 Features: More than 90 events with live Q&A sessions; Educational content streaming 24 hours a day over 5 days; Academic, Behavior and Consulting tracks; 70+ top notch, internationally renowned speakers - 28 academics, 29 behavior experts and 13 consulting specialists; Special rates for Animal Shelters and Rescues; Exhibitor sessions – Meet live and face-to-face; Meet the authors – Get the details on what's between the covers; Payment plans – Pay over 4 months; CEUs; and a Virtual “Geeked-Up” Cocktail Party – Get fancy, network, and win prizes! Register for Geek Week 2021!

Chegamos ao fim da resenha do livro O Choque de Culturas, escrito pela treinadora canadense, Jean Donaldson. Neste último episódio, o Podcast Meu Nome Não É Não apresenta os dois últimos capítulos: 5 – Cérebros de Limão mas mesmo assim … O post #89 – Resenha: Choque de Culturas, Jean Donaldson (parte 3 de 3) apareceu primeiro em Meu Nome Não É Não.

Maria Skorobogatov, CTC, is a dog trainer who has spent the last six years traveling the world training animals. She's worked with dogs in Hanoi, cats in Tunisia and Rome, and everything from pangolins to elephants to vervet monkeys in Malawi. Originally from Brooklyn, Maria discovered the joys of animal training when she lucked into a client service's job at The Houston Zoo. When she saw the work the trainers were doing there, she started taking classes in behavior at a community college, where she learned to train rats. She later moved to San Francisco, worked at an animal shelter there, and eventually enrolled in Jean Donaldson's acclaimed Academy For Dog Trainers. While working as a trainer and dog walker in Brooklyn, she got the opportunity to dog sit in Vietnam for a month, and that trip ultimately led to her current lifestyle as a world-traveling trainer. Annie and Maria first met in middle school! They lost touch after eighth grade, but reconnected recently and discovered they both have ended up working as positive-reinforcement based dog trainers, and have nearly-identical heroes and philosophies. She and Annie catch up and discuss her life as a world-traveling animal trainer. Fun fact: As a child, Maria played the young version of the main character in a famous horror film. Listen to the episode to learn more! Mentioned in this episode: The Academy For Dog Trainers https://www.academyfordogtrainers.com The Huston Zoo https://www.houstonzoo.org/ The Peninsula Humane Society https://phs-spca.org/ Lilongwe Wildlife Trust https://www.lilongwewildlife.org/ Rome Torre Argentina Cat Sanctuary https://www.gattidiroma.net/web/en/ Culture Clash by Jean Donaldson https://storeforthedogs.com/products/book-culture-clash Don't Shoot The Dog by Karen Pryor https://www.amazon.com/dp/1860542387?tag=thedogs-20

How do we shape what our dogs learn and what associations they make, so they can be good family dogs and companions? This episode is entirely dedicated to that question through the lens of Classical Conditioning. You'll learn how to help your dog create positive associations through the "Stuff-A-Dog Method" and the Jean Donaldson's "Open Bar, Closed Bar" method; and the science behind it. Think of this as a learning tool instead of a training tool! https://www.facebook.com/PodToTheRescue https://www.instagram.com/pod_to_the_rescue/ https://twitter.com/podtotherescue https://thecognitivecanine.com/blog/operant-vs-classical-conditioning/ Credits. Libby Felts and Emily Wolf (Hosts and Creators.) Original music by Mike Pesci. Graphic design, editing, and production by Alex Lee-Ammons and For The Love Media, LLC. --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/sdr7/support

O Podcast Meu Nome Não É Não continua com a resenha do livro O Choque de Culturas, escrito pela treinadora canadense, Jean Donaldson. A obra é uma das grandes referências sobre adestramento de cães no mundo, pois, já na década … O post #86 – Resenha: O Choque de Culturas de Jean Donaldoson ( parte 2 de 3) apareceu primeiro em Meu Nome Não É Não.

Visit us at shapedbydog.com     Imagine if your cute, cuddly puppy suddenly turned aggressive on you. You might think your puppy is trying to dominate you or acting out to spite you, but that is not the case. We’re looking at what is going on with aggression in puppies and what to do about resource guarding. As scary and unimaginable as it may seem, a puppy showing aggression over resources is normal, and there are things that you can do right now to help.   In the episode you'll hear:   • How resource guarding is a survival mechanism for puppies and dogs. • What to notice about the early signs of resource guarding. • How humans can make resource guarding worse. • When and why to see a Veterinary Behaviorist. • What to do when a dog guards against you or another person. • Why to consider your dog’s emotional response and feelings of fear. • How we can have feelings that lead us to want to guard our resources too! • Why to look at things from your puppy’s point of view. • How to create a great Conditioned Emotional Response (CER) for your pup or dog. • The reason punishment only suppresses behavior and does not change behavior. • Why not to take your pup’s bowl away or put your hands in the food. • How to keep everyone safe and create a relationship of trust with your dog. • The common ways your puppy will show you they are not comfortable. • All the steps to prevent and fix puppy aggression.   Resources: • Podcast Episode 66: Resource Guarding: Dog vs Dog Aggression - https://dogsthat.com/podcast/66/ • Podcast Episode 4: T.E.M.P. (Tail, Eyes/Ears, Mouth, Posture) - https://dogsthat.com/podcast/4/ • *Book: Mine! A Practical Guide to Resource Guarding in Dogs by Jean Donaldson - https://geni.us/mine-jean-donaldson • Learn How to Play ItsYerChoice (IYC) - https://recallers.com/iycsummit-join/ • Crate Games Online - https://get.crategames.com/ • To join Home School the Dog at a special discount, write to us at wag@dogsthat.com with the subject line: I watched resource guarding • Podcast Episode 6: The Art of Manipulation - https://dogsthat.com/podcast/6/ • Watch this Episode of Shaped by Dog on YouTube - https://youtu.be/XDdf1w_9Ha0 Ex-Pen Information: • Ex-Pen: Rover Modular Pet Enclosures - http://dogsthat.com/roverpanels • *Ex-Pen: Plastic 8-Panel - https://geni.us/ex-pen-white • *Ex-Pen: Folding Metal - https://geni.us/ex-pen-metal   *Amazon Link Disclosure: Susan only recommends products she uses herself, and all opinions expressed here are her own. The link above is an affiliate link that, at no additional cost to you, we may earn a small commission if you decide to buy from it. Thank you!

Today Cindie is joined by Jean Donaldson, founder and principle instructor of The Academy for Dog Trainers. The Academy has trained and certified over 800 trainers in evidence-based dog behavior, training, teaching and behavior counseling since 1999. She is a four-time winner of The Dog Writers’ Association of America’s Maxwell Award, and her books include The Culture Clash, Oh Behave! Dogs From Pavlov to Premack to Pinker, and Train Like a Pro. In 2017, Jean was recruited to create Dog Training 101 for The Great Courses.

Visit us at shapedbydog.com    There is one thing that you can do easily to help overcome any dog training challenge you might have. That one thing is something I’ve been talking about and doing for 30 years. It’s record keeping! Keeping a journal for your dog is not as hard as you might think, and it will fast track your success.   In the episode you'll hear:   • What labels can do to our dogs. • How I journaled This!’s resource guarding and why it helped fast track success. • What to keep track of when you are record keeping. • Why to ask the question Jean Donaldson recommends: Is your dog upset? • When to focus on your dog’s emotional state. • What will create a ticking time bomb for your dog and how to avoid it. • About counter conditioning to help your dog. • The importance of eliminating rehearsals of behavior you want to change. • Why dog training alone is not always the answer. • About fear responses in dogs. • Why to include what your dog does well in your journaling. • What I learned about This! by record keeping and why she now has a middle of the day nap. • About the way record keeping showed me what happens at the top of the stairs. • How knowing patterns will help resolve your dog’s challenges. • The importance of celebrating progress. • Why to differentiate between dog training and emotional states. • When to get an evaluation from a reinforcement based dog trainer.   Resources:   • DogsThat YouTube Channel (Watch Shaped by Dog Podcast Videos and More!)-https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCC17PDLl8y1dP2BRV5vuseg • Podcast Episode 66: Resource Guarding: Dog vs Dog Aggression-https://dogsthat.com/podcast/66/ • Podcast Episode 4: T.E.M.P. (Tail, Eyes/Ears, Mouth, Posture)-https://dogsthat.com/podcast/4/ • Blog Video: Understanding Your Dog’s Triggers-https://susangarrettdogagility.com/2019/01/understanding-your-dogs-triggers/ • Podcast Episode 6: The Art of Manipulation-https://dogsthat.com/podcast/6/ • Podcast Episode 48: Potty Train Your Puppy in a Week (Easy 3 Step Process)-https://dogsthat.com/podcast/48/ • Podcast Episode 14: Creating Intentional Multi-Dog Household Harmony-https://dogsthat.com/podcast/14/ • Watch this Episode of Shaped by Dog on YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XUJksPoQNps

Visit us at shapedbydog.com Resource Guarding between dogs is a big topic. It’s also one of the most requested for me to cover on my podcast. Over the past week, my six-month-old puppy has started attacking some of the other dogs in my household over resources. It’s a good time for me to share what I am doing to help This! overcome possession aggression around resources, particularly food. Yes, even professional dog trainers experience challenges to work through.   In the episode you'll hear:   • About the two forms of resource guarding, against humans and against dogs. • Why dogs resource guard. • What I’ve seen with my puppy This! guarding resources against other dogs. • The signs to look for that show a dog could be resource guarding. • My previous experiences with my dogs and resource guarding. • The two approaches to take and why one can result in an all-out aggressive dog. • What NOT to do about resource guarding. • The reason discipline and corrections are like putting gasoline on a fire. • About fear periods in puppies and why to stay grounded and calm. • The reason to get appropriate help from a qualified Veterinary Behaviorist. • What I am doing about resource guarding to help my puppy. • How I am journaling what happens every day, the good and not so good. • About identifying and removing triggers and creating a safe environment. • Why to keep your dog under threshold. • All the elements to help your dog and why to email us about joining Recallers.   Resources:   • Podcast Episode 45: My Dog Just Got Jumped, Now What?-https://dogsthat.com/podcast/45/ • *Book: Mine! A Practical Guide to Resource Guarding in Dogs by Jean Donaldson-https://geni.us/mine-jean-donaldson • Podcast Episode 59: Why Your Treats Aren’t Working for Your Dog-https://dogsthat.com/podcast/59/ • Game: Learn How to Play ItsYerChoice (IYC)-https://recallers.com/iycsummit-join/ • Susan's Team: wag@dogsthat.com   Amazon Links Disclosure: Susan only recommends products she uses herself, and all opinions expressed here are her own. The link above is an affiliate link that, at no additional cost to you, we may earn a small commission if you decide to buy from it. Thank you

This was such a blast! In this episode I get to catch up with my friend and world leading trainer Jean Donaldson, author of the pioneering text "the culture clash". We quickly get into our stride, and cover so much. Jean is quite a behaviourist, and her views about some of the more apparently  "cognitive"training methods are fasscinating and worth reflecting on. So much here.  Sorry if we talk too quickly!

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! 

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

This is a “Best of Podcast” replay show of pillar episode 2. Get ready to re-count the age of your dog or cat. There is new more accurate information about how to figure out your pet’s age in human years. I’ll explain the new method. Then, there are some basic truths about how your dog sees its world that will help you understand a lot of its behavior.  Jean Donaldson, one of the world’s leading dog trainers, founder of the Academy for Dog Trainers, and author of the book, “The Culture Clash: A Revolutionary New Way of Understanding the Relationship between Humans and Domestic Dogs” shares some of her top 10 list of what we know about canines and how we can help to meet their needs. Next, you can switch your pet’s food if you need or want to, without it causing major stool issues.  I’ll tell you the two things you can do to make it easier. And, finally, are you having problems with a cat that is not using its litterbox? If you have multiple cats at home, and there is no medical problem, the issue could be solved by this need-to-know, practical solution.   Additional Resources for this Show. See the charts to figure out your pets age on the blog for this episode. Jean Donaldson’s website: Academy for Dog Trainers. How to order Jean Donaldson’s book The Culture Clash Read about games you can play to burn off your dog’s predatory energy on the blog for this episode.    

This is a “Best of Podcast” replay show of pillar episode 2. Get ready to re-count the age of your dog or cat. There is new more accurate information about how to figure out your pet’s age in human years. I’ll explain the new method. Then, there are some basic truths about how your dog sees its world that will help you understand a lot of its behavior.  Jean Donaldson, one of the world’s leading dog trainers, founder of the Academy for Dog Trainers, and author of the book, “The Culture Clash: A Revolutionary New Way of Understanding the Relationship between Humans and Domestic Dogs” shares some of her top 10 list of what we know about canines and how we can help to meet their needs. Next, you can switch your pet’s food if you need or want to, without it causing major stool issues.  I’ll tell you the two things you can do to make it easier. And, finally, are you having problems with a cat that is not using its litterbox? If you have multiple cats at home, and there is no medical problem, the issue could be solved by this need-to-know, practical solution.   Additional Resources for this Show. See the charts to figure out your pets age on the blog for this episode. Jean Donaldson’s website: Academy for Dog Trainers. How to order Jean Donaldson’s book The Culture Clash Read about games you can play to burn off your dog’s predatory energy on the blog for this episode.    

Jon Provost was the boy sidekick to the 20th Century's most-loved dog: Lassie. In the late 1950s and early 1960s a third of American households tuned in each week to watch Lassie, a whip-smart Collie, help Timmy get out of countless pickles. Lassie came to define the "perfect" dog. In this episode Provost, who is now 70, talks about working with a dog star, and about what he learned from Lassie's rather progressive trainer/owner, the famous Hollywood dog trainer Rudd Weatherwax. He and Annie also discuss his early exposure to the notion of a "therapy" dog, and his more recent work to bring attention to rescue dogs, Army dogs, and more. Annie ends the episode by reflecting on how Lassie impacted our cultural notions about dogs, perhaps not for the better, and reads from Jean Donaldson's book Culture Clash, about the Disney-fication of dogs and how a desire to anthropomorphize "man's best friend" has led to some huge errors in the way people attempt to train and understand the dogs who live with us. If you're enjoying School For The Dogs Podcast, please subscribe to it, rate it, and leave a review! Jean Donaldson's Culture Clash: https://amzn.to/2KNwH2n JonProvost.com Timmy's In The Well: The Jon Provost Story https://amzn.to/2ZAVxbL Get a free eBook: Three Secret Keys To Dog Training Success when you register for Annie's Free Master Class! http://anniegrossman.com/masterclass You can find some old episodes of Lassie on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HluWrXiVNks Rudd Weatherwax's obituary: https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1985-02-26-me-25026-story.html --- Partial Transcript: Annie: 60 years ago, there was a TV show that was so popular, it's estimated it was watched in a third of American households each week. Its star, whose name was Baby, was a guy playing the role of a girl -- a nonhuman girl. That girl was, of course, Lassie. [Whistling - Lassie theme] Baby has long since left us. The show is only on in reruns. And today, most people have not heard of Lassie's famous trainer, Rudd Weatherwax, who was responsible for many of the 20th century's most famous dog actors, but last year, his best friend is still around and still hanging out with dogs like it's his job. Today, I have for you an interview with Jon Provost who played Timmy on the show Lassie for most of his childhood. He spoke to me about Weatherwax’s progressive and positive reinforcement based training methods, what it was like to grow up off camera with Lassie, and about his continued work with dogs. Fun fact, did you know there was actually never an episode where Timmy fell in a well, can you believe that? Before we get started, I just wanted to suggest that you go check out my brand new one hour long master class. It's called “Three simple things every dog owner needs to know to teach a dog quickly and easily without, force, pain, a major time investment or fancy equipment.” It's a presentation where I talk about how I got into dog training, how it kind of revolutionized how I see the world. You'll learn to think about the way your dog learns, specifically wow to think about the way in which your dog is learning thanks to classical conditioning all the time... Full Transcript available at SchoolfortheDogs.com/Podcasts

Niki Tudge chats to Dr. Zazie Todd about her new book, Wag: The Science of Making Your Dog Happy. Dr. Todd is well-known among pet professionals for her blog Companion Animal Psychology, but she is also a featured blogger on Psychology Today. Zazie Todd Ph.D. (psychology, University of Nottingham, England) MFA (creative writing, University of British Columbia, Canada) graduated with honors from Jean Donaldson's Academy for Dog Trainers and has a Certificate of Feline Behaviour with Distinction from International Cat Care. She is a shelter affiliate member of the International Association of Animal Behavior Consultants, a multispecies professional member of the Pet Professional Guild, a volunteer at the BC SPCA, and an affiliate member of the American Veterinary Society of Animal Behavior.

OH MY DAYS BOOKSHELVERS!Never meet your heroes they say... well Barks from the Bookshelf say a big BOO to that.This episode features the one and only Jean Donaldson. Jean doesn't really require an introduction. She is a burning light in the Dog Training Community. It was our absolute honour to talk with Jean and we really hope you all enjoy it.Jean's BioJean is one of the top dog trainers in the world and has lectured extensively in the US, Canada, the UK, Europe, Australia, New Zealand and Japan. She is a four-time winner of The Dog Writers’ Association of America’s Maxwell Award, and her seminal book The Culture Clash was named number one training and behavior book by The Association of Pet Dog Trainers. Her other titles are Mine! A Guide to Resource Guarding in Dogs, Fight! A Guide to Dog-Dog Aggression, Dogs Are From Neptune, and Oh Behave! Dogs From Pavlov to Premack to Pinker.Her most recent book, Train Like a Pro, was her first written training guide for a lay audience. In 2018, Jean authored and instructed Dog Training 101 for The Great Courses, another resource for dog guardians.Before transitioning full-time to pet dog training, Jean competed in dog sports with dogs of various breeds, earning numerous titles and wins including OTCh, HIT, TDX, and FDCh, as well as a CGC. She ran a successful training school for fifteen years, and spent six years doing primarily referral aggression cases. She holds a degree in comparative psychology and is a keen student of evolutionary biology.We recorded this podcast a few weeks ago before the real Covid 19 horror show hit. We sincerely hope everyone is coping out there and doing all they can to keep themselves, their loved ones and the entire planet safe. We hope this goes some way to making these uncertain time a tiny bit easier.Love to you all.Steve and NatLink to Jean Donalsons Animal Teaining Academyhttps://www.animaltrainingacademy.com/podcast/training-tidbits/jean-donaldson/Link to Jean's book 'Mine!'https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/aw/d/0970562942/ref=dbs_a_w_dp_0970562942Link to Jean's book 'Fight!'https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/aw/d/0970562969/ref=dbs_a_w_dp_0970562969Link to Steve & Corrins Goodall Dog Training Facebook pagehttps://www.facebook.com/goodalldogs/Link to Nat's Training & Behaviour facebook pagehttps://www.facebook.com/Natdogs/

Du hast Angst vor Hunden. Ja, du! Denn wir alle haben instinktiv Angst vor Hunden - sagt Jean Donaldson. Dieses mulmige Gefühl wirkt sich auf deinen Hund und ganz besonders Hundebegegnungen aus. Unser Interviewpartnerin Jean Donaldson ist dieser Urangst, die in uns allen steckt, auf den Grund gegangen. Sie teilt mit uns in dieser Folge, welchen Einfluss deine Angst auf Hundebegegnungen hat und wie du es ab sofort besser machen kannst. Ihr Ansatz geht weit über “Einfach mal entspannen” hinaus! Die deutsche Übersetzung dieser Folge findest du auf unserem YouTube-Kanal.

As a newlywed in 1968, the last thing Jean Donaldson expected was for her husband of five months to come home from a trip to Salt Lake City with news that he was leaving college to join the U.S. Marine Corps. She was five months pregnant with their first child (who happens to be Loudmouth's own Amy Donaldson) when he enlisted, and she delivered their second child as he slept in field in Vietnam on Christmas Eve 1969.  She talks about how the Marines gave her husband, Dan, purpose and direction, as he'd struggled most of his life with losing his father at age 13. She talks about how she found out he'd been wounded, and what it was like to work with veterans when she became a community mental health specialist in her 50s. Check out this article that Amy wrote for the Deseret News about running with her Mom:  https://www.deseret.com/2016/10/23/20598898/amy-donaldson-running-ragnar-hawaii-with-my-69-year-old-mother-offers-lessons-in-perseverance#a-post-race-selfie-with-from-left-to-right-my-mom-jean-donaldson-69-sisters-michelyn-pylilo-46-and-loralee-faucheux-38-and-amy-donaldson-48   And check out this episode of We Happy Few with Dan Donaldson: https://loudmouthproject.com/semper-fi-understanding-the-marine-who-raised-me/  

Jean is my mentor, boss and friend. In this episode we discuss ways in which the Academy has changed and it’s impact on the dog training industry. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/lori-nanan/message

In this podcast we spoke about how Chirag convinced Ian Dunbar and Jean Donaldson to mentor him and his famous Bucket Game for husbandry training. Chirag Patel is the creator of The Bucket Game for husbandry training. He is a behaviour consultant for pets, zoos, and laboratory animals and was an expert on the BBC show Nightmare Pets SOS. Show Notes: http://nickbenger.com/chirag-patel

Today Cindie is joined by Jean Donaldson, founder and principle instructor of The Academy for Dog Trainers. The Academy has trained and certified over 800 trainers in evidence-based dog behavior, training, teaching and behavior counseling since 1999. She is a four-time winner of The Dog Writers’ Association of America’s Maxwell Award, and her books include The Culture Clash, Oh Behave! Dogs From Pavlov to Premack to Pinker, and Train Like a Pro. In 2017, Jean was recruited to create Dog Training 101 for The Great Courses.

Jean is the founder and principal instructor of The Academy for Dog Trainers.  The Academy is celebrating its twentieth anniversary in 2019.  She is a four-time winner of The Dog Writers' Association of America's Maxwell Award.  In 2017, Jean was recruited to create Dog Training 101 for The Great Courses. Born in Montreal, Canada, Jean founded the Montreal Flyball Association, and Renaissance Dog Training, the first positive reinforcement-based school, and counseling service in the province.  Her own dogs and dogs she has trained have earned numerous titles and wins in a variety of dog sports, including OTCh, TDX, HIT and FDCh.  While a student, she worked as an adoption counselor at the Montreal SPCA and later served on its Board of Directors.  Before founding The Academy, Jean did exclusively referral aggression cases for six years.  She lives in Oakland, California, with her dog, Brian, adopted in 2015.

Jean Donaldson talked with Colleen Pelar about how feelings of scarcity create anxiety and harm our relationships with others. www.colleenpelar.com/34

Today Cindie is joined by Jean Donaldson, founder and principle instructor of The Academy for Dog Trainers. The Academy has trained and certified over 800 trainers in evidence-based dog behavior, training, teaching and behavior counseling since 1999. She is a four-time winner of The Dog Writers’ Association of America’s Maxwell Award, and her books include The Culture Clash, Oh Behave! Dogs From Pavlov to Premack to Pinker, and Train Like a Pro. In 2017, Jean was recruited to create Dog Training 101 for The Great Courses.

Today Cindie is joined by Jean Donaldson, founder and principle instructor of The Academy for Dog Trainers. The Academy has trained and certified over 800 trainers in evidence-based dog behavior, training, teaching and behavior counseling since 1999. She is a four-time winner of The Dog Writers' Association of America's Maxwell Award, and her books include The Culture Clash, Oh Behave! Dogs From Pavlov to Premack to Pinker, and Train Like a Pro. In 2017, Jean was recruited to create Dog Training 101 for The Great Courses.

You can teach your dog not to food guard around you. It’s best to start this training at puppyhood, however, you can still do the food bowl exercises I’ll explain with adult dogs. How do cats and dogs misunderstand each other which leads to all that infamous fighting? Certified animal behavior consultant Amy Shojai, author of ComPETability, Solving Behavior Problems in Your Cat-Dog Household joins me to explain why dogs and cats get into conflict and then tells you what to do to stop your dog from mercilessly chasing your cat. RESOURCES FOR THIS EPISODE: See the Raising Your Paws blog that matches episode 28 for additional information about dogs with existing food guarding problems.- www.raisingyourpaws.com. Source for material on food guarding: Jean Donaldson’s book: The Culture Clash: A revolutionary new way of understanding the relationship between humans and domestic dogs. Amy Shojai’s website. How to order ComPETability, Solving Behavior Problems in Your CAT-DOG Household. Amy Shojai’s blog: Bling, Bitches and Blood. You can help support this podcast by subscribing and telling your friends. To subscribe on iTunes (so you never miss an episode) here is the link.  

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!

The dog trainer's trainer explains the top 10 tips for ensuring the best possible dog-human bond.In this episode of the "Good Dog" podcast, Jean Donaldson, director of the Academy of Dog Trainers at the San Francisco SPCA runs through her top ten dog training tips. Expect your dog to act like a dog; make them work for their food; keep the reigns tight, slack off later; preempt bad habits; provide outlets for doggie behavior; avoid guilt trips; play dog sports; offer social interaction; hug your puppy; and enroll in a good training course.

Dog training has evolved considerably and there's a lot to know about selecting a trainer.Jean Donaldson is the director of the Academy of Dog Trainers at the San Francisco SPCA and she has a lot to say about the field. Learn what to look for in a trainer and what to avoid. As the author of "The Culture Clash" and "Dogs are from Neptune", Jean provides insight into how dogs think and why they behave the way they do. In this episode of "Good Dog" podcast, Jean and Joanne discuss why dogs eat poop and smell each other's behinds.

Summary: Dr. Jennifer Summerfield is a veterinarian and Certified Professional Dog Trainer (CPDT-KA), with a focus on treating behavior problems including aggression to humans or other animals, separation anxiety, and compulsive behavior disorders. She also teaches group classes and private lessons in basic obedience for pet dogs, and coaches students getting started in dog sports such as agility and competitive obedience.   Jennifer is proud to be a member of the American Veterinary Society of Animal Behavior (AVSAB) and the Association of Professional Dog Trainers (APDT). She is a passionate advocate for positive, science-based methods of training and behavior modification, and loves helping pet owners learn to communicate more clearly with their dogs. Links mentioned: Behavior Medication: First-line Therapy or Last Resort? Dr. Jen's Blog Dog Talk with Dr. Jen (Podcast) Train your dog now! by Dr. Jennifer Summerfield (book) Next Episode:  To be released 8/10/2018, featuring Nancy Tucker, talking about how to stop your dog from going crazy at the door. 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 Dr. Jennifer Summerfield. Dr. Jen is a veterinarian and Certified Professional Dog Trainer (CPDT-KA), with a focus on treating behavior problems including aggression to humans or other animals, separation anxiety, and compulsive behavior disorders. She also teaches group classes and private lessons in basic obedience for pet dogs, and coaches students getting started in dog sports such as agility and competitive obedience.   Jennifer is proud to be a member of the American Veterinary Society of Animal Behavior (AVSAB) and the Association of Professional Dog Trainers (APDT). She is a passionate advocate for positive, science-based methods of training and behavior modification, and loves helping pet owners learn to communicate more clearly with their dogs. Hi Jen, welcome to the podcast! Jennifer Summerfield: Hey Melissa. I am excited to be here. Melissa Breau: To start us out, can you share a little bit about your own dogs, who they are, and anything you’re working on with them? Jennifer Summerfield: Definitely. I have three dogs at the moment. They are all Shelties. The oldest one is Remy. He just turned 10 years old this year, so double digits now. He’s my old man. We were really excited this past summer because he just finished his PACH, which so far is our highest pinnacle of achievement in agility, and it only took us ten years to get there, so, you know, better late than never! So that’s been really exciting for him. And I finally just got the courage worked up to enter him in AKC Premier in the next trial that we’re entered in, in August. It’s a bit of a new adventure for us because we’ve never tried that before, but I figure what the heck. My middle dog, Gatsby, is 4-and-a-half years old, he’ll be 5 this November, and he is working on his agility titles as well. He currently is in, I want to say, Master Jumpers and Excellent Standard. His agility career has been a little bit slower than Remy’s. He’s had some stress-related weave pole issues that we’re working through, and he also had some really significant dog-reactivity issues when he was younger, so we spent a lot of time when he was about a year and a half to 2 years old or so just working through that to get him to the point where he could even go to agility trials successfully without having a meltdown. So for him, just the fact that he has any titles at all and can occasionally successfully trial is a pretty great accomplishment. But I have him entered in a couple of trials this fall as well, so hopefully we’ll keep building on that. And then my youngest dog, Clint, he is 4 years old now, and his history was a little bit different. He came to me as an adult, almost a year old, because I really wanted a dog to show in conformation. When I got Gatsby as a puppy, he was supposed to be my conformation dog. That’s what we were hoping for, but … I don’t know how much you know about Shelties and conformation, but the height thing is a killer. It looked like he was going to be in size on the charts and everything, and then when he got to be about 6 months old, he was over. So I got Clint a little bit later at a year old from his breeder, and he was already a finished champion at that point, so he knew what to do, which was perfect because I was a total beginner. So I had a really good time showing him for about a year after I got him. We finished his Grand Championship together, so that was really cool. And now we’re branching out and he’s starting to learn some agility and some other things as well. So that’s my guys in a nutshell. Melissa Breau: I’ve got a bit of a chicken-or-egg question for you here. Did dog training come first, or did becoming a vet come first? How did you get into all this stuff? Jennifer Summerfield: Funnily enough, I’ve been interested in dog training and dog behavior from as early as I can remember, even before we had a dog. When I was a kid, I was really crazy about dogs, and I was fascinated by dog training. I had books and books and books, just shelves of books on training dogs, obedience training, and also a bunch of random stuff, like, I had books on Schutzhund training, and books on herding training, and books on service dog training, and just everything I could get my hands on. One of the really formative experiences of my childhood was that my aunt took me to an obedience trial that was at that time … I don’t remember what the name of the kennel club is, but our local kennel club in Charleston — I live in West Virginia — used to have their show at the Civic Center every year, and they would have an obedience trial as part of that. And so my aunt took me one year. I must have been 8 or 9, something like that, and I just remember being absolutely riveted by watching the dogs in the obedience trial, which I guess is maybe a funny thing in retrospect for an 8- or 9-year-old to be riveted by, but I was. I remember watching that and thinking it was absolutely the most amazing thing I had ever seen, and I wanted to do it more than anything, hence all the books and all of that stuff. I wrote to the AKC when I was a kid to ask for a copy of the obedience regulations, because I had read that that was how you could get them. This was back before everything was online, you know, this would have been the early ’90s. So I wrote to the AKC and I remember being super-excited when they sent the manila envelope back that had the obedience regulations in it. I read them and I was just super-fascinated and I knew that was what I wanted to do. We got my first dog when I was about 16, and he was a Sheltie named Duncan, so I did a lot of training with him. We were never very successful in the obedience ring, which was completely my fault, not his. But I’ve just always been really fascinated by the idea of being able to communicate with another species that way, being able to have that kind of relationship with a dog where they understand what you want them to do and there’s all this back and forth communication going on to do these really complicated, fancy things. So when it came time to start thinking about what I actually wanted to do with my life, around junior high school, high school, getting ready to go to college, I always knew that I wanted to do something related to dog training or dog behavior, and I thought about several different ways of going about that. I considered the idea of just being a professional dog trainer straight out, but I was a little bit nervous about that because I wasn’t quite sure if it was easy to make a living doing that, or how one got established, and I was a little bit concerned. It didn’t feel very stable to me, but who knows, but I wanted something that felt like there was more of an established career path for it, I guess. Of course I thought about veterinary medicine, because that’s one of the most obvious things that everybody thinks about when they want to work with animals. And I did actually give some thought in college to going to graduate school and getting a Ph.D., and then possibly becoming an applied animal behaviorist that way, but there were two reasons I opted not to go that route, and one was that I discovered in college that research is really not my thing, and I knew that unfortunately that was going to be a big part of life getting a Ph.D., so that was kind of a strike against it. So what I ultimately decided to do instead was go to veterinary school, and what I liked about that idea was that I felt like I would always have something to fall back on, regardless. I knew that I could do behavior, hopefully relatively easily, I could get into doing that with a veterinary degree, but I could also just be a general practice veterinarian too, if need be, and actually I really like that aspect of my job right now. So that’s how I ended up in vet school, but it really was always kind of a back door way to get into the world of behavior. Melissa Breau: That’s awesome. It’s fantastic that that appealed to you at such a young age. I think that a lot of people who listen to this podcast can probably relate to that. Jennifer Summerfield: I think this was probably the audience that would relate to it. It’s only in retrospect that I realize what a strange little child I probably was. Melissa Breau: Hey, you’re not alone out there. Dr. Jennifer Summerfield: That’s right! Melissa Breau: So how did you become interested in it from such a young age? Were you always a positive trainer? Is that how you started out, or did you cross over at some point? How did that happen? Jennifer Summerfield: I do consider myself to be a crossover trainer, and I think a lot of that has to do with the kind of information that was out there at the time that I first started getting interested in these things and I was first collecting all my books and reading everything. This was the ’90s, for the most part, so positive training I know was starting to become a thing around that time, but it wasn’t, as I recall, super mainstream, at least not where I was, and in the things that I was reading and the classes that I was going to. Most of the books I had, of course, probably like a lot of people at that time, were pretty correction-based, and they talked about how you needed to be in charge, and you needed to make sure that your dog knew who was boss, and that you had to be really careful about using cookies in training because then your dog gets dependent on them, and of course you don’t want your dog to just be working for cookies, you want them to be working for you, and I thought all that made a lot of sense at the time. When I was first working with Duncan, I had this book that was about competitive obedience training, specifically, and I remember working through this book and just working religiously on doing everything it said. I remember teaching him to heel, and the way that the book said that you taught your dog to heel was you put a choke collar on them and you walked around in circles in the yard, and every time they got in front of your leg, you gave a leash correction and you jerked them back and you just did that until they figured it out. That’s how Duncan learned to heel, and obviously if I had it to go back and do it over again, I would do it differently. But he was a good dog, and he learned, and it worked reasonably well. Like I said, we never got to the point of having any great successes in the obedience ring, for probably a lot of other reasons besides that, but that’s kind of how I got started. As I got older and I started reading more things, one thing that I remember that was a big turning point for me was reading Jean Donaldson’s book The Culture Clash. I know that probably a lot of your listeners are familiar with that book, because I know it’s kind of a classic in the world of behavior, but it’s very much about how most of the things our dogs do that bother us are just dog things. They’re just doing things that dogs do, and those things happen to bother us, and that’s reasonable sometimes and we can teach them not to do those things. But that was such a revolutionary thing for me to think, like, You mean it’s not all about that my dog is trying to be in charge and he needs to know that this stuff’s not allowed. She just made so much sense. At that time I had never heard anybody put it that way before, and I want to say that was really the first time that the idea of positive training was presented to me in a way that made a lot of sense. As I got older, of course, and started to learn more about the scientific side of things — you know I’m a huge science nerd, as probably most people are who go to the trouble of getting a veterinary degree — and so as I learned more about the scientific side of things, then I was sold, because obviously the scientific consensus is unanimous that clearly there’s a way to do things that works a lot better than using correction-based techniques, and that there’s lots of really valid scientific reasons to use positive reinforcement training. So I would say by the time I started vet school, I was pretty solidly in that camp. The other thing that probably cemented it for me was seeing the difference in how quickly Duncan learned things, for one thing, once I switched. He learned to heel the old-fashioned way, but he learned to do his dumbbell retrieve with a clicker, and he loved his dumbbell retrieve. He would find his dumbbell, if I forgot to put it away after a training session, he would find it and bring it to me and sit, and he just had an enthusiasm for it that he never, ever had for the things we learned when I was still teaching the old way. And then, when I got my dog Remy, who was the second dog I had, the first dog after Duncan, who by that point I was pretty solidly in the positive reinforcement camp, and he learned to heel with a clicker. Looking at the difference between the two of them, both in terms of how technically good their heeling was, but also just looking at their attitude differences and how much they wanted to do it, I knew, I think, after I had done a little bit of work with Remy and seen that kind of difference, that I would never train another dog with corrections again. Melissa Breau: Sometimes the proof really is in the pudding. Once you’ve seen it, you can’t go back. Jennifer Summerfield: Yeah, and I guess that’s a pretty common experience, I think. I feel like I hear a variation of that from a lot of crossover trainers, that it’s a combination of understanding the science, but also when you see it, you see the difference in your own dog or in a client’s dog and you say, “Why on Earth did I ever used to do it a different way?” Melissa Breau: Absolutely. I’d imagine that being a vet and a dog trainer, you’ve got a lot of knowledge there. How does one body of knowledge inform the other, and how have they both influenced your career? Jennifer Summerfield: I’m really glad, looking back, that I did make the choice to go to vet school, because I think that’s a good skill set to have. Obviously I like being a vet. I am in general practice. Even though I spend a fair amount of my time seeing behavior cases, I do general practice stuff too, which I really enjoy. But that skill set is definitely useful for seeing behavior cases because there are a lot of behavior issues dogs have, and training issues, that have a physical component to them, and it’s very handy to have that knowledge base to fall back on, so that if somebody comes in and they say, “My dog’s having house training issues all of a sudden again, and he’s always been house trained, but now I don’t know what’s going on,” to be able to say, “Well, you know, your dog might have a urinary tract infection,” or “Your dog might have Cushing’s disease,” or “Your dog might have diabetes.” These are things that sometimes people think they have a training problem or behavior problem when actually they have a medical problem. So it’s definitely useful to have that knowledge base to be able to say, “Well, actually, maybe we should look at this.” Both being a veterinarian and being a dog trainer are fields that I think people feel like they have to do with dogs, or they have to do with animals, I guess, more broadly, being a veterinarian. And that’s true, but what sometimes I think people don’t realize, if you’re not in one of these two professions, is how much they have to do with people, because all of the animals come with a person, and it would be rare, being either a dog trainer or a veterinarian, that you’re dealing much directly with the animal. Your job in both of those fields is to coach the owner on what they need to be doing and figuring out what works for them, and engaging in some problem-solving with them and figuring out what they’re able to do with their lifestyle, whether it’s training their dog not to jump on people or whether it’s managing a chronic disease like diabetes. So I think that in a lot of ways that skill set, the people skills part of things, is something that has gotten to be strengthened and developed by doing both of those things. So I think all in all it worked out for the best. Melissa Breau: The last guest we had on — you’ll be right after Sue — the last guest we had before that was Deb Jones, and we were talking all about that piece of it, just the idea that if you’re a dog trainer, you’re training people, you’re not training dogs. It’s such a big difference. Jennifer Summerfield: Yeah. We do Career Day periodically for a lot of the elementary schools, but also junior highs and high schools in the area, because everybody wants a veterinarian to come for Career Day. And it’s amazing, of course, the common thing that you hear from people sometimes is, “Oh, I want to go into veterinary medicine because I really like animals but I don’t like people.” I say, “Well, then, I don’t know if this is the career for you, because it’s very, very, very, very people-centric. It’s all about people, so you really need to like dealing with people and enjoy that aspect of it too.” Melissa Breau: To shift gears a little bit, I know you’ve got a webinar coming up for FDSA on behavior medications, so I wanted to talk a little bit about that stuff too. At what point should someone start thinking about meds versus training for a behavior problem? Jennifer Summerfield: What I always harp on about this, and I actually have a blog post that I wrote a while back on this topic specifically, is that I really wish we could get more into the habit of thinking about behavior medication as a first-line treatment option for behavior issues. I see so many cases where I think people want to save that as a last resort, like, “Well, we’re going to try everything else first,” and “We’ve been working on this for a year and a half, and nothing’s helped, and maybe it’s time to consider meds.” I totally get where they’re coming from with that. I know that there are a lot of reasons people are nervous about medication. But it makes me sad in a lot of ways because I see so many dogs that I think, My goodness, their quality of life could be so much improved with medication, or The training plan that they’re working on could go so much smoother, and be so much less stressful for both the owner and the dog, if they were willing to consider medication earlier in the process. So for me, when I see behavior cases, certainly not every single one do we go straight to medication, but I would say that, gosh, probably a good 70 or 80 percent of them we talk about medication on that first visit, because usually if there are things that are legitimate behavior issues rather than training problems — which I can touch on here in a second, too, if you want — but if it’s a behavior issue that is enough of a problem that the owner is willing to schedule an appointment for it and pay for the consultation and sit down with me for three hours and talk about it, chances are that it’s something that could benefit from medication of some kind. I see so many dogs that do better on meds, and there’s very few downsides to them, so in general not anything to be scared of, and not anything that you have to feel like you have to avoid until nothing else has helped. I think of it more as it’s just like if your dog had an infection. You wouldn’t say, “Well, I really want to try everything we can possibly do until we put him on antibiotics.” Or if he had diabetes, “I really don’t want to use insulin. I just really, really don’t want to use it.” I think we just think of behavior medication differently, which is too bad in a lot of ways, and I would love to see the mainstream thinking about behavior medication move more towards the same way that we use medication for anything else. Melissa Breau: You said you could touch on the behavior stuff in a second. I’d love to have you elaborate. What did you mean? Jennifer Summerfield: As far as determining whether you have a behavior problem versus a training problem, which I do think can be a little bit of a muddy line sometimes for owners, the way that I usually try to break that down for people is that if you have a training problem, this is usually your dog is normal. Your dog is doing normal dog things that happen to be annoying to you or to other people, which is fine. And that’s legitimate, that’s still definitely something that we want to address, so I’m not saying that as like, “See, this isn’t a problem.” It’s totally a problem if your dog is flattening old ladies when it tries to say hi, or something like that. That’s a problem, but it’s a training problem. If your dog is friendly but otherwise normal, it’s not something that we would treat with medication, because this is just something that we need to teach your dog a different behavior to do in that situation. Whereas things that we think of more as behavior issues are things that have some kind of emotional component to them, so things that have an anxiety component, that’s probably the most common. The vast majority of behavior issues that we see do have an underlying anxiety component. But it’s that, or it’s a compulsive behavior issue, or it’s something that’s not normal, a genuinely abnormal behavior that the dog is doing. That’s when at that point that we think they’re more of a candidate for medication. Melissa Breau: That makes sense. It’s kind of, “Is this a normal behavior or is this …” Jennifer Summerfield: Exactly, exactly. I can’t remember who it was, but I know one year I was at a conference and I was listening to a talk on behavior medication, and I remember the way that the speaker put it, which I really liked, was one of the ways they look at whether it’s a true behavior problem that needs medication or not is, Is it something that’s bothering the dog, or is it just bothering you? Which was a great way to word it. Melissa Breau: Yeah, I like that. I’d love to include a link to the blog post that you mentioned that you wrote a while ago in the show notes. Would you be willing to shoot me over a link to that when you get a chance after we’re done? Dr. Jennifer Summerfield: Absolutely, yeah, I could definitely shoot that over to you. Melissa Breau: Awesome. To get back to the behavior meds thing, what are some signs that medications might really have a positive influence on a behavioral problem? Is there something about a problem that you go, “Oh, that, definitely. We can work on that with medication”? Jennifer Summerfield: Yeah, I would say a little bit of what we touched on a minute ago, in that anything that we think has a significant anxiety component to it, which is a lot of things. That encompasses things like separation anxiety, or thunderstorm phobia, or dogs that are generally anxious and constantly on edge and have trouble settling. Anytime we get the sense that, “Hey, this dog seems to be abnormally fearful or worried about things that are pretty normal in life that a ‘normal’ dog shouldn’t be fearful or worried about,” then that’s a pretty good indicator that medication would probably be helpful. The other big thing that makes me think, We should consider meds here is if the people have already been doing some work as far as training or behavior modification that’s appropriate, something that’s like, “OK, that sounds like a pretty good plan,” and they’re just having a really hard time making any headway, that, to me, is a strong indication that we could probably help that process along quite a bit with medication. The problem with a lot of dogs, especially if we’re working on something like, say, leash reactivity, for example, where we know how important it is from a behavior mod standpoint, how important it is to keep the dog below threshold while we’re working with it, for some dogs that are just so sensitive, that’s incredibly difficult because it doesn’t take anything at all to send them over threshold, and it can be really hard to find that little window of opportunity to even start working on training in a way that’s going to be successful. So in a dog like that, for example, medication can be really helpful to just bring things down enough that the dog is able to think, that you’re able to get that little toehold of space where the dog is able to see the trigger and not react so that you actually have some room to do your training. Melissa Breau: If somebody is considering this, they’re looking at medication or they’re thinking it might be good for their dog, what are some resources that they can use, or that they can turn to, to learn more about some of the options out there and the meds, or even just behavior modification training specifically? Jennifer Summerfield: That is such a great question. I think in terms of learning about behavior modification in general, there is some great stuff out there. There are tons of obviously really knowledgeable people in the field who have blogs and podcasts that are easy that anybody can access for free. You can find some great webinars through, of course, FDSA, but also through organizations like the Pet Professional Guild or the Association of Professional Dog Trainers or the International Association of Animal Behavior Consultants. There are online courses you can do. I really think that for a lot of dog owners, they might even consider, if they’re into this kind of thing, attending a conference like ClickerExpo or the APDT National Conference, or something like that, if it’s nearby. I find that a lot of dog owners sometimes don’t think about that, or don’t realize that they can go to things like that, but anybody’s totally welcome at those conferences. I know the last couple of years when I’ve been at ClickerExpo, certainly the majority of people there, I would say, are professionals in the field of one kind or another, but there’s always a good smattering of people who are just dog owners who want to learn more about this stuff, and I think that’s really cool. So lots of opportunities to learn more about behavior science and behavior modification. On the behavior meds side of things, I actually wracked my brain trying to come up with some good resources that are available for dog owners for that, and there just really are not a lot, which is one of the reasons that I’m excited to do this webinar, because I do think there’s a lack of good information that is easily accessible for people about behavior meds, other than the very basic stuff, like, “Hey, behavior meds are a thing, you might consider it for your dog.” But beyond that, it is difficult to find much information. Melissa Breau: Now, I know you specialize in behavior. If somebody goes to their average veterinarian, is that person going to have enough of an understanding to start that conversation, or should they really be seeking out somebody who specializes? What’s the guideline there? Jennifer Summerfield: The answer is that it really does depend quite a bit on your veterinarian and whether that’s something that they have an interest in or not. That’s true in general of general practitioners about really anything, so I don’t mean that at all to sound like, “Well, if your vet doesn’t know this stuff, they’re lousy.” Believe me, if you are a general practitioner, you cannot know everything about everything. All of us have areas that we know a lot about and then areas that we know very little about. I know anytime somebody comes to my clinic and they have questions about orthopedic issues, or their dog has a broken leg that it needs pinned or something like that, I send that out the door so fast because I know nothing. That’s not my area and I’ll be the first to say so, and there are some general practitioners who are fantastic at it. So behavior, to me, is a lot like that. There are some GP’s who are going to be great at it and really know their stuff and going to be really well-versed in all the medication options, and then there are others that that’s just not an area that they deal with much, they may not know a lot. But one option that is available that I think a lot of pet owners don’t always realize is an option is that if you don’t have a veterinary behaviorist nearby, or a veterinarian who is good with behavior and sees behavior cases, and your vet says, “I’d really like to help you, I just don’t know that much about this stuff,” many veterinary behaviorists will do a remote consultation with your vet, which can be super-helpful. They can’t do it directly with you, and that has to do with the legalities of the Practice Act and things that we legally cannot make recommendations directly for an animal if we haven’t met them in person. But what they can do is they can talk to your veterinarian, and your veterinarian can give them the whole write-up and details of the case, and they can say, “Oh, OK, I understand. Here is what I would consider as far as a behavior modification plan. Here is what I would consider as far as medication for this dog.” And then your vet can take that information, and they’re the ones who are actually in charge of doing the prescribing and overseeing the case directly, but they can keep in contact with the specialist about the case and make changes as needed and all that kind of stuff. I think that is a really underutilized service that sometimes people don’t realize is out there, but it is. So if your vet’s not super-well-versed in this stuff, but they’d like to help you and you’re willing to do something like that, talk to them about it, because they may not realize it’s an option either. But I think that can be a really good happy medium sometimes if you don’t have somebody in your area who you can work with in person. Melissa Breau: I think that’s an awesome thing to have you mention on something like this, because like you said, maybe people don’t know that it’s an option out there. I certainly wouldn’t know. Jennifer Summerfield: Yeah, definitely. I know I am going to talk a little bit about that in the webinar as well, so I’ll have more details on how that can work and on how people can specifically seek that out, if it’s something they’re interested in. Melissa Breau: Obviously, during the webinar, you’re not going to be able to give dog-specific advice. Like you said, you have to see the dog, hands on the animal in order to do that. But I would love to give people just a little more of an idea on what you plan to cover, especially since I know we’re doing two webinars back-to -back in the same evening. Can you talk a little bit about what you want to cover? Jennifer Summerfield: Yes, I’m super-excited, and I guess this is kind of unprecedented for FDSA to do the double-header. Melissa Breau: It’s our very first one. Jennifer Summerfield: It’s going to be great. It’s going to be a behavior pharmacology extravaganza, and I could not be more excited. The first webinar is going to be an introduction, basically, so meant for people who want some basic information about behavior meds. It’s going to talk about things like how do you know if your dog might benefit from medication, because I know that’s probably a question that a lot of people will have who are watching the webinar. I’m assuming a significant portion of people will be watching because they have a specific dog in mind that has some issues. So we’re definitely going to talk about how to decide that for your own dog, is it something that might be helpful. We’re going to go over all the different classes of drugs that we use for behavior cases, because there are actually quite a few different options now. It just to just be Prozac and Clomicalm, but there’s a lot of other options out now, which is really cool. We’re going to talk about what our goals are when we use behavior meds, so how that works with a training plan and what kinds of things to expect that way. We are going to spend some time also talking about natural supplements and calming aids and things that can help either by themselves or as an adjunct to medication. In the second webinar, that one is going to go into more detail as far as things like how do we actually choose for real specific cases what medication to use, because there are a lot of options. So we’re going to go into factors that we look at to help us decide what medication we think is going to be best for this particular dog. We’re going to talk about combinations, because for a lot of cases we do actually use more than one medication together, so we’re going to talk about how that works and how you decide whether you want to go down that road, and if you do, what things can go together, what things can’t. We’re going to have several case studies to go over, and examples to use for discussion, which I’m really excited about, because I think that’s where sometimes you get the most information is seeing how it applies to some actual cases rather than kind of getting everything in the abstract. And we will be talking in that second webinar, because we know that the FDSA audience obviously is a lot of performance dog people, we are going to talk specifically about considerations for performance dogs, so things like how do behavior meds impact learning and memory, are there any ethical questions that we need to consider when we’re thinking about medicating dogs who are actively showing and competing, that kind of stuff. So I think that will be a really interesting discussion too. Melissa Breau: That sounds so interesting. I’m actually really excited to dig into it. Jennifer Summerfield: Me too. I’m so excited! Melissa Breau: In addition to the webinars and your work as a trainer and a vet — you’re a pretty busy lady — you also blog, and you’ve recently started podcasting. I wanted to point listeners to those resources a little bit. Can you share a little bit on what you write about and talk about, maybe some of the recent topics you’ve covered, and where they can find that stuff? Jennifer Summerfield: Sure, definitely. My blog is Dr. Jen’s Dog Blog, so you can search for that and it will come right up. I’ve been doing it since, gosh, I think July of 2016, maybe, so I’ve got quite a few posts on there. I think the most recent one I did was on accidental behavior chains that sometimes we teach without realizing to our dogs, which was interesting. I know some of the posts I have had in the past on that blog that people have found really helpful have been on things like I have a post on behavior euthanasia, which actually a lot of people have written to me about and said was helpful for them. I have a post on fear periods and single event learning, which I think a lot of people have found pretty interesting. And then I have some posts on specific topics like leash reactivity and odor-directed aggression and things like that. So if anybody’s curious about those topics, a lot of times I do try to include case examples when I write about those too. Melissa Breau: Lots of sticky issues. Jennifer Summerfield: I know, I know. They are sticky issues, but actually those are some of my favorite things to write about because I think that sometimes there’s a lack of honest conversation about some of those things, and I think it’s sometimes useful to just say, “Well, here is something I deal with every day in my job, and here’s some thoughts, here’s my perspective on it.” And I know that I do get a lot of e-mails from people about those sticky topics that they found them helpful, which is really nice to hear. The podcast is pretty recent. I just started that here earlier this year and it’s been super-fun so far. I only have a few episodes of it out so far, but of course I’m actively doing that and the blog, so there will be more coming. The most recent one I did was on teaching reliable recalls to your dog. That’s a topic I get a lot of questions about and a topic that we troubleshoot a lot in our Basic Manners classes. And I’ve had some past episodes, I know I did one on car ride anxiety, and then I’ve got some basic topics like puppy socialization and housetraining and that kind of stuff. I guess I should probably mention here I do have a book out as well, if it’s something that people are interested in. The book is called Train Your Dog Now, and it is basically a reference guide, like a handbook to pretty much anything that might come up, behavior- or training-related, with a dog. So it has sections on teaching basic obedience cues and tricks, but it also talks about how to teach your dog to cooperate for grooming and handling — nail trims and teeth brushing and ear cleaning and that kind of stuff — and then there is a whole section on behavior issues. So it does talk about leash reactivity, it does talk about odor-directed aggression, it talks about aggression to visitors, and there is … it’s a brief section, but there is a section in the book also about behavior medication and supplements. So for people that like to have a hard copy of something they can look at in their home, that might be a good option to consider. Melissa Breau: To round things out, since it’s your first time on, there are three questions I try to ask every guest their first time on the podcast, and I’d love to do those. So first off, what’s the dog-related accomplishment that you’re proudest of? Jennifer Summerfield: I would have to say, and there are so many, that’s always a question that’s hard to narrow down, but honestly, if I had to pick one, I would probably say getting my dog Remy’s CD would be my biggest accomplishment. From the time that I went to that obedience trial when I was a kid, and I watched the dogs and I just wanted to do that so bad, and with Duncan we muddled along and we did a little bit, we dabbled very briefly in competitive obedience and it didn’t go super-well, but I learned a lot from that, obviously. And then with Remy I did things a little differently, and it still took us a long time to get his CD finished, but the day that we finished it was just like … I went back to the crate and I cried. It was such a big deal for us. And I know obviously, for a lot of your listeners, they have much, much higher accomplishments in the obedience ring, but for us, that was huge. Sort of the second part of that, I guess, obviously finishing the title itself was such a big thing for me because it was something that we worked so hard on. But one of the things that kind of was the cherry on top about that trial was I remember when we were packing our stuff up and getting ready to go back to the car, there was a woman that came up to me. I didn’t know her, but I guess she had been standing around, watching the obedience ring, and she came up to me afterwards and she congratulated me on finishing my title. I said, “Thanks,’ and she said, “I just wanted to tell you how much fun I had watching you and your dog because he looked so happy,” and that was huge. I probably still feel the greatest about that of everything that we’ve done in our competition career or anywhere. So that was a great feeling. Melissa Breau: That’s amazing, and I just want to encourage everybody who’s listening, hey, listen, people remember when you say that kind of stuff about them and their dog. It’s worth it. Jennifer Summerfield: I don’t remember very much about that lady now except that that was what she told us, but she made my whole year, my whole decade. So thank you, whoever that lady was, if you’re listening. Melissa Breau: And if you see somebody have a really awesome run and you feel something like that, absolutely step up afterwards and let them know how awesome it was. Jennifer Summerfield: For sure. It makes a big difference. Melissa Breau: It’s such an amazing thing to hear. That’s just awesome. Jennifer Summerfield: Thank you. Melissa Breau: So my second question here is, what’s the best piece of training advice you’ve ever heard? Jennifer Summerfield: What I would have to say — and this is not technically dog training advice, I guess I’ll preface it that way, but I think it can apply to dog training, and I think about it in regards to dog training a lot. It’s actually a quote from Maya Angelou. It gets paraphrased a lot, but the actual quote is, she said, “I did then what I knew how to do. Now that I know better, I do better.” That has always struck me as being such a great way to look at life, a lot of things about life in general, but specifically about dog training, because I think for probably a lot of us who are crossover trainers, I think it’s probably a pretty widespread thing to have some degree of regret or guilt, maybe, about how we did things with our first dog, or how we taught some things that we wish if we could go back and do it differently. I love that quote because it’s so true that there’s no reason to feel guilty or to feel ashamed about doing the best that you knew how to do at the time, and that’s all any of us can do. But when new information comes along and you realize that there’s a different way to do things, that you just adjust your behavior and you do it differently. So I’ve always found that really helpful in terms of thinking about myself and my own choices, but I also think it’s so helpful to keep perspective when I’m thinking about clients and the people that I work with in my job as well, because I think it’s so easy for those of us who do this professionally, and we know all the science and we do this day in and day out, it’s so easy to get a client and to feel like, “Oh, can you believe this person’s been using a shock collar on their aggressive dog,” or “This person’s been alpha-rolling their dog,” and these things that are things that obviously are probably not the ideal way to handle whatever behavior issue they’re having. But I think it’s so helpful to remember that people are just doing the best they can. That’s so powerful, that people are just doing the best they can with what they know, and that’s all any of us can do. We all were there at one point, too, and that thinking about it from that perspective, that our job is to say, “Hey, you know, I totally understand where you’re coming from, and I understand why that seems like it makes sense, but let’s look at some other ways to address this that hopefully are going to be a little bit more effective and don’t have some of the side effects that those methods have.” I think about that frequently, both in terms of my own life and also working with clients, just to try and keep that perspective that it’s important to give people the benefit of the doubt that we’re working with, too, and remember that everybody is just doing the best they can with what they know. Melissa Breau: For our last question, who is somebody else in the dog world that you look up to? Jennifer Summerfield: All three of your questions are very hard because there are so many choices. I have two for this one, if that’s OK. For the first one, as far as being a really well-known public figure in our field that I have always looked up to, I would have to say Dr. Sophia Yin for that. For veterinarians especially, she was such a pioneer of changing the way that we deal with dogs in the clinic, and of course she did a lot of behavior stuff besides the low-stress handling as well. But I think she was such a tremendous role model for all veterinarians in the way that she dealt with animals and the way that she dealt with people, and so I look up to her tremendously, and I think she did great things for the field. The other person that I would have to mention, she’s not overly famous, I don’t think, but she is a great clinical applied animal behaviorist that I worked with when I was in veterinary school, and her name is Traci Shreyer. I worked pretty closely with her through the four years that I was there, because she was very involved in the puppy class program at that school, which I worked with quite a bit, and then she was involved in teaching some of our classes, and things on behavior as well, and working with us, the behavior club setups and some things with her, and so I dealt pretty closely with her the whole four years. What I loved about her and really took away from that experience is she was great with dogs and animals in general, she was fabulous, but she was also so, so great with people, with clients, and she was always reminding us … I think, again, for many of us in this field, being empathetic towards the dogs is easy, that’s kind of what drew us in in the first place, but I think it’s so, so important to remember that we have to have empathy for our human learners too, that what we’re asking them to do is hard, and that they deserve just as much consideration and kindness and respect as our dog patients do. She was probably the single best example of that that I have ever seen. She was fantastic, and that is a lesson that I definitely took away from working with her. So I would say she’s the other person that I still really look up to in the field. Melissa Breau: That’s awesome, and that’s such a great compliment to have given somebody you learned from, to say that they are so empathetic and so good with people. Jennifer Summerfield: Yes, it’s a hard skill, such a hard skill, but it’s so important. Melissa Breau: Absolutely. Well, thank you so much for coming on the podcast Jen. Jennifer Summerfield: No problem. I’ve had a great time! Melissa Breau: And thanks to our listeners for tuning in! We’ll be back next week with Nancy Tucker, to talk about getting better door behaviors. Don’t miss 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 and transcription written by CLK Transcription Services. Thanks again for tuning in -- and happy training!

Summary: Dr. Jessica Hekman is a postdoctoral associate at the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, where she researches how genetics affect behavior in pet and working dogs. Jessica received her Ph.D. in Animal Studies in 2017 from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, where she studied canid behavioral genetics. Previously, Jessica graduated from the Tufts Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine in 2012, with a dual DVM/MS degree. Her Master's work was on the behavior and cortisol responses of healthy dogs to being hospitalized overnight. She also completed a shelter medicine veterinary internship at the University of Florida Maddie's Shelter Medicine Program. Links www.dogzombie.com  www.darwinsdogs.org www.muttmix.org www.workingdogproject.org Video: Dopamine Jackpot! (Robert Sapolsky) Video: Sopolsky on Depression (Robert Sapolsky)  Next Episode:  To be released 4/13/2018, featuring Laura Waudby to talk about getting a happy dog in the competition ring. 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 Dr. Jessica Hekman. Dr. Jessica Hekman is a postdoctoral associate at the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, where she researches how genetics affect behavior in pet and working dogs. Jessica received her Ph.D. in Animal Studies in 2017 from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, where she studied canid behavioral genetics. Previously, Jessica graduated from the Tufts Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine in 2012, with a dual DVM/MS degree. Her Master's work was on the behavior and cortisol responses of healthy dogs to being hospitalized overnight. She also completed a shelter medicine veterinary internship at the University of Florida Maddie's Shelter Medicine Program. Finally, she is also the most recent addition to the team of FDSA instructors! Hi Jessica, welcome to the podcast! Jessica Hekman: Thanks. I'm very excited to be here. Melissa Breau: I'm excited to have you, and I was a little nervous reading that bio because I knew there were a lot of things in there that my tongue was not going to wrap around well. Jessica Hekman: You did great. Melissa Breau: I'm pretty happy with that. To start us out, do you want to tell us a little bit about your dogs and what you're working on with them? Jessica Hekman: Yeah, I love that you start with the real easy question, because everyone likes talking about their dogs. Melissa Breau: Of course. Jessica Hekman: I have two dogs. I have Dashiell and Jenny. When I got Dash, I knew that I wanted to do dog sports with him. He's a 19-month-old English Shepherd, and for people who don't know that breed, they're closely related to Aussies and Border Collies, so it's sometimes a little scary how smart he is. He's really docile, sweet, interactive, he's so much fun to work with. We've done treibball, and we've done agility, which is my favorite sport and one I've really wanted to do with him, but he has a chronic shoulder problem right now that we're in the middle of getting under control, so agility's on hold at the moment. We've also done some parkour. I think that's his favorite because he loves to jump on things, and there's still some parkour tricks that he can do, even with his shoulder issues, but a bunch that he can't. So at the moment he's in an in-person rally class with my husband. They both really like the structure of rally, even though it's not really my thing, and then with me he's doing nosework. We did that Intro To Nosework class with Stacy last session and we both really enjoyed it. Dash is the first puppy I've ever raised. I always got rescue or shelter dogs before, but I have wanted to get into studying socialization in dogs, so I wanted to actually go through it with my own dog before doing the research. My older dog is Jenny. She's an 8-year-old mixed breed, and I know just from talking to the shelter that she came from that she definitely has some Lab in her, and we also did an ancestry test, which suggested some Samoyed, and she looks a lot like a tiny, little golden-colored Border Collie, and she sort of acts like a herding breed. She's also super-smart. She did not get enough socialization at a young age. I got her when she was about a year old, and at the time she was terrified of all people and all new places, and she peed every time I touched her. She spent the first week huddled on a dog bed in terror, and when I needed to take her outside to pee, I would crawl backwards toward her without making eye contact, and then, without looking at her, I would have this leash, and she had a little tab permanently on a harness that she wore 24/7 exactly so I wouldn't have to touch her by the collar. So I would reach backwards without looking at her and attach the leash to her tab sort of by feel, and then we would go downstairs and outside. After a week of this, one day I started crawling backwards towards her and she stood up and was like, “I understand the system and I can do it myself.” So I took her downstairs off-leash and she went outside — safely fenced yard, so that was OK — she went outside, she came back in. So that's Jenny. She's really scared of everything, but she's also game to work through it, and she finds her own out-of-the-box solutions to it. Most of the time that she's been with me we've just worked on her confidence levels, but they are really improving now, and since I got Dash she has also let me know that she is really interested in doing sports stuff too, so she also enjoys doing parkour, and we are doing nosework together as well. I don't think she's ever going to be able to go to a nosework trial, but that is fine with me. So those are my two dogs. Melissa Breau: You mentioned that Dash is the first puppy that you've raised, but you knew you wanted to do agility when you got him. How did you get into dog sports? What got you started there? Jessica Hekman: I was looking for something to do with my first dog, who was Jack, he was a Golden Retriever, so I was looking around for stuff and we started doing agility and I loved it. Jack liked it. I think he would have preferred to have done dock diving. I never found a good place to do that competitively, but we'd go to a local pond and he'd do his really impressive belly flops, so that was a good time. We did agility together for two or three years, and we got to the point of going to trials. He cued a few times. I was very impressed with myself with him. But then I started veterinary school, and that was that for any extracurricular activities all through vet school. As you said, I did this dual degree program, so it was extra long as well, and by the time I got out, Jack was elderly to do sports, I had Jenny at that point, and there weren't online classes, online options, and she couldn't do in-person stuff, so I was out of sports then for quite a while, through vet school and through my Ph.D., so that was about ten years, and I missed it horribly. I would watch agility on YouTube and stuff. Jack lived to the very impressive old age of 16, which is great for a Golden Retriever. After I lost him, I got Dash, and I immediately got back into doing sports then. Melissa Breau: What about the positive tilt of things? Have you always been a positive trainer? If not, what got you started on that journey? Jessica Hekman: I had never trained a dog before when I got Jack. I got him in 2003. We went to what I guess you would call a balanced class for basic manners. It was not a terrible class, they didn't have us abusing the dogs or anything, but we did use some leash popping to try to get good leash manners, stuff like that. At the time I thought that was entirely appropriate. When I first learned about clicker training. I remember saying, “Oh, but there should be consequences if a dog doesn't obey you.” That was where I was then. When we started agility together, that was 100 percent positive, of course, and that was when I first learned to use clicker training myself. That was when I started shaping. At the time, though, I was still open to mild positive punishment in basic training, so I think I was gradually converted. I was going to a lot of seminars with positive trainers, I was reading books by people like McConnell and Sdeo, and eventually I started to realize, I can have a better relationship with my dogs than I do. I've realized since then how great the approach is, not just for dogs, but for interacting with people. I use a lot less punishment in my relationships with friends and family than I used to, although I find humans can be hard to reward. You can't pop M&Ms into everyone's mouth, and you can't stop a conversation to have a friendly wrestle, so that's challenging. I'm still trying to figure that one out. Melissa Breau: We should, as a community, decide that it's perfectly appropriate to hand out M&Ms left and right. I think that would make the world a better place. Jessica Hekman: That would make life so much easier. Melissa Breau: Obviously your day job now is heavily research-based. You started off in veterinary school, you started off in dog sports, how did you end up in research specifically? Jessica Hekman: That was the long way around, for sure. I majored in medieval studies in college, and by the end of college I was already starting to feel like, you know, I really liked reading the stuff I was reading, I was reading Arthurian romances, it was great, but I was feeling like I was following paths that other people had taken before. I had this one moment where I had some insight that I thought was fantastic, age 20, I thought I was brilliant, I took this to my advisor and he was like, “That was a great insight. It was exactly the same as this other person said 20 years ago.” Basically he was saying it was so good because it was exactly the same as something someone else did, and I was like, Oh, man, I have to get out of this, and I have to do something new. I have to have some effect on the world. I didn't go into biology then. I got into computer programming. It was the mid-'90s, we were in the middle of the dotcom boom, they were hiring warm bodies off the streets to do computer programming. That was actually a fantastic career. I was in online publishing programming for ten years. I got to the point where I was working four days a week, three of them from home, I was making a lot more money than I'm making now, and that was great. It was great for having a dog. I was at home with my dog all the time. But then I got bored. I started feeling again that I was having no real effect on the world. The dotcom crash happened, there was a lot less money in the industry, and that meant there was a lot less interesting work going on, and right around that time I had gotten Jack, my first dog, and as a result I had also gotten into Retriever rescue. I was working with a local Retriever rescue, and because of that I started getting really interested in dog behavior. I started reading everything I could get my hands on about it, I started going on the seminar circuit, and when I read The Other End Of The Leash, by Patricia McConnell, I was like, Oh, this is it. This is what I want to do. I want to learn all about this stuff. So I started looking into being a behaviorist, and just a quick spoiler alert — I did not actually end up being a behaviorist, but you can become a behaviorist, either with a Ph.D. or with a DVM. At the time, I knew research was the interesting thing to me, so I tried that route. It was 2005 at this point, and there were, at that time, no labs studying dog behavior. I talked to one professor, trying to figure out what I wanted to do with my life, and he said to me, “Well, you can study wolf behavior, but Ph.D.'s don't study dogs because they're domesticated, so they're not natural animals. Vets study dogs, but they study them medically, no one studies their behavior. No one studies dog behavior.” So I was like, What do I do? I guess I could go to vet school, and I want to be able to prescribe meds in my theoretical behavior practice. So I went to vet school to become a veterinary behaviorist. At that point I had to do all my basic sciences before I could even apply. As a medievalist turned computer programmer, I had zero sciences under my belt, so I had to do all of that. It changed the way I saw the world. I had been this arty medievalist turned computer nerd, and I was like, Oh, now I'm starting to understand what goes on in bodies and brains. That was real interesting. I got into vet school, I went to Tufts, they had this combined DVM/Master's program, as you said. I decided to do that because I thought it would give me some exposure to research. The way it works is the first two years you do the vet program, you take a year off in the middle to do the Master's, and then you go back and finish the vet program for two years. My second year doing the veterinary program, I shadowed a veterinary behaviorist at Tufts, and that was the first time I got to, week after week, see a behaviorist in action. That was when I realized I totally did not want to do that with my life. I did not want to try to fix broken dogs. I thought it was much more effective to try to figure out why dogs break in the first place and try to stop that from happening. Shortly after that, that was the end of my second year, and then after that I did my research year. So I spent a whole year just doing research. I still remember this one day, walking through the parking lot at Tufts on the way to my car, and thinking, Wow, I love this stuff so much. I am not looking forward to going back to vet school. It was like the skies opened and I thought, I don't have to be a behaviorist! I can go get a Ph.D. after all! It all came together. That was when I was like, I can go do research, and that will help with the prevention of behavior problems. The research world was really changing while I was in vet school. I said that there weren't any labs doing dog stuff when I started, but while I was in vet school, people started to realize that, in fact, dogs are totally fascinating models for research. They are natural animals, and the fact that they've evolved to live inside civilization along with humans — that makes them more interesting, not less interesting. So after I finished vet school, I did do an internship, but then I did a Ph.D. at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, working with Kukekova Lab, and that lab was actually founded just the year before I came there. I was one of her first two grad students. So it's very much been a process of when I'm ready to take my next step, things have appeared just barely in time for me to get there. In that lab we studied tame foxes, not dogs, but the tame foxes are a fantastic model for dogs and for domestication. It was a really great opportunity for me. I learned a lot. But I really wanted to get into studying the genetics of pet dogs, and again, while I was in that program, a few people were starting to do that. No one had quite figured out how to do it at a large scale, so when you're working not with lab animals but with pets, and there's so much variety in their genetics and in how they're raised, you need really, really large numbers of them, and that was really hard for anyone to figure out how to do. But just a couple of years before I was ready to graduate, again, this new lab sprang up, they were doing exactly that, so that's where I am now, Karlsson Lab at the Broad Institute. It's spelled Broad but it's pronounced Brode, just to be super-tricky for people. I like to say of Karlsson Lab that it's, like, thank God they're doing exactly what I thought I would have to do, so I don't have to organize this massive citizen science approach to studying pet dogs, because my new boss, Elinor, has already done that, and I can just focus on the fun parts. So that's my crazy journey. It's probably a longer answer than you were looking for. Melissa Breau: No, it's interesting. You've had a lot of interesting experiences and steps along the way. I'd love to dig a little more into what you're doing now. Do you mind sharing a general overview? Jessica Hekman: Sure. Karlsson Lab, where I am now, takes what we call a citizen science approach to studying pet dogs. What we do is we collect a lot of dog behavior information and DNA directly from dog owners, and we use that to try to find connections between differences in the dog's DNA and their different behavioral traits. The main project that has started out collecting that is called Darwin's Dogs, and you can go to DarwinsDogs.org and participate, and I'm sure that all of you will do that, and you should definitely do that. Right now we're very much in the data collection phase, so at the moment I'm doing a lot of what turns out to be basically project management, making sure that all the stuff is coming together, that we're storing the data in a reasonable way, things like that. But I am already getting to do some data analysis. I actually, really excitingly just last week, I got my hands on about 15 years worth of pedigree and behavioral data from a school that breeds guide dogs. I'm getting to analyze that in order to write a paper about it. As the data is coming in from other projects, the plan is that I'll be one of the ones to analyze that as well. Melissa Breau: That's awesome. I know we've chatted a bit about having your boss on the podcast, too, to talk more about some of this stuff, but I'd love if you want to share just a couple of the projects you guys are working on. You mentioned DarwinsDogs.org, so I'll make sure that there's a link to that in the show notes for folks. Do you want to share any other stuff that listeners might be interested in? Jessica Hekman: For sure. We actually have a brand new project that's about to launch that FDSA folks can participate in, and it's actually, even if you don't have a dog, although I know that pretty much everyone listening to this will have a dog. In my nosework class that I did with FDSA, I was Bronze in the introductory nosework and one person was at Gold with a cat, which was fantastic. Melissa Breau: That's very cool. Jessica Hekman: Yeah, that was neat. This new project is called Muttmix. That's at muttmix.org. The idea is that we will show you photos of a whole bunch of mixed-breed dogs, and you get to guess what is in their breed mix. We will collect guesses from a whole bunch of people, and then we will e-mail you back afterwards and tell you what was in those dogs, based on their genetic analyses that we did. So it should be a lot of fun for you. And then the data that we collect will be used to help us analyze how good people are at looking at a dog and telling exactly what breed is in there, which, just a spoiler alert, it's really hard to do that by looking. It turns out that mutts are really, really interesting, and very few people, if any, have really surveyed them. Most of the papers out there on dogs, particularly genetic papers, are about purebred dogs. So muttmix.org, and it's starting in a few weeks, but if you go right now, you can give your e-mail address and then we can let you know when it goes live. That's Muttmix. And then the main project that I personally am working on is called the Working Dog Project, and that is, we collect behavioral and genetic information from working dogs to find out the genetic influences that make dogs more or less good at their job, or more or less able to succeed in training programs. For example, a guide dog school typically only has about half of the puppies that they train succeed at becoming guide dogs. Why is that? Is there anything we can do to help them do better? And, by the way, if it occurs to you that sports dogs are a lot like working dogs, that has also occurred to me, and I am totally planning to expand this project to include sports dogs, so stay tuned about that. And if and when that happens, I will definitely be letting FDSA folks know. Melissa Breau: Awesome. I look forward to that, and I can't wait to see what some of the outcomes are of the research you're working on. It all sounds so interesting. Jessica Hekman: Us too. It's sad that research is so slow, because we would really like the answers yesterday. Melissa Breau: Fair enough. I know that, talking about research, you did include a bunch of that in the webinar you just did, kind of the other end of things, on the biology of socialization, and you've got another coming up on April 12 on epigenetics. Do you want to explain what epigenetics is, and then share a little bit on what the webinar will focus on? Jessica Hekman: Epigenetics is a way that organisms, including dogs, record the experiences that they've had in their DNA. We used to think that the DNA sequence is something that never changes for a particular individual. It turns out, though, that epigenetics is this mechanism that this cell has. It's like marks that you put on the DNA, so the sequence itself doesn't change, but there's these marks that are added on it, sort of like a bookmark in a book, so that the content of the book doesn't change, but you can put a bookmark in it to save a really important page that you want to come back to again and again. Animals can do this with their DNA to say, “This is a bit that is really useful for the environment that I live in, and I want to use this bit a whole lot.” So this is a new way that we look at what makes up an animal's personality — not just their genetics, but also this way that animals have of recording their experiences in their DNA. In this webinar I'll talk about what we know about epigenetics, and I will specifically relate it to dogs. A lot of the epigenetics resources that are out there for people to read are obviously very human-oriented, and so I will focus very much on “What does this mean for your sports dog?” Melissa Breau: Kind of to take that and ask what is probably a way-too-broad question, what does go into a perfect performance dog from that standpoint? Jessica Hekman: Lots of things. There's very complex effects on a lot of different genes interacting with each other in ways that are really hard to predict, but that's what my job is, is to try to find ways of predicting how that's going to work. And then equally complex there's the effects of the dog's environment, of course. But the environment — we don't always think of it as it actually starts at conception in the uterus, with the hormones that the mom passes on to the puppies in nutrition, and then the environment also includes the time in the nest with their littermates, how the puppy is socialized, how the dog is trained. We can only control a tiny portion of all of this, like some of the socialization and the training, and I knew that theoretically when I got Dash as a puppy, but I have to admit I still figured I'd be able to control a bit more of him than I could in the end. So yeah, perfect performance dog. Melissa Breau: Are there common misconceptions that dog sports people tend to have about this sciencey stuff? If so, what can you do to set the record straight? Jessica Hekman: I think that a lot of people have this hope that science, and particularly genetics, will be able to give us black-and-white answers to questions that we have, that maybe a dog who has behavioral issues, or issues in the ring, has some underlying genetic problem that can't be changed and that perhaps could be identified in a test, that we'll maybe discover one gene for aggression and be able to breed it out. Of course, in real life, biology is incredibly complex and there's no black-and-white, there's really just shades of gray. But of course that doesn't mean that there isn't a lot to learn and understand about how the body and brain work that can be really enlightening when we're thinking about how to interact with our dogs. I hope that answers that question. Melissa Breau: That's actually an interesting way of thinking about it, and I think it's important to note that even science doesn't have all the answers. It's a complex topic, and to a certain extent you do need to wade in waist-deep to get a good understanding of all the bits and pieces. What do you think about for the future? Where do you think the future of some of this stuff will lead us, and what subjects are there out there that you hope that science can find the answers to? Jessica Hekman: Personally, I'm really hoping we're going to find ways of improving how we breed dogs. There are genomic technologies that can be useful to help the process of selecting dogs to breed in order to produce puppies with the traits that we want, and in fact this is done as a matter of course in the cattle industry. The technology is there. It's made a massive difference in the ability of the cattle industry to select for traits like milk production. What we need to make it happen for dogs is just for the community to get together and to pool genetic and behavioral data. The data that Karlsson Lab, where I work now, is collecting could be used for exactly this kind of thing. But the hard part, I think, will be not so much the science, but will be agreeing on what everybody is breeding for. It's the intersection of science and society where stuff gets interesting. How do you work together to breed for things like health and solid personalities instead of things like fancier coat colors and flatter faces? That's really going to be the big struggle, but that's where I hope to see the dog community going. Melissa Breau: I guess part of me peripherally knew that the cattle industry had been breeding for things like increased milk production, but you don't really think about it as a concerted effort, as, like, the industry sat down and looked at it from a scientific perspective. You think, Oh, they did it the same way we do it in dogs, where it's just two that have a line, or have a history, and let's just keep going down that thread. So it's interesting. Jessica Hekman: They're massively well organized, and it's kind of scary if you look at the statistics. The output of milk from an individual cow since 1950, it has more than tripled in individual cows from 1950 to today. One of the things that the cattle industry has going for them is USDA. They have this federal agency that is paid to organize them. We don't have anything like that, and trying to imagine organizing dog breeders to work together is kind of crazy. Melissa Breau: Fair enough, yes. Jessica Hekman: Imagine talking to one person who has their lovingly curated and selected line of dogs, and saying, “OK, for the good of the whole breed, we think you shouldn't breed this particular dog anymore.” Not going to happen. So it's a really interesting difference between the two groups. Melissa Breau: Fascinating. It's such an interesting concept to think through and think about. To shift gears a little bit, in addition to your webinar, you're doing a class on some of this stuff in June. I wanted to ask you to share a little about the class and maybe help folks decide whether or not the class would be a good fit for them. Jessica Hekman: I'm really looking forward to it. It's going to be BH510 it's called The Biology of Building a Great Performance Dog. It's going to be basically about the biology underlying dog development, like what makes each dog her own individual self. A lot of what I'll talk about has to do with genetics and very early socialization, so the class will be particularly useful, I think, for people who want to think through how to find their next dog, what to look for in choosing a breed and a breeder, or in choosing a shelter dog or a rescue dog. But we'll also talk about decisions on things like spay/neuter, whether to do it, when to do it, so that could be useful for people with puppies or even people with young adult dogs. And then I also think it should really appeal to anyone who wants to get their science geek on about dogs, like what makes up a dog's personality. So even if you're not thinking about getting another dog, just if you want to learn some genetics and some biology from a dog perspective, and a think through what's going on in their brains, what's going on in their bodies that makes them act the way they do, it ought to be a great class for you. Melissa Breau: Since it's your first time on, I do have three questions I always try to ask each time somebody comes on for the first time. I want to round things out with those. To start us off, what's the dog-related accomplishment that you're proudest of? Jessica Hekman: Oh, Jenny, for sure Jenny. When I got her, as I said, she peed whenever I touched her, and now I can actually bring a stranger into the house. She still gets nervous and shakes, but as soon as the stranger tosses her a treat, she flips over into, like, Oh, a treat game, and she stops shaking, her ears come up, she starts making cute faces at the stranger to get more treats. Very occasionally, if someone really is good with dogs, Jenny will let them pet her, even though she's just met them that day, which I never would have believed a few years back would ever have happened. She can go out in public, she can go walking on leash around the neighborhood, she can go off leash in a safe park. So we've made some amazing progress together. Sometimes I can't believe she's come so far. You asked for my proudest accomplishment, and I feel like she's really been working hard on that too, but the two of us together I think have made some fantastic progress. Melissa Breau: I absolutely think that counts. I don't think she could have done it without you. What's the best piece of training advice that you've ever heard? Jessica Hekman: It's only in the last couple of years I heard this, I think from Jean Donaldson. She said, “Most people don't use enough treats,” which I love. It's simple, it's concise, it's totally useful. Use more treats. It's easy, and it's so helpful in getting us out of the mindset of thinking, The dog should do this because I asked her to, and into the mindset of, How can I make this more fun for the dog? Melissa Breau: Right, right. That's fantastic, and I think we hear similar things in a lot of different places, but I do like it in that concise, easy to digest. For our last question, who is somebody else in the dog world that you look up to? Jessica Hekman: Can I have more than one? Melissa Breau: Yes, absolutely. Jessica Hekman: OK. The obvious answer, I guess, would be Denise, because in addition to her stellar dog handling skills, she also has stellar human handling skills. She's so great at helping people learn while making them feel good about themselves, and that's really hard to do — not just be good at dogs, but be good at people. I already mentioned Patricia McConnell, whose books are the reason I chose my new career. She had insights into the fact that dog minds are really fascinating in their own right, and I will always be indebted to her for that. And finally, he's not exactly in the dog world, but my science hero is Dr. Robert Sapolsky. He learned some amazing things about how the stress response works. He's a fantastic lecturer, and a lot of his talks are on YouTube and I highly recommend checking them out, if you're interested in how the brain functions and how stress affects behavior. He does not talk about dogs specifically, but his material is totally relevant to them and to training. So Sapolsky. Highly recommended. Melissa Breau: Excellent. I will try to find a YouTube video or two that we can link to in the show notes for everybody. Jessica Hekman: Let me know. I can find you one. Melissa Breau: Absolutely. That would be great. Thank you so much for coming on the podcast, Jessica. I'm thrilled that we got to chat. This was a lot of fun. Jessica Hekman: Oh, thanks. I had a fantastic time. Melissa Breau: And thank you to all of our listeners for tuning in! We'll be back next week with Laura Waudby to talk about training for a happy dog in the competition ring. 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.

Are you thinking of getting a new puppy or kitten or want a specific breed? Before going to a breeder or a pet store to buy one– there is a really good website to check out first, where you may find exactly what you want by adopting.  I’ll share this great resource. Plus, does your dog destroy all those expensive plush toys you buy it, by ripping the stuffing out of them.  There is an actual biologically driven reason for this. Jean Donaldson, world renown dog trainer, explains this behavior and what you can do to save your money, yet still satisfy your dog’s needs. Finally, you may be using a method of feeding your cat that can actually contribute to them becoming a finicky eater as well as negatively affecting its health. When you find out what it is, you might want to make a change and start following this beneficial rule about feeding your feline. Resources for this episode: How to adopt that specific pet you are looking for: Petfinder.com. Jean Donaldson’s website. Jean Donaldson’s book: The Culture Clash, A Revolutionary New Way of Understanding the Relationship between Humans and Domestic Dogs. Source for story about the Primary Feeding Rule: The Natural Cat by Anitra Frazier with Norma Eckroate. For the full show notes of this episode, and to read this week’s blog article: www.raisingyourpaws.com. Please let us know what you think of the podcast. Rate and review it on iTunes.    

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

Your cat’s whiskers and ears indicate its mood, and something they do with their eyes, is considered a show of affection. Dogs clearly let you know when they are nervous or uneasy by doing these two things. We start today’s episode by explaining these signals that help you know how your pets are feeling. See photos of these body language signs on the blog that matches this episode at www.raisingyourpaws.com. Then, is it a good idea to play tug of war with your dog? You may have heard a number of different opinions on this matter. Jean Donaldson, a world renowned dog trainer, and the author of the book, The Culture Clash: A Revolutionary New Way of Understanding the Relationship between Humans and Domestic Dogs shares why playing “tug” is such a beneficial activity. Plus, the reasons why certain holiday time foods are hazardous to the health of your dogs and cats. And, are cats naturally independent and aloof? Pam Johnson-Bennett, the author of the book, Cat Wise: America’s Favorite Cat Expert Answers Your Cat Behavior Questions, offers her second truth to know about your cat’s nature that will improve your relationship with your feline. Resources For Episode 4. Link to see pictures of the dogs and cats spoken about during pet talk segment Link to Jean Donaldson’s website Link to to order Jean Donaldson’s book The Culture Clash Link to Pam Johnson-Bennett’s Website Link to order Pam Johnson-Bennett’s book, Cat Wise.

Get ready to re-count the age of your dog or cat. There is new information about how to figure out your pet’s age in human years See the charts on our blog for this episode to figure out your pets age.  Plus, your dog does many things for reasons that are not so obvious to us. Jean Donaldson, author of the book, The Culture Clash: A Revolutionary New Way of Understanding the Relationship between Humans and Domestic Dogs shares some of her top 10 list of things known about the true nature of canines that explains their behaviors and how we can help to meet their needs.. Read about games you can play to burn off your dog’s predatory energy on the blog for this episode. Here's the link: Raising Your Paws Website Link: Jean Donaldson’s website: Academy for Dog Trainers. Link: How to order her book The Culture Clash Then, you can switch your pet’s food if you need or want to without it causing major stool issues. There are two things you can do to make it easier.   And, finally, are you having problems with a cat that is not using its litterbox? If you have more than one cat at home, and there is no medical problem, the issue could be solved by this need-to-know, practical solution.    

Desde el centro de las editoriales, buscamos qué se está publicando sobre perros Bienvenidos a este episodio especial, grabado desde la Feria Liber, en Madrid. Queremos informaros de todo lo que se está publicando sobre el mundo canino. Hemos cogido los bártulos y nos hemos venido a grabar aquí para mostraros qué se está publicando actualmente sobre libros. Tienen una línea de libros para dummies, y en él encontraréis un libro llamado Entiende a tu perro para Dummies. Es un libro genial. Una joya para quienes están comenzando. Sencillo, directo y útil. Un libro de postres para perros, llamado Dulces Mascotas. Muffins, premios... se indica que debe ser solo el 10% de su dieta, escogiendo ingredientes no dañinos para los perros. Marca también algunos postres muy sanos para los humanos. Una manera genial de compartir postre en casa! Dos libros de Nacho Sierra: Perros, cómo son y Tengo un perro, y ahora ¿qué? Este libro es una pequeña joya: Neuropsicología canina: Introducción al sistema nervioso, el estrés, la emoción y la reducción del estrés. Un libro de pequeño tamaño, muy práctico y muy interesante para perros que no controlan sus emociones y eso genera cuadros de estrés. De Antonio Paramio Miranda, os recomendamos Animales y flores de Bach: Emociones. conducta y salud, El Adiestramiento Silencioso y Psicología del Aprendizaje y del Adiestramiento del Perro. También de James O'Heare, Tratado sobre la Agresividad canina. Tiene una visión hacia el perro muy natural y describe muy bien por qué ocurre la agresividad y cómo guiar ese comportamiento. De David Nieto os recomendamos Problemas con perros y perros con problemas, enfocado en los problemas más habituales del perro. De Roger Abrantes os súper recomendamos el Manual de Comportamiento Canino, una de las biblias del mundo del perro. Uno de nuestros libros favoritos: El choque de culturas, de Jean Donaldson. Debería ser uno de los libros de cabecera de cualquier amante de los perros. Hay un libro especial, basado a un experimento realizado para analizar la capacidad de aprendizaje y la relación entre el entorno y la respuesta del perro ante el entorno: Genios: los perros son más inteligentes de los que pensamos. Os hemos hablado de los libros que nos hemos encontrado en esta feria. Pero, por supuesto, si conoces alguno más, si quieres compartirlo, no lo dudes y déjalo en los comentarios para que todos lo podamos conocer! Si quieres más información sobre todos los cursos que tienes en la Academia Mascotas Urbanas y que te pueden ayudar con este y otros problemas basta con echar un vistazo en el directorio de cursos. También te invitamos a nuestro recién estrenado canal de Youtube en el que encontrarás vídeos prácticos, sencillos y con muchas curiosidades. ¡Y hasta aquí el programa de hoy! Como siempre, muchísimas gracias por vuestras valoraciones de 5 estrellas en iTunes, por vuestros me gusta y comentarios en iVoox, y por estar ahí al otro lado, escuchando con vuestro perrete cerca, para hacerle la vida más feliz, sana y equilibrada. Nos vemos en el próximo episodio. Hasta entonces… Muy buenos días ;D

Summary: Donna Hill has had a lifelong love affair with dogs and is fascinated with dog behavior. She has broad practical experience in the dog world, volunteering in working in kennels and shelters, dog sitting and walking, fostering rescue dogs, teaching behavior modification privately, and teaching reactive dog classes. She also has a background in zoology and teaching. She stays current in dog behavior in learning by regularly attending seminars by top trainers and researchers, however she is probably best known for her YouTube videos. She's active locally as co-founder and professional member of Vancouver Island Animal Training Association and the founder and instructor for the Service Dog Training Institute. With her own dogs and other pets Donna loves to apply learning theory to teach a wide variety of sports, games, tricks and other activities such as cycling and service dog tasks. She loves using shaping to get new behaviors. Her teaching skill is keeping the big picture in mind while using creativity to define the small steps to help the learner succeed. That is to say she is a splitter. Donna has competed in agility, flyball, and Rally-O and teaches people to train their own service dogs. Links Donna's Youtube channel - Supernatural BC 2008 Donna's Youtube channel - Supernatural BC 2009 20 Crate Rest Activities (Video) Service Dog Training Institute Website Next Episode:  To be released 10/5/2017, featuring Barbara Currier to talk about agility training and handling and I'll ask her about her work with Georgia Tech which is creating wearable computing devices for military search and rescue and service dogs. 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 Donna Hill. Donna has had a lifelong love affair with dogs and is fascinated with dog behavior. She has broad practical experience in the dog world, volunteering in working in kennels and shelters, dog sitting and walking, fostering rescue dogs, teaching behavior modification privately, and teaching reactive dog classes. She also has a background in zoology and teaching. She stays current in dog behavior in learning by regularly attending seminars by top trainers and researchers, however she is probably best known for her YouTube videos. I'll include a link to her YouTube channels in the shadows so listeners can check her out. She's active locally as co-founder and professional member of Vancouver Island Animal Training Association and the founder and instructor for the Service Dog Training Institute. With her own dogs and other pets Donna loves to apply learning theory to teach a wide variety of sports, games, tricks and other activities such as cycling and service dog tasks. She loves using shaping to get new behaviors. Her teaching skill is keeping the big picture in mind while using creativity to define the small steps to help the learner succeed. That is to say she is a splitter. Donna has competed in agility, flyball, and rally O and teaches people to train their own service dogs. Hi Donna welcome to the podcast. Donna Hill: Thanks for having me! Melissa Breau: I am looking forward to it. So to get us started out, do you want to just tell us a little bit about your dogs and what you're working on with them now? Donna Hill: Okay. Let's start with Jessie. She's my little German shepherd mix possibly min pin believe it or not. She's 10 1/2 right now and we got her at seven months old from the local city pound. She is doing a public presentation with me next week, so I'm actually currently acclimating her to the new location and we're practicing the known behaviors in the new environment. It's really important that I do this in particular with her, more so than just doing with any dog, because she has a really fearful nature and she needs a lot more support than say your typical dog, whatever that might be. So we tend to spend a lot more time in acclimating with her. My border collie/vizsla mix, Lucy, is actually nine years old today! “Happy Birthday Lucy!” Melissa Breau: Happy birthday! Donna Hill: Yeah! We're working on discriminating cues for sound alerts. Yesterday we were up at a campsite at a lake (that's not very far from our house) and we were working on discriminating a sound alert, which is a nudge behavior. She nudges her nose to my knee. Then the cue for it is actually a knock. I can knock on anything and that becomes the cue for her to run over to me and push her nose against my knee. So one of the discriminations that we have to do is to find my car! The car has a similar behavior in that I tell her “Go find car.” and she takes me to find the car and nose nudges or nose tap targets near the handle of the door.  Because they're so similar behaviors and especially if I'm standing close, she needs to learn what's the difference. Which one is she having to target depending on the cue? That was what we were doing in the distraction level of the campsite environment.  Actually, the other thing we're working on with her too, was working on a “Forward” cue which is using a mobility harness.  You teach the dog to actually put some pressure forward to help people with say knee issues or just balance issues. That forward momentum really helps people as they're moving forward, so we were also working on generalizing that as well. We like doing stuff from all over the map! (laughing) Melissa Breau: So I know you mentioned in your bio that you've kind of been involved, you've lived with dogs all your life, but how did you specifically get into training and dog sports a little bit, like how did that part start? Donna Hill: Okay. Well training started way back. I remember when I had a basset hound as a kid. I taught her to pull me on the toboggan and also run beside me on the bicycle. Now for a basset hound, that's not…neither one are very typical behaviors, (laughing) and they're not known to be particularly trainable, but I don't remember how I did it but I managed to do it. Especially sitting behind the dog and getting the dog to pull forward. I actually don't even remember how I did it. But she was doing it and it was great fun for me! (laughing) I was about ten I think when that happened.  I remember ticking my brother off when I was teaching his little lab cross to retrieve, and he was hoping to have her as a hunting dog (and I mean she was all of about 30 pounds, this little lab mix,) and instead of teaching her to come back and retrieve and sit on my side, I would actually sit cross-legged on the ground and she would come and sit in my lap. (laughing). So my brother was not very happy with me. And so for the more formal sport stuff, it sort of came later. I had a number of generations of dogs that we went through. My dachshund which I'll tell you about a little bit later, and then along came this amazing dog. He was a Dalmatian/springer mix and honest to goodness I think he was half-human! He was just an amazing dog and we had an instant bond! He was definitely MY dog and he was just so smart! You know, I would try things two and three times and by the third time he'd kind of look at me like “Really? I'm not stupid Mom! I got it.”  He was really, really quick. He'd pick behaviors up so fast! He was, you know, one of those dogs that makes you look really good as a trainer, so of course I thought I was a great trainer. (Laugh) Of course, looking back I go “Yeah! No! It was all Ollie. It wasn't me!” Well I guess some of it was me, but you know mostly it was him. He loved doing all kinds of stuff so we started with fly ball because that was one of the first dog sports that mixed breeds could actually participate in. The interesting thing was he didn't like retrieving! In my interpretation, he thought retrieving was for dumb dogs! So he was “No. We're not doing that!” but because we took it and he had to do it in order to be competitive (he was incredibly competitive), and he HAD to win against other dogs! So we used the competitive nature of the sport to teach him to retrieve and he was awesome! He was in the top levels, I forget the numbers whether it was one or five, but they had five different class levels according to speed and he was in the fastest category and he was really good. And if he sensed that another dog might potentially be beating him, he would just turn on the speed as much as he possibly could to make sure that he won! He was just that kind of dog. I've never had seen a dog like him. He was a lot of fun! He also had a really stylized high jump too, where he would like do this exaggerated jump about three feet high over an eighteen-inch jump. It's totally hilarious to watch him! So I started from there. That's kind of where we went. We put our golden at the time as well into flyball. She did really well, although she was slow. She was at the other end of the category she was the slowest category, but she was very consistent. Then from there, I just started dabbling in rally obedience because that popped up at the time. As more and more sports kind of came, that's where I started getting more involved. Not at a really high level… I like the training aspect more than I like the competing part and so for me the competition was more of a goal. You know, “Can we enter this?” or “Maybe I might think about doing that one day. Let's train towards that?” If we never actually compete, I don't care. It's all fun because I just like the training part of it. So that's kind of where that all came from. (laughing) Melissa Breau: At what point did you really start looking at positive training specifically? What got you started focusing on positive training? Donna Hill: Well I wasn't really aware that there were different kinds of training or different approaches to training. At home, we just sort of did our own thing. I actually never took any formal training classes until I was about fifteen and I had my little daxie mix. She was six months old. At the time you had to wait until the dog was six months old to take it to classes. And of course once we did, then we realized why. Because the classes were so punitive, the dog had to be six months of age or you'd actually break the spirit. So we dutifully took her. There'd been a change in our life. I had moved from the Midwest area of Canada to the West coast with my mom and dad, leaving three siblings behind in the city. So we also left the dog I told you about, my brother's dog, with him because he was old enough that he could stay there as well. Anyway, so Dad decided we were getting a new dog and he marched me off to this litter of dachshund puppies (unbeknownst to my mom). That was my classic dad who was constantly bringing dogs home without letting Mum know. (laughing) So with five kids, we always usually had at least two dogs around. Anyway, we got this little dog and marched her off to training class. We'd never ever taken any of our dogs to training class before, but we thought “Well, you know this is a new dog and the classes are new!” and okay. So we took her to this this class and let's just say that force- based behaviors and training didn't work with her independent nature. (laughing) She's got a really good oppositional reflex. (laughing) So after the end of class she graduated ninth out of twelve dogs for her, shall we say, lack of obedience! (laughing) She never did learn how to do a recall because I never figured out how to do it positively. So the ironic thing that I kind of looked at later though was at home I was able to teach her more than 35 tricks! and she did them enthusiastically and eagerly! and I was like “Okay this is really interesting! Hmmm. ” So that was her. You know, I just kind of dabbled and played and as I said I was a teen and I went off to university and we'd never had any problems with any of our other dogs, so I was like “Okay, what gives here?” So that started the ball rolling to kind of down the positive way. Then of course once I got my Ollie dog I told you about, my dog of a lifetime. He was a very sensitive boy and I realized that I could not use some harsh methods. We enrolled him in classes too. Some of the methods they were using were again, not so positive. (Sighing) One of the things I remember distinctly with him was a recall.  The teacher had us put him on a long line and if we called him and he didn't come, we were to back up and pop really hard twice on the long line and then just keep backing up until he came towards you and got to the point where you could grab his collar. And I did this all of twice. The second time, I looked at him and he was so much in a hurry to get to me the second time, that he crammed himself at me as soon as he knew that pop was coming, he ran as fast as he could and he crammed himself right against my legs (almost knocking me over in his effort to get to me). But I could see it was in fear. It wasn't that he wanted to come to me. It was that he was scared he was getting popped.  I thought “You know what? I can't do this to you!”His nature was that I just couldn't do that! and then I went, “You know what? We're not using that.” So we continued going to classes. I just chose not to use the methods that the instructor told us. I found other ways to go and then down the road we found a second level class which actually started using food. “Oh my God! They actually used food in training classes!” and from there I had him…He was a dyed-in-the-wool puller on leash, and to him, the leash was a cue to pull. That's exactly the way he saw it. So when we trained him using the food, heeling beside me without a leash, he was awesome because the leash was no longer the cue.  He was like, “Oh you want me to stay right beside you. No problem! This is cool!” And it used his brain, which is what he liked doing. So, it was just the whole shift at that point. I started going “Okay, let's use some more positive methods. I don't need to use punitive methods to communicate with my dogs and I never liked using it anyway.”  It just felt bad to me. But of course, you know you're young, you're impressionable and you're following the instructors because they supposedly know what they're talking about. I discovered on my own that you don't need to use that stuff. You can you can use lots of positive stuff and communicate with your dog. Tell them what you want to do before they're going to do it and they are happy to comply. They just want to do and be with you and do stuff with you! Melissa Breau: What about now? How would you describe your training philosophy today? Donna Hill: It's always evolving. I'm really eclectic and I take things from different disciplines. I'm really interested in the more cognitive aspects of training. I see dogs as being very thinking animals. I really like that part of them. To me that's how I develop the relationship so I look at how they problem solve and how they try and communicate. I really like the to “Do as I Do” philosophy or approach. Mimicry is something that I've always kind of played with, even with my current dogs that I have now. I notice that Lucy is really good about mimicking Jessie and I've actually used that to train her some behaviors. I really like the idea that dogs are able to use modifiers. So things like left and right, they can recognize colors by name, shapes. They can count. They can do so many more things than we ever dreamt of when I was a kid, that we never even thought of thinking! Do they do this? Can they do that? So that really is what intrigued me, so the more of the cognitive kind of stuff comes out and the neurological kind of stuff comes out, I just yum that right up and that's what I'm incorporating more and more into what I do. But basically, I see that they learn in the same way that humans do. In humans we learn in many, many different ways, so depending on the dog their predominant way of learning might be one way, and another dog might have a different way of learning. So I try and learn what those are and then cater to that the dog's needs using those. Melissa Breau: So I wanted to ask you a little more about the service dog work, that piece of what you do. How did you get started down that road? Donna Hill: Okay that's a great question! That actually started with Jessie my current dog when she was young and I still had my senior golden. Ollie had just passed away, but I was doing rally obedience with my golden and I decided that I was going to be using positive methods if I could at all with Jessie, and so I started with the clicker with her and she took to it really well. My golden took to it really well and I just started playing with it.  I had thought that my golden was actually ready to trial in rally obedience until I found Sue Ailsby's original “Training Levels Program”, and I worked right from scratch through that. It was actually exactly what I was looking for! I was looking for a structured program to help me learn how to clicker train and how to work with my dogs and learn all of the concepts behind it and it was perfect!So I just worked my senior dog through until she passed away and Jessie, of course I worked her right almost to the end of the level seven. We were about halfway through level seven.  Because of Jesse's level of fears we weren't able to actually get some of the generalized stuff out there, but we were able to get a lot of them done and so I started to doing that. Then once I started playing around with teaching her just tasks, just for fun, I mean that's how it started, it was like “Oh! Let's train her to shut the door and open the door and you know do this kind of stuff.” Once I realized how easy it was and how ANYBODY could do it because the click is really the communication. You didn't need to have a force. You didn't need to have strength. You didn't have to use your lowered voice that we were always taught in class. Anybody could use it, right? I thought “Well! Wow this is really cool! This could be applied towards training service dogs.” and that's actually when I started my YouTube channel.  I thought “I got to get this out there so that other people can see how easy it is and they can train their own service dog.” Service dog training to me was always a mystery and it was really fascinating! I'd grown up around people that had guide dogs and a lot of people with disabilities and I really didn't know how to train them or how that I could help other people with disabilities, so when everything… all the dots fell in line, I went, “Oh cool! I can do this and I can get out there and I can help other people. This is so awesome!” (laughing) So that's my mantra. I really like helping people and that's my “AHA” moment when someone gets something because I was able to explain it to them, that's my reinforcer. That's what keeps me going every day. I see someone going “Yes, I got it!” and I'm thinking “Yes. That's me. Woohoo! I helped someone do that.” I also love my feedback. Yeah. (laughing) Melissa Breau: That's awesome. So you do a lot of different types of training right, so I imagine the stuff like behavior modification of the service dog stuff is very different from the reactive dog classes you offer, and I wanted to see how having experience at those different ends of the spectrum has really influenced your training overall. Donna Hill: -I am a big picture kind of person. I like seeing the big picture at the end -what is the final goal that I'm going to do? I like to see where the animal is starting and then the puzzle for me is figuring out how to get there. You know, what is the little roadmap, the little steps and whether it's ten steps or a hundred steps is going to get me from the beginning to the end. Sometimes, of course, along the way you're thrown in a fear period in the service dog, or you know just a regular pet dog as well. Sometimes there's aggression issues come up because some trauma happened to the dog. So those kinds of things definitely throw a wrench in it, but again it's all part of that big picture. So if I have those little pieces that I can pull together and realize this is where the dog is at this particular point, instead of going along my nice little line of a map or my plan. Of course, as you know dog training is never a linear progression. It always goes all over the place. It's like the piece of string that somebody drops on the floor. When we hit one of those parts or one of those events then I know, “Ah, okay! Time for lateral training!” or “Time for stepping right out of the training altogether, going back and doing some really basic stuff where there's desensitization or counter conditioning or operant training to help the dog overcome whatever that thing is” before we can continue on with my linear training that I have planned out on paper or in my head depending on what it is that we're working on. I think in that way, it really gives me flexibility to be able to jump wherever I need to jump because it's the dog that's sitting right in front of me and that's where they're at and that's what we need to deal with. Melissa Breau: I want to talk a little bit about the YouTube videos. I know one of the ones that I see come up all the time and get shared all the time in different Facebook groups, I've even posted, I saw a couple of times is the video you have on tricks you can teach a dog that's on crate rest. Do you mind just talking a little bit about that, and for those listening I will share a link directly to that video in the show notes if you don't want to go searching for it. But yeah, if you could talk about that Donna. Donna Hill: Okay when making my YouTube videos, I tend to look for trends so I look at what is already out there and I look at what's missing and that was one of the pieces that I found missing. I was noticing that there seemed to be a lot of people out there whose dogs were having cruciate ligament issues or just issues that really confine them to a crate for long periods of time, and that can be really hard to deal with for a lot of people. So I thought oh, well there's a hole. You know there's no one has ever shown what kinds of things you can do with a dog that's on crate rest because most of the stuff that's out there is very active- oriented right? So that's just kind of where that came from was, you know there's a need and I try and fill it. Again it's me trying to help people learn what they can do with their dogs. Melissa Breau: So I know one of the big things that you know your classes seem to have in common, is an emphasis on observation skills and I know even in your bio on the actual FDSA site you kind of mentioned that, so I wanted to ask why being able to watch your dog and accurately read their body language is so important, and to ask you to talk a little bit about the role that doing that plays in training. Donna Hill: Okay. Well I think observation skills has been a hugely underplayed skill in training dogs until fairly recently. It's absolutely key to be able to SEE the behaviors, because if you can't see them then you have no idea how to interpret what the dog is doing. So if you're not seeing some subtle stuff and you just see your dog going along, you may think “Oh well, the dog's doing fine!” when in fact actually there are some really subtle behaviors that are telling the dog is not so fine. There's some you know, there's subtle stuff going on and of course subtle stuff usually escalates if it's not dealt with. So by learning the really subtle stuff you can get in there early on and the dog doesn't have to get to the level of stress where it's really obvious so that you can deal with it and then that helps them in actually learning. One of the other reasons that I do have such a heavy emphasis on that is because my previous career, I was a nature interpreter, or a “naturalist” most people call it, and what a naturalist does is teaches people how to observe nature. So I had a long history of teaching people about how to observe, mostly it was nature so animals, plants, things like that, you know watching the birds, that kind of stuff. But it's just a natural translation to watching dogs because dogs are part of nature in my view. You know they're animals.  They have behaviors and I've always been fascinated with their behaviors so it just seemed a natural extension to me to say “Okay. Let's start teaching people about observation skills!” “Let's look at the dog, what behaviors are we seeing, you know and how does that relate to training and how does that impact training? What information can they give us? So are they relaxed and able to learn? Are they excited about what we're doing with them? Are they frustrated? Are they making mistakes or are they stressed about something in the environment?”  By observing them and in context, and that's a big piece of it is what's happening in the context around the dog, that combination allows us to interpret what's happening for the dog. So knowing that helps us to adjust the pace of training, how far we need to break down what we're doing to help them to succeed. Or maybe the dog's just zooming right through and we can make the steps bigger to add more of a challenge for that particular dog. So yeah, so it really affects training in a big way and I am so thrilled that we're seeing now more and more, particularly on Facebook, people incorporating videotapes of dogs and saying, “Oh you know, have a look! What behaviors do you see?” That's such a critical skill which is separate from the interpretation part of it, where then we kind of try and make our best guess about what is going on for the dog. But without those observation skills we wouldn't even be able to see or make good interpretations anyway. So it's a really important part of it. Melissa Breau: So I want to dive a little bit further into your classes at FDSA. So I know that for those listening this will air I think during registration for October. I think it opens the 22nd, so I think this will be after that I hope I'm not lying. Anyway, so I know that you have two classes coming up in October. One is The Body Awareness For Competition Precision Behaviors, and the other is The Elusive Hand-Delivered Retrieve. I want to start with the body awareness class. Why is body awareness an important skill for a competition dogs? Donna Hill: Well knowing where their body is in space and how to move it is what makes the difference between a performance that's amazing to watch and one that's sloppy. Most dogs don't have much clue that they even have a back end. Their front end walks along and they might have some sort of awareness, you know their nose, their muzzle certainly, their front paws, they're really useful for digging at things and touching things. But the vast majority of dogs have no clue that they have a back end and it just sort of follows along, you know the front left foot comes forward and then the back right foot comes forward and they just kind of do this opposition as they walk. But they're not really that aware. But once we start teaching them that yes, not only do they have a front end, they also have a back end and they also have hips and they also have shoulders and they have chest, and they can move each piece of that body separately, that really starts putting it together for them. So you get, you get a gawky kid right? They know they're a gawky kid. They're not that coordinated. Once they start to isolate each one of their body parts, so they work on their hands, and they work on their head, and they work on their feet, and they work on their body core and how to move that, once they have individual knowledge of all of those, then the whole package comes together and they move much better as a whole package, and they become much more graceful. And so just like dogs, they become more graceful athletes who perform with speed, precision and confidence. So that's kind of the fundamental idea behind the body awareness classes. Melissa Breau: And for people listening I did double check while Donna was answering that. Registration is currently open when you hear this. So, it opened last week so you can go to the site and register if you are so inclined. So Donna how do you approach teaching body awareness in the class itself? Donna Hill: Okay, well I just break it down into the separate parts of the body. So we're looking at some specific behaviors. One is a chin rest which also translates to a whole bunch of other behaviors like a chin rest can be turned into teaching a hold for a retrieve. It can be taught for a placement of the retrieve where the dog comes back and delivers it to you, and most of the behaviors do translate into other into specific behaviors for competition, but which is why I've chosen them. Muzzle pokes are another thing so the dog is very aware of where they're putting their muzzle so they can poke it through your fingers, they can poke it through a hoop, they can poke it into a yogurt container- those kinds of things and are comfortable doing so, which also gives them more confidence. Like Jessie for example did not like putting her head into anything, so one of the easiest ways I found was actually to use the yogurt containers, and just put some yogurt in the bottom and she would stick her head happily in at the bottom to lick it up. That really built up confidence of facial awareness and you know that kind of stuff. So that's the kind of stuff we're going to be doing in class. Shoulder, hip, and chest targets, and the other thing we're also going to look at is how to fine tune balance. So if we can get them on like a balance beam and actually teach them how to how to place their feet so that they're not falling off or they're not having to use one foot on the ground and three feet on the balance beam, so that they gain confidence in actually balancing. And that was the one thing with both of my dogs that I really found helped was to build that confidence on narrow surfaces. That in turn of course, once they can do it on a narrow surface while walking on a regular surface and actually moving with precision is much, much easier. In the class, we use the success of approximation and shaping to get the behaviors. Melissa Breau: Very nice. Well I want to also talk about the retrieve class a little bit. I know that's something a lot of people struggle with. Why do you think so many people have a hard time teaching retrieves? Donna Hill: I think most people have an expectation that the dog would just do it, because there's a lot of breeds like the retriever breeds, goldens, labs, flat coats, that have a natural retrieve and look so easy. They make it look so easy because it's bred into them. But what they don't realize is that most dogs that does not come naturally. There's a series, a chain of events, that they do called motor patterns, and the retrieve doesn't really fit in there because most dogs end the motor pattern with either a bite or a consume. Well most dogs don't consume, but some will certainly do a grab bite at the very end. That does not involve picking it up and carrying it anywhere or bringing it back to a person. So what the mistake they make is they toss the ball out, and the dog of course will happily chase it because chasing is part of the prey drive, and then the dog often will lose interest because once the ball stops moving, it's like “Oh yeah. Okay. Whatever.” and they can't do anything with it. So they either drop it and walk away from it or maybe they'll carry it away and play with it, but they certainly won't bring it back. The most common error I found is that people don't break it down into the smaller skills the retrieve chain is made up of. It's actually at least six individual skills that are involved in teaching a behavior chain of the retrieve. If people go back and teach the dog each one of those little pieces, then they put the pieces together in a behavior chain, then they can get it right. The other element as I also will back chain it. That means that we start at the very end of the chain so that the dog is always working towards something that they know, i.e. putting the object in your hand or delivering the object to your lap or wherever it is that you want it at your feet. We start at that point, and then we back up so that eventually the dog is always understanding, “Uh! I have to deliver it at that location, and that's where it has to be. That finishes the chain. That gets me the reinforce.” and it becomes much easier for them to succeed. So the key thing is breaking them down into the small pieces and then back chaining it. For example, if you need teach a dog to pick up a dime off a smooth floor, you have to train it right? A dog can't just automatically do it. There's a lot of even finer things that go into that. They need to learn how to use their heads and their mouth, to tilt their head and use their mouth and their tongues to pick up the object, and also to place it precisely. Both of my dogs can take a quarter and place it into a narrow slot, like a piggy bank. That takes a lot of skill to learn. They have to really refine the skills down step by step by step in order to get to that level of accuracy. It's really interesting to watch the process and to teach them and some of them do it better than others. Jesse is really, really into the fine-tuning behaviors. That's her specialty. She loves really fine behaviors, whereas for Lucy it's “Let's just get it done mom and throw that behavior together!” so for her it was much more of a challenge for me to get her down to that point of taking the quarter and putting in that slot because she really had to get patient and be very careful and be very calm while she does it. She also is very food motivated, so she gets excited about food really easily. So my big challenge with her was learning to keep her calm, which is always another piece of the element for retrieve as well. But each dog does it in their own way. Melissa Breau: So it sounds like the class would be good for people who are both interested in like a play retrieve with a toy, and more formal retrieve, right? Donna Hill: Yeah absolutely. A retrieve is a retrieve no matter what kind of sport or environment that you're doing it in. It could be for a sport dog. It could be for a competition dog. It could be for a service dog or it could be for a play dog. So the class really covers the gamut and it was originally designed for…Denise suggested that I design it as a problem solving class. So whatever your problems are, I'm hoping that it covers the main problems. So you know if your dog rolls a dumbbell, or whether it drops it, or whether it's over excited, I try and cover all of the super common problem areas and then if the goals in particular have additional problems, that's what they're at gold for so that we can actually fine tune it and say, okay you know the dog does well until this point. Let's deal with that point and how do we fix that piece, or maybe we need to go back and retrain something prior to that piece so that when we get to that piece, it just becomes part of the chain and it just flows through and it's no longer an issue. Melissa Breau: You talked a little bit in there kind of about your approach to teaching it, but is there more you want to say about that, about kind of how you approach the class? Donna Hill: Basically it's a combination of shaping each part of the chain and then back chaining the parts together. That in a nutshell, that's kind of a summary. The dog always works towards something that's more familiar because we've already practiced that end piece lots and lots of times, and the more repetitions we do, the more practice so the stronger they get in coming towards it. So I don't know how many people have been asked to memorize poems, but when I was a kid we had to memorize poems for school, and one of the techniques we were taught was actually back chaining even though they didn't call it that. What we would do is say we had ten verses in the poem or even songs. What we would do is actually start with the last verse or the last piece of it, and we would memorize that. And then we would go to the second last one, and the last one, and then the third last one, the second last one, and then the last one. And what that allowed us to do, was as we would progress through the recitation, we actually got more confident because we've had more practice with the end one. What often happens is when we forward chain, we start at the beginning. We got a really solid start and then we sort of peter out near the end because we don't have as much practice near the end. Freestyle is another place that we can actually apply that as well but it works really well for a retrieve. Melissa Breau: Now I know you've got one more class on the schedule, this time for December, and I wanted to talk about that too. So it's called Creativity With Cue Concepts. So talk me through that. What do you cover in that class? Donna Hill: We break the various parts of cues into smaller components. That allows us to look at how we use the cues and what our dogs need from us to succeed in using them to do the behaviors that we want them to do. So the kinds of things we're looking at are the cues themselves. What are they? The kinds of cues. There's verbal. There's physical. There's environmental. Then we look at the delivery or the response to cues for something called latency which is the time between when the cue is given and when the dog starts responding to it. The speed of the response, so how fast is the dog walking towards you? Is it running towards you once you give the cue? Things like what is a concept and how do we generalize cues as a concept so that the dog understands that this specific sound means to do this behavior in any environment no matter where you are. That is a concept. Discrimination between cues, so I was telling you what I was doing with Lucy was we were discriminating between competing cues because she had the car that she nose targeted and she had my knee and we had two different cues that were used.  One was a sound and one was a verbal cue. So she had to discriminate between those. How do you start teaching that because that's really confusing for a lot of dogs, especially dogs that like to just throw behaviors at you, the ones that like being shaped. I really like this class because the students get to choose the behaviors that they want to apply the concept to. So there isn't any prescribed behaviors that they have to work on. They can pick whatever sport that they're working on. “I'm in agility and I want the dog to understand the cue for this and this obstacle. It just makes it easier when I'm sending them out.” So let's work on that and we apply the concept for the cues in the class to that particular sport, and you can do that with any sport. You can do it with service dogs. It doesn't matter what it is you're training. I really like it because I get to see a wide variety of behaviors from different sports and from different activities with the dogs. It's a really fun class to watch as well as a bronze, but it's even more fun as a gold student because you just get to go wherever you want to go with it. If you want to spend the entire class on one concept, you can do that too. It's entirely up to you. I'm flexible. Melissa Breau: That's really interesting it's kind of a very different class than a lot of the other classes on the schedule and… Donna Hill: It is! and you know it for me, it just came together so quickly when I originally developed it! I was just astounded! I thought “This is what we're doing. We're da da da da.” I explained it and then thought “Oh my goodness! This is so much easier than the rest of the classes where I've had to go through step by step by step.”  Whereas this class, it's more conceptual. Once you get the concept, then you can go to the detail. But you want to get that concept first and then get into the detail that's, hence the class name. Melissa Breau: So I want to get into those last three questions that I ask everyone at the end of the interview and the first one is what is the dog related accomplishment that you're proudest of? Donna Hill: I would have to say, it's probably two if I'm allowed two. One is developing a great training relationship with each of my dogs. Because I'm a process-oriented person rather than results, I feel that the results come if the process is good. They and I could train all day and I mean I love it! I really love it! When I had Jessie by herself for a couple of years, I consulted a certified Karen Pryor trainer that was the only one on the island at the time where I live, and she said to me, she goes, “Donna you have to get a second dog.” (laughing)  She said “You are loving training too much.” Seriously, I was overtraining Jessie. I was really careful to try not to, and she's a really sensitive dog, but I just love training so much I just couldn't help myself. I wanted to do so many things! We always had plans for a second dog anyway, so we went out and we got our second dog. It was a bit of a process. We finally found Lucy and I she is so amazing. She is a driven dog and she would work with me all day, honest to goodness. She loves working. She's a really fun dog to train. She throws behaviors at me. She loves shaping. She's a fantastic dog! So as a second dog she's a fantastic dog, because it really took the pressure off Jessie who is a really sensitive dog, and they are a really good combination because you know if I need more training I just take Lucy out and away we go. So that's the first is developing a great relationship with them. The second part that I'm really proud of is the You Tube channels. So many people can learn so much on the You Tube channels. It's a really great way or venue to put the information out there and reach a lot of people. It was a bonus for me because one of the main reasons I actually started it as well, or I guess the second main reason, was because I was terrified of being videotaped and I wanted to get over that fear and I thought well if I put these videos together, I have control over the process, so if I videotape myself and I hate what I see, I don't have to include it. And it's really has given me a lot of confidence now. Seriously, when I was at my wedding, I actually banned videotapes and video cameras because I did not want the added stress of being videotaped. (laughing) So yeah, so now I've mostly overcome it. I'm still nervous, but nowhere near the level of nervousness. It's funny because Denise just recently suggested that videotaping yourself really adds that sort of a fake environment of adding extra pressure to yourself, like practicing for a competition, right? Videotaping yourself is a good start to it, because it adds that little bit of pressure. You know someone's watching and she's absolutely right! That's what I would totally feel and I still feel that that to this day. When I go out and about in public, I still feel like people are watching me. I still feel that pressure of people around watching which in public actually is interesting. I am more nervous in general public just working my dog one on one doing my own thing, than I am in front of a group simply because I think I have more control in the group. Because usually when I'm working with the group, I'm the one leading the group. I'm the speaker. So then I control the rest of it and I'm a real control freak when it comes to that. So if I'm in control, that changes everything. But when I'm not in control, then that makes me really nervous. So a teaching role is a really good role for me because I feel like I'm in control and yet I can still let the students do their thing, but it takes the pressure off me. So those are the those are two things I am proud of, developing a great training relationship and my two YouTube channels. Melissa Breau: So this is normally my favorite question of the entire interview and that is what is the best piece of training advice that you've ever heard? Donna Hill: Not specifically training related although it totally is relevant. Many years ago, I think I was about twelve or thirteen, my older brother who's quite a bit older than I am. I'm the youngest of five kids and there's a bit of a gap between me and the previous four and I'm also the youngest of three girls and back then it was the old hope chest. I don't if you'd remember what those, were but they were kind of the hope for the future when you get married. There's things you started collecting in preparation for that. Kind of an old-fashioned concept I know, but whatever, that's my family. Anyway, so many years ago when I was about twelve or thirteen, he gave me this little trivet, which is like basically a hot plate that you can put a pot on the stove and stuff on the counter. It's just this little metal thing and it had a picture of a little yellow tacky caterpillar on it. But it had a little quote on it, and the quote said, “Yard by yard, life is hard. Inch by inch, it's a cinch!” For some reason it really struck me and I have really taken that to heart and I've applied that to almost everything I do in life. When I'm faced with something hard, I know it's not this big thing. I can break it down into smaller pieces and we can get through it step by step by step, and ultimately get the final goal that I want. And of course dog training is EXACTLY that. It's all about these teeny tiny little pieces that get you to that final goal. That final behavior, the competition, whatever it is that's at the end. So I take that and apply it in many different ways in my life, and training certainly. Melissa Breau: And that's great I like that so much. It's such a great kind of line to kind of remember, you know. Donna Hill: It's an easy one. Yeah, it's everywhere and I've told so many people, that my husband actually this morning when I was talking about that, I thought, oh I bet she's going to ask this question. And he said you know, I remember when you told me that. He said we were back in university and I was helping him with his writing projects, and he said “I remember you telling me that. Break everything down. It was the yard by yard, life is hard, inch by inch it's a cinch.” So and that was probably about thirty years ago he remembers that from. Melissa Breau: (Laughs) It's clearly a memorable line. Donna Hill: Yeah. (Laughs) Melissa Breau: So my last question for you today. Who is someone else in the dog world that you look up to? Donna Hill: I can't say one person! I have to say there's lots of them. I'm a real eclectic learner, and so again back to that real variety of learning styles, so everybody from Karen Pryor, Bob Bailey, Suzanne Clothier, Turid Rugaas, Denise Fenzi of course, Leslie McDevitt, Susan Friedman, Raymond Coppinger, and Jean Donaldson, Sue Ailsby. I take a little piece of something from a lot of the better trainers that are out there. Just things that really appeal to me and I incorporate them, and I try them. It's all over the map and I think that comes back from my zoology background and just the general interest in animal behavior, because I do see it. It's not just one way or the other way of doing it. There's a whole variety. Some of the new researchers that are coming out are really affecting me too. A lot of the cognitive instructors, half of them I can't pronounce their names. I take the information that they've got and they're just fantastic. So there's tons and tons of not only trainers, but also researchers out there that I really appreciate their contributions so that I can take what I need and put it all together to create something that works for me and for the students that I work with. Melissa Breau: That's awesome. Well thank you so much for coming on the podcast, Donna. Donna Hill: Well thank you for having me! This has been a lot of fun. I really enjoyed it! Melissa Breau: That's excellent and thank you to all of our listeners for tuning in. We'll be back next week with Barbara Currier to talk about agility training and handling and I'll ask her about her work with Georgia Tech which is creating wearable computing devices for military search and rescue and service dogs. Don't miss it. If you haven't already subscribed 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 and transcription written by CLK Transcription Services.

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

Nathalie Mosbach Smith is the talented co-founder of the popular Facebook group, Dog Connect SF Bay Area in San Francisco and owns The Dog Hikers, a dog hiking service, serving parts of the South Bay / Silicon Valley areas of San Francisco Bay. Nathalie shares her interesting life journey, her many interests, the sad story of her foster dog Belle, and the bucket list for her dog Chewie. Resources Nathalie's dog hiking service, The Dog Hikers http://thedoghikers.com Facebook Page https://www.facebook.com/TheDogHikers Nathalie's dog training business, K9 Consultant http://www.k9consultant.co Facebook Page https://www.facebook.com/K9Consultant Nathalie's photography venture, PawDOGraphy http://www.pawdography.com Facebook Page https://www.facebook.com/PawDOGraphy/?fref=ts Dog Connect SF Bay Area, with group with a focus on Positive Reinforcement training and rescue http://dogconnectsf.com Facebook Group https://www.facebook.com/groups/DogConnect Beyond Companions is the general landing page for Nathalie Mosbach Smith's various projects http://www.beyondcompanions.com BSL stands for breed specific legislation, often to regulate, restrict, or ban certain dog breeds. Jean Donaldson is the dog trainer who trained Nathalie. https://academyfordogtrainers.com Maureen Backman, co-founder of Dog Connect SF Bay Area, is focused on her Muzzle Up! Project. https://muzzleupproject.com Chewie died in March 2016 after his battle with Hemangiosarcoma http://www.wearethecure.org/hemangiosarcoma / / All of Pawprint's music is composed by Luke Gartner-Brereton. Luke is a musician based in Australia, and he composes a wide variety of songs and musical loops http://vanillagroovestudios.com http://soundcloud.com/luke-gartnerbrereton If you want to learn more about Nancy and Harold, go to our About Us page at thisispawprint.com/about or listen to our introductory podcast episode, "Fifty Puppies and a Podcast." http://thisispawprint.com/000 Pawprint (or Paw Print) is a weekly podcast dedicated to animal rescue, adoption, and the heroes who make it happen. Volunteer, adopt, or foster a dog, cat, rabbit, or other wonderful pet through your local shelter, humane society, SPCA, pound, and animal control. Increase protection, welfare, and rights. http://thisispawprint.com  

Shock collars are inherently inhumane and potentially traumatizing devices used to illicit specific reactions from dogs. For a long time, their use was supported by trainers and veterinarians. But science and the massive combined experience of top trainers have shown them for what they really are – and revealed more effective, humane methods of training. The Ban Shock Collars movement was introduced to you in an episode last season, but there are some pretty exciting updates to share – not the least of which is that their ePetition is the first to be formally recognized in Canadian history. Any Canadian resident can sign this petition and you just need to follow the links on this week’s blog or hit up banshockcollars.ca to find it. The group has also gained the support of Olympic figure skater Meagan Duhamel and iconic Canadian environmentalist and activist David Suzuki. On this week’s episode, we’re talking with Ban Shock Collars.ca spokesperson Lucas Solowey about the movement, the petition, and why Canadians need to get involved. We’re also hearing from renowned dog behavior expert, trainer, and best-selling author Jean Donaldson, about the pitfalls of shock collars and what alternatives exist.

Millions of our homes – at least half of all those in Canada – are shared with a four-legged friend. As a nation we spend billions of dollars on our pets, and most of us consider our larger pets – dogs and cats – to be members of the family. Despite this, there are a lot of gaps in legislation protecting our pets, including how we train them. One highly controversial method of dog training includes e-collars, more commonly known as shock collars. Though there is no existing legislation or even consensus among retailers and trainers, there is strong opposition to the use of shock collars from some heavy hitters – and this week we got to hear what they had to say. The couple behind BanShockCollars.ca, Gwendy and Alfie Williams (new partners of the LUSH Charity Pot program), joined us to share their tale of discovery about these devices, as well as what they’ve done in recent years to try and advocate against the use of shock collars. We were also fortunate to hear from renowned trainer, behaviourist and best-selling author Jean Donaldson, who shared her views on the evolution of dog training and the modern use of aversive devices.

The news – be it online, radio, television or print – can influence the world. One great photograph can show the heartbreak of a family and one well-written verse can bring down political empires. But most of the time, the news is just that – news. It’s the gathering and presenting of fact and opinion to the masses. Then there are the times in between, when the news is influencing policymakers and the public in a nearly imperceptible manner. And that’s what we’re focusing on with our two guests this week. We’ll first hear from celebrated author, trainer and dog behaviour expert Jean Donaldson, who joined the show to talk about how the media got it wrong in a recent human-dog conflict in Hamilton, and why the term ‘pit bull’ can bring up such dread in the masses – and excitement in reporters. Then we’re joined by our friend Sheryl Fink from the International Fund for Animal Welfare for an update on how a single piece of paper found by a media outlet brought down the government’s entire argument for supporting the cull of grey seals on our east coast.

If you've paid attention to anything beyond the pages of paleo desserts on this website you won't be surprised that we've brought on another dog trainer to the Paleo Treats Podcast.  The folks who are good, really good, at communicating with dogs HAVE to be in pursuit of excellence; they've developed skills the rest of us don't even know we have!   This episode with Jean Donaldson draws on her experiences with training dogs, and training dog trainers for over 15 years and specializing in aggressive dog cases at The Academy for Dog Trainers.  Jean's degree is in comparative psychology and she is one of the world leaders in understanding how dogs think and how we can attempt to understand them.   If you're still smacking your dog for pissing on the floor while you work in a cubicle for 8 hours, A) you're a savage, and B) Jean may have some advice for you that'll make both of you feel a lot better.      Our sponsor for today's show is Real Roar, a local shop here in San Diego that offers raw food for your dogs & cats.  We're strong proponents of healthy food for all species, and when it comes to our dogs we make sure they eat what they were designed to; raw carcasses full of bones, meat, and chewy tendons.  We get the food for our dogs (Birdie, Norton, and Marvel) at Real Roar and if you'd like to learn more about 'em or pick up a case of pork neck bones for your dog and make their day, head on over to www.realroar.com   Enjoy the show, and don't forget to leave us a review on iTunes!   Cheers,   Nik      

They are our best friends, our family and our own personal heroes. Dogs have become an everyday part of life for millions of Canadians – from sharing our homes and time to our pillows and hearts. With so many people profiting from this companionship and our quest to perfect the relationships between ourselves and our pets, there’s sure to be some bad eggs – little dogs with big barks, as it were. And then, there are those who rely on modern science, coupled with compassion, to find the truth about dogs – and how we can live fulfilling lives for both us and our canine companions. One such modern saviour of dog lovers is Jean Donaldson. Born in Montreal, has become known as a pre-emptive authority on dog training and behaviour through her ongoing study and growth both the practice and science of her trade. Jean joined Defender Radio for a special, 50-minute interview to talk dogs, the evolution of behaviour models from B.F. Skinner to Walt Disney and beyond, breaking through the media hype of certain celebrity trainers, and even took time to answer questions from our listeners and supporters.

While I have learned a great deal from books by Karen Pryor, Jean Donaldson, John Bradshaw, and many others, my greatest education in dogs and dog training came from teachers much lower to the ground. My dogs have taught me the most important things about training and dog behaviour. I wasn't always the best student, but their patience has helped me learn some of the most important lessons of all!

Have you heard about positive training but aren’t sure what it is or how to get started? Well, I can give you a road map to success with four great books to get you on your way! These four books cover different aspects of a positive approach to training and living with our dogs: Don’t Shoot the Dog by Karen Pryor, The Culture Clash by Jean Donaldson, The Other End of the Leash by Patricia McConnell, and How Dogs Learn by Burch & Bailey.. Questions or Comments? Send them to: eric@petliferadio.com More details on this episode MP3 Podcast - Learn Positive Dog Training on Pet Life Radio

August 2, 2011 Many years ago a revolution was declared in the dog world. 'The Culture Clash', by Jean Donaldson, spoke out in favour of dogs as adaptable, and yes - perfectly normal, not the misfits we were led to believe they were. Just because dogs bark and chew, sniff and dig, doesn't mean they should be given a bad name. Jean's name has always been synonymous with the best and most practical advice on all things dog-related. Common-sense and understanding Nowadays this attitude is still as fresh as ever, and I asked Jean about her views on dog training, what makes a dog dangerous, why training with food is not the devil's work, and how we can make dog ownership as easy as teaching a down stay... For full show notes visit: www.intellidogs.com/category/podcast/ Contact: Karen Wild on twitter.com/wildpaw Jon Buscall www.twitter.com/jonbuscall