Podcasts about professional dog trainers apdt

Are you struggling to understand a dog's anxious or reactive behavior? Fanna Easter, owner of Positive Pooch Behavior, dives into the nuances of canine anxiety, distinguishing between general anxiousness and separation anxiety. Fanna emphasized the importance of addressing the root causes rather than just managing symptoms, highlighting the role of pet sitters in observing and responsibly handling these behaviors. She also discussed the critical nature of professional collaboration between pet sitters and behavior consultants to ensure the best outcomes for pets. This insightful conversation provides essential strategies and knowledge for pet care professionals aiming to improve their understanding and management of complex canine behaviors. Main topics: Differentiating Anxiety and Fear Managing Pet Owner Expectations Role of Pet Sitters Behavioral Interventions and Techniques Professional Collaboration and Education Main takeaway: Dogs should have choices. It's not fair to put them in situations where they feel trapped. Letting them choose can make a world of difference in their behavior. About our guest: Fanna Easter, a passionate advocate for positive and effective dog training, brings over 20 years of experience to her role as a professional dog trainer and behavior consultant. As the founder of Positive Pooch Training & Behavior, Fanna is committed to fostering harmonious relationships between pets and their owners through science-based, fear-free training methods. She holds a prestigious CPDT-KA certification and is a recognized member of the Association of Professional Dog Trainers (APDT). Fanna's expertise is not only in addressing common behavioral challenges but also in specialized areas such as aggression and anxiety. Her approach is always tailored to meet the unique needs of each pet and their family, ensuring a compassionate, comprehensive, and effective training plan. In addition to her training services, Fanna is a dedicated educator, offering a wealth of resources through workshops, seminars, and online content to help pet owners understand and effectively shape their dogs' behavior. Whether it's through one-on-one sessions, group classes, or her insightful articles, Fanna's commitment to the well-being of dogs and the education of their owners shines through. Her work is driven by a deep belief in the transformative power of positive reinforcement and a commitment to creating lasting positive changes in the lives of pets and their families. Links: Email: fannae@yahoo.com https://www.facebook.com/fanna.easter https://www.facebook.com/positivepooch https://positivepooch.net https://positivepooch.net/e-courses/ https://iaabc.org https://www.ccpdt.org Give us a call! (636) 364-8260  Follow us on: Instagram, Facebook, Twitter Email us at: feedback@petsitterconfessional.com Full show notes and transcript   Sponsored by: ❤️ Our AMAZING Patreon Supporters Time to Pet Visit: https://timetopet.com/confessional Code: 50% off first 3 months  Pet Perennials Visit: https://petperennials.com/pages/register-for-a-business-account Code: 'PSC' when registering for a $2 off coupon on any purchases in the 1st 90 days

In honor of valentines day, certified professional dog trainer Irith Bloom is back to help those of you whose dogs may be buzz- killing your relationship. We chat about what to do if your dog gets anxious or ancy every time you even go in for a hug  with your significant other.  We also chat how to introduce your dog to your new love interest, how to introduce your dog to a new love interest's dog, and even how to introduce your dog to a new love interest's cat!  Don't worry, we also touch on how our  pups can improve our relationships! Irith is a CPDT-KSA, a CBCC-KA, a CDBC, a KPA CTP, a VSPDT, and a CBATI. She is also faculty at both Victoria Stilwell Dog Training Academy and DogBiz's Dog Walking Academy, and she's certified in TAGteach, a positive reinforcement method for teaching humans. She is on the board of the Certification Council for Professional Dog Trainers (CCPDT), and Chair Emeritus of the Education Committee of the Association of Professional Dog Trainers (APDT).Support the show If you are enjoying The Baroo Podcast you can now support the show by buying me a coffee. Shop the podcast: https://www.thebaroo.com/shop-podFollow The Baroo:Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/baroopodcast/Blog- https://www.thebaroo.com/Facebook- https://www.facebook.com/baroopet/ Pet parent question or story of canine companionship to share ? Email charlotte@thebaroo.com or call 424-273-5131. *This podcast is for informational purposes only, even if, and regardless of whether it features the advice of veterinarians or professional dog trainers. It is not, nor is it intended to be a substitute for professional veterinary care or personalized canine behavior advice and should not be used as so. The views expressed in this podcast are solely those of the podcast author or the individual views of those participating in the podcast.

Discover the truth behind "small dog syndrome" with esteemed professional dog trainer Irith Bloom .  Irith joins me to debunk the myths surrounding our diminutive canine companions. Excessive barking? Indoor marking? It's time to understand what's really going on with your pint-sized pooch. From dissecting the peculiarities of their bathroom habits to addressing behavior misconceptions, this episode promises to transform your perspective on the unique needs of small dogs . Spoiler alert: It's all about fostering a nurturing relationship that respects your dog's individuality while ensuring they're well-equipped to navigate the world around them. Irith is a CPDT-KSA, a CBCC-KA, a CDBC, a KPA CTP, a VSPDT, and a CBATI. She is also faculty at both Victoria Stilwell Dog Training Academy and DogBiz's Dog Walking Academy,and she's certified in TAGteach, a positive reinforcement method for teaching humans. She is on the board of the Certification Council for Professional Dog Trainers (CCPDT), and Chair Emeritus of the Education Committee of the Association of Professional Dog Trainers (APDT).Useful Links:https://thesophisticateddog.com/https://awesomedogproject.com/Support the show If you are enjoying The Baroo Podcast you can now support the show by buying me a coffee. Shop the podcast: https://www.thebaroo.com/shop-podFollow The Baroo:Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/baroopodcast/Blog- https://www.thebaroo.com/Facebook- https://www.facebook.com/baroopet/ Pet parent question or story of canine companionship to share ? Email charlotte@thebaroo.com or call 424-273-5131. *This podcast is for informational purposes only, even if, and regardless of whether it features the advice of veterinarians or professional dog trainers. It is not, nor is it intended to be a substitute for professional veterinary care or personalized canine behavior advice and should not be used as so. The views expressed in this podcast are solely those of the podcast author or the individual views of those participating in the podcast.

Dr. Cook is an International Association of Animal Behavior Consultants (IAABC) Certified Dog Behavior Consultant, a longstanding professional member of the Association of Professional Dog Trainers (APDT), and was one of the first trainers nationally to become a Certified Professional Dog Trainer through independent evaluation. Dr. Cook received her Ph.D. in Psychology from UC Berkeley, with her research focusing on the dog-human relationship and its effect on the problem solving strategies dogs employ. Dr. Cook is the founder and creator of the Play Way and a popular instructor for the online school, The Fenzi Dog Sports Academy. She has been training dogs for nearly 30 years, and has specialized in the rehabilitation of shy and fearful dogs for over 20 years.  Legal Disclaimer: This podcast is intended for educational purposes only and does not constitute advice or professional services by either the host nor any of the guests.  Website: http://playwaydogs.com/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/doggeek/  Play Way Course:https://www.fenzidogsportsacademy.com/index.php/courses/84 About the Host If you want to work with me, Susan Light, you can find me at: www.doggydojopodcast.com The music was written by Mac Light, you can find him at: www.maclightsongwriter.com If you like the show, please Subscribe, Rate, Review, and Share to help others find the show! I'll see you in two weeks with a brand new episode of the Doggy Dojo!

In honor of valentines day, certified professional dog trainer Irith Bloom is back to help those of you whose dogs may be buzz- killing your relationship. We chat about what to do if your dog gets anxious or ancy every time you even go in for a hug  with your significant other.  We also chat how to introduce your dog to your new love interest, how to introduce your dog to a new love interest's dog, and even how to introduce your dog to a new love interest's cat!  Don't worry, we also touch on how our  pups can improve our relationships! Irith is a CPDT-KSA, a CBCC-KA, a CDBC, a KPA CTP, a VSPDT, and a CBATI. She is also faculty at both Victoria Stilwell Dog Training Academy and DogBiz's Dog Walking Academy, and she's certified in TAGteach, a positive reinforcement method for teaching humans. She is on the board of the Certification Council for Professional Dog Trainers (CCPDT), and Chair Emeritus of the Education Committee of the Association of Professional Dog Trainers (APDT).Support the show If you are enjoying The Baroo Podcast you can now support the show by buying me a coffee. Shop the podcast: https://www.thebaroo.com/shop-podFollow The Baroo:Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/baroopodcast/Blog- https://www.thebaroo.com/Facebook- https://www.facebook.com/baroopet/ Pet parent question or story of canine companionship to share ? Email charlotte@thebaroo.com or call 424-273-5131. *This podcast is for informational purposes only, even if, and regardless of whether it features the advice of veterinarians or professional dog trainers. It is not, nor is it intended to be a substitute for professional veterinary care or personalized canine behavior advice and should not be used as so. The views expressed in this podcast are solely those of the podcast author or the individual views of those participating in the podcast.

Training Without Conflict® Podcast Episode Fourteen: Michael ShikashioRecently, Ivan invited Michael Shikashio to the TWC podcast. Michael and Ivan may hold at times different opinions on dog training. However, they had a great, respectful conversation that explored these views and ideas.Is it possible to bring the dog training communities together, rather than increase the polarization?Both Ivan and Michael recognize that there are those on the far extremes of the dog training spectrum who are immovable in their ideologies, but they also are certain that there are the trainers in the middle who have the most to gain from such conversations. We hope that this podcast will encourage dog trainers on both sides to continue to talk with each other. Sharing knowledge and experience is how we advance – not by looking down on each other, and certainly not through legislations or bans.Here are some links to videos discussed in the podcast:https://youtu.be/9B-gt0aEtYwhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ki74sxKfXYMMichael Shikashio, CDBC, is the founder of AggressiveDog.com and focuses on teaching other professionals from around the world on how to successfully work aggression cases. He is a five-term president of the International Association of Animal Behavior Consultants (IAABC) and is a full member of the Association of Professional Dog Trainers (APDT).Michael is sought after for his expert opinion by numerous media outlets, including the New York Times, New York Post, Fox News, The List TV, Baltimore Sun, WebMD, Women's Health Magazine, Real Simple Magazine, SiriusXM Radio, The Chronicle of the Dog, and Steve Dale's Pet World. He also hosts the popular podcast show “The Bitey End of the Dog” where he chats with the foremost experts on dog aggression.He is a featured keynote speaker at conferences, universities, and seminars around the world, and offers a variety of educational opportunities on the topic of canine aggression, including the Aggression in Dogs Master Course and the annual Aggression in Dogs Conference.For more information on Michael Shikashio, check out:http://aggressivedog.comIvan Balabanov is a 2-time World Champion dog trainer, Ot Vitosha Malinois breeder, trainer of Premier Protection Dogs and founder of the revolutionary Training Without Conflict® dog training system.For more information about Ivan Balabanov and information on how to train your dog using the Training Without Conflict® system, check out: https://trainingwithoutconflict.comhttps://malinois.comhttps://premierprotectiondogs.comPlease like, comment, and share with your dog friends!

Today's Topic: When you're dealing with a fearful or anxious dog, it can sometimes feel like you've hit a wall, and the traditional tools that you're using are only getting you so far, resulting in a relationship with your dog that can feel belabored, frustrating, or just plain, UN-FUN.  That's why we invited the founder and creator of "The Play Way", a new therapeutic approach for resolving behavior issues through social interaction and dog empowerment, Dr. Amy Cook, to the pod, to discuss how playing with your dog can help you better assess whether your dog is at or near their threshold, where she sees the "The Play Way" living among the more traditional tools available to treat fearful and anxious dogs, how to start playing with your dog in an appropriate and safe way, the pitfalls of "monologuing", how this methodology fits into what she calls "positive dog training 2.0", and so much more!Guest Bio: Dr. Amy Cook is an Applied Animal Behaviorist, a Certified Dog Behavior Consultant with the IAABC, a longstanding professional member of the Association of Professional Dog Trainers (APDT), and was one of the first trainers nationally to become a Certified Professional Dog Trainer through independent evaluation. Dr. Cook received her Ph.D. in Psychology from UC Berkeley, with her research focusing on the dog-human relationship and the impact that social support can have on stress. Dr. Cook is the founder and creator of the Play Way, a therapeutic approach for resolving behavior issues in dogs through social interaction and dog empowerment, and she is a popular instructor for the online school The Fenzi Dog Sports Academy, where she also teaches a course in active management games for dogs, and in a play-based approach to resolving sound sensitivity.  She has been training dogs for over 30 years, and has specialized in the rehabilitation of shy and fearful dogs for over 20 years. Amy has worked for the Berkeley-East Bay Humane Society, the San Francisco Animal Care and Control, has provided behavioral evaluations for shelters and rescues throughout the Bay Area of California, and was a member of the anti-cruelty team for the ASPCA, working in triage sheltering and rehabilitation for large rescue cases. Amy gives seminars all over the country and is a frequent conference presenter. She also competes in sports with her dogs, and has titled in Competition Obedience, Rally, Agility, Barn Hunt, and Nosework.Connect With Dr. Amy Cook:WebsiteInstagramOnline Courses w/ Dr. Amy Cook

 Certified professional dog trainer Irith Bloom is back to chat about puppies! We chat about what we should expect from our puppies throughout those first 12 months of life . We also discuss how we can be more mindful of the expectations we place on our puppies, and ourselves during this joyful, and sometime very challenging time of pet guardianship. Irith is a CPDT-KSA, a CBCC-KA, a CDBC, a KPA CTP, a VSPDT, and a CBATI. She is also faculty at both Victoria Stilwell Dog Training Academy and DogBiz's Dog Walking Academy, and she's certified in TAGteach, a positive reinforcement method for teaching humans. She is on the board of the Certification Council for Professional Dog Trainers (CCPDT), and Chair Emeritus of the Education Committee of the Association of Professional Dog Trainers (APDT).Useful Resources:https://thesophisticateddog.com/about-irith/       Purchase her book here:Your Puppy and You : A step -by step guide to raising a freak'n  awesome dogSupport the show If you are enjoying The Baroo Podcast you can now support the show by buying me a coffee. Follow Us:Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/baroopet/Blog- https://www.thebaroo.comFacebook- https://www.facebook.com/baroopet Pet parent question or story of canine companionship to share ? Email charlotte@thebaroo.com or call 424-273-5131.

Emily Hall is the founder of KittyCatGo, a comprehensive website offering tips on safely exploring the outdoors with your cat. KittyCatGo is also now a podcast. Emily and her husband share their home with adventure cats, Kylo and Sophie in Macon, GA. Learn more at www.kittycatgo.com.  Teoti Anderson is a best-selling dog author and past president of the Association of Professional Dog Trainers (APDT). She is vice president of A Dog's Best Friend, the first dog training company to use positive reinforcement in South Florida. In this episode, Teoti unleashes ways to teach adult dogs new tricks and good manners. Learn more at www.teotianderson.com. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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

For the debut of "The Behavior Files", a series of real life case studies shared by the Behavior Vets team, Fanna and her client Christina attempt to treat canine compulsive disorder (CCD) exhibited by Rigg, a 1.5 yo bull terrier. Rigg will compulsively chase his tail and chomp at it, to the point of injuring himself or anyone who attempts to interrupt him. According to Tufts University, up to 85% of bull terrier litters will exhibit some form of CCD. Find out the history of Rigg's CCD and how Fanna helps her client manage and treat the very serious disorder. What steps did they take? Will they be successful? What kind of effect does Rigg's CCD have on his quality of life with Christina? Fanna's bio:Fanna Easter is based in Lafayette, Louisiana and has a special focus on separation anxiety and compulsive behaviors. She is a Certified Separation Anxiety Dog Trainer, Certified Dog Behavior Consultant, Certified Professional Dog Trainer, Fear Free Animal Trainer and Karen Pryor Academy graduate. She has been instructing dog training group classes and behavior consults for over 30 years. Living with Bull Terriers, Fanna is fascinated by canine obsessive compulsive disorders. Fanna is well known throughout the Bull Terrier world for her extensive knowledge pertaining to CCD and skilled at creating behavior modification programs for extremely challenging CCD cases with great success. Fanna is an industry expert who has been quoted in VICE News, HGTV, Newsweek, Animal Wellness, Dogs Naturally, and Forbes. She is the current Chair for the Association of Professional Dog Trainers (APDT). Fanna spent 5 years as Petco's National Dog Training Expert where she and her team developed a new positive reinforcement training program that launched nationwide to over 2,000 stores. While at Petco she also created the Petco Dog Training Instructor Program and the Petco separation anxiety course. Additionally, Fanna developed the updated the dog trainer curriculum for Animal Behavior College. Fanna loves Bull Terriers and shares her home with a Miniature Bull Terrier, Eli. When she's not working with animals, Fanna enjoys attending festivals and conformation dog shows and is learning to appreciate yoga and meditation.Links:https://behaviorvets.com/Contact Behavior Vets tweet us @BehaviorVets follow us on Facebook email us at nyc@behaviorvets.com follow us on Instagram

Erika is a Certified Professional Dog Trainer, Knowledge and Skills Assessed (CPDT-KSA) and a Certified Trick Dog Instructor (CTDI) and is a professional member of the Association of Professional Dog Trainers (APDT) and a Canine Training Professional with the Pet Professionals Guild (PPG). Erika has more than 10 years of experience working with dogs of all shapes, sizes and temperaments. She has interned under licensed veterinarians, volunteered with countless animal rescue groups, worked at doggy daycare centers in Louisiana and Tennessee, and was employed as a shelter manager for a no-kill animal shelter in Louisiana and as a shelter behavior manager for a local humane society in Virginia. Before becoming a professional dog trainer, Erika owned a pet photography business and volunteered her time and talent to help adoptable animals find forever homes. Erika has clicker trained dogs, cats, parrots, rats, horses, pigs and even one raccoon! She currently specializes in puppy training, trick training, and behavior modification, particularly working with dogs with anxiety, aggression, and reactivity. Erika loves getting to know the people who love their dogs and is a passionate teacher, of both human and canines! She believes that it's important for her clients to understand why dogs behave the way they do so that they can learn to how problem-solve together. Erika works with Clever Critters LLC, serving the Hampton Roads area of Virginia. You can follow them on Instagram @clevercritters In 2021 Erika became a first-time mom and later that year, she landed her dream job, working for Dogwise Books as the Social Media Marketing Manager. Instagram: @clevercritters Dogwise: https://www.dogwise.com/ *The following are affiliate links, if you purchase through these links, I will receive a small commission* Books recommended by Erika in the episode: “Canine Enrichment for the Real World” by Allie Bender and Emily Strong “Canine Enrichment for the Real World Workbook” by Allie Bender and Emily Strong “Meet Your Dog” By Kim Brophy “On Talking Terms with Dogs: Calming Signals” By Turid Rugaas “Calming Signals: What Your Dog Tells You” DVD by Turid Rugaas Turid Rugaas Book/DVD set “Doggie Language” by Lili Chin “The Language of Dogs” DVD by Sarah Kalnajs If you want to work with me, Susan Light, you can find me at: www.doggydojopodcast.com The music was written by Mac Light, you can find him at: www.maclightsongwriter.com If you like the show, please Subscribe, Rate, Review, and Share to help others find the show! I'll see you in two weeks with a brand new episode of the Doggy Dojo!

Dedicated to helping people better understand cats and bringing out the best behavior in cats, Rita Reimers and Linda Hall are the force behind Cat Behavior Alliance. They also co-host a popular podcast called 19 Cats and Counting on Pet Life Radio. Learn more at www.catbehavioralliance.com.  Teoti Anderson is a best-selling dog author and past president of the Association of Professional Dog Trainers (APDT). She is vice president of A Dog's Best Friend, the first dog training company to use positive reinforcement in South Florida. In this episode, Teoti unleashes ways to teach adult dogs new tricks and good manners. Learn more at www.teotianderson.com.   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

When we are thinking about positive reinforcement based training, we often envision food as the reinforcer we are using. Or perhaps we might use toys or other reinforcers such as giving attention to a dog when they keep all four paws on the floor instead of jumping up. But what about play? Just straight up play with your dog without toys. In this episode of The Bitey End of the Dog, I have a fun conversation with Dr. Amy Cook on using The Play Way with dogs, and chat about why play can go far beyond “just reinforcement.” For additional resources on helping dogs with aggression, visit:https://aggressivedog.comIf you want to take your knowledge and skills for helping dogs with aggression to the next level, check out the Aggression in Dogs Master Course and get a FREE preview here:https://aggressivedog.thinkific.com/courses/aggression-in-dogsDon't miss out on the third annual Aggression in Dogs Conference  9/30-10/2/22:https://aggressivedog.com/conference/About Amy:Dr. Cook is an International Association of Animal Behavior Consultants (IAABC) Certified Dog Behavior Consultant, a longstanding professional member of the Association of Professional Dog Trainers (APDT), and was one of the first trainers nationally to become a Certified Professional Dog Trainer through independent evaluation. Dr. Cook received her Ph.D. in Psychology from UC Berkeley, with her research focusing on the dog-human relationship and its effect on the problem solving strategies dogs employ. Dr. Cook is the founder and creator of the Play Way, a new way to address behavior problems in dogs, and is a popular instructor for the online school, The Fenzi Dog Sports Academy. She has been training dogs for nearly 30 years, and has specialized in the rehabilitation of stressed and fearful dogs for over 20 years. The Play Way!Support the show

In this episode we have a very special guest speaker - Michael Shikashio. Michael Shikashio, CDBC, is the founder of AggressiveDog.com and focuses on teaching other professionals from around the world on how to successfully work aggression cases. He is a five-term president of the International Association of Animal Behavior Consultants (IAABC) and is a full member of the Association of Professional Dog Trainers (APDT). He also hosts the popular podcast show “The Bitey End of the Dog” where he chats with the foremost experts on dog aggression. Dawn tries to let Jess and Michael do most of the talking as this episode is very much for dog owners and those interested in dogs.  --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/wereallscrewedup/message

In the very first episode of The Baroo podcast I chat with certified professional dog trainer,  behavior consultant and author Irith Bloom about something I think most pet parents are familiar with: walking your dog. We chat about ways you can make the walk more enjoyable for you and your pup and why taking your dog on a sniffari  can help you raise a calmer canine .Irith is a CPDT-KSA, a CBCC-KA, a CDBC, a KPA CTP, a VSPDT, and a CBATI. She is also faculty at both Victoria Stilwell Dog Training Academy and DogBiz's Dog Walking Academy, and she's certified in TAGteach, a positive reinforcement method for teaching humans. She is on the board of the Certification Council for Professional Dog Trainers (CCPDT), and Chair Emeritus of the Education Committee of the Association of Professional Dog Trainers (APDT). You can learn more about Irith Bloom here:https://thesophisticateddog.com/about-irith/       Purchase her book here:Your Puppy and You : A step -by step guide to raising a freak'n  awesome dog

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

In this episode, I talk to Michael Shikashio (CDBC) about his evolution into dog training, how he analyzes and treats cases involving dog-dog aggressive behavior, considering the "emotional bank account", and diversity in the dog training industry.Recorded January 27, 2021. Michael's bio:Michael Shikashio, CDBC, 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 AggressiveDog.com. Michael is fully certified through the IAABC and is a full member of the Association of Professional Dog Trainers (APDT). He also hosts the popular podcast show “The Bitey End of the Dog.”He 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, SiriusXM Radio, The Chronicle of the Dog, and Steve Dale's Pet World. Michael is a featured speaker at conferences, universities, and seminars around the world, and offers a variety of workshops, webinars, and online courses on the topic of canine aggression, including the Aggression in Dogs Master Course. Show note links:Michael Shikashio's Courses and WebinarsMichael Shikashio's Website Michael's Conferences and Workshops https://thelooseleashacademy.comSocial Media:https://www.facebook.com/michael.shikashiohttps://www.facebook.com/AggressionInDogshttps://www.instagram.com/michaelshikashio/https://www.facebook.com/TheMuzzleUpProjectMelanie Cerone's (PhD, BCBA, CPDT-KA) website for supporting humansTheme music composed and performed by Andy Sells

Today's Topic: Having a dog who displays aggressive behaviors, whether it's directed towards other dogs, people, or things in the environment, can be difficult enough to manage and live with when your dog's triggers are known and reliably trigger your dog.  But it can be made more difficult to deal with when the aggression is significantly more random in nature. It can have profound effects, for example, on where you feel you can go, who you feel you can be with, and who you're comfortable leaving your dog with (if ever), for fear that an incident involving your dog will result in physical and/or financial harm.  That's why we invited the world-renowned expert on aggression in dogs, and the founder of AggressiveDog.com, Michael Shikashio, CDBC, to the pod, to discuss the difference between reactivity and aggression, the common signs we miss, how to turn unpredictability into predictability, and whether he thinks that all aggression in dog cases can be addressed using positive training techniques (HINT: YES, YES, YES!)Guest Bio: Michael Shikashio, CDBC, is the founder of AggressiveDog.com and focuses on teaching other professionals from around the world on how to successfully work aggression cases. He is a five-term president of the International Association of Animal Behavior Consultants (IAABC) and is a full member of the Association of Professional Dog Trainers (APDT). Michael is sought after for his expert opinion by numerous media outlets, including the New York Times, New York Post, Fox News, The List TV, Baltimore Sun, WebMD, Women's Health Magazine, Real Simple Magazine, SiriusXM Radio, The Chronicle of the Dog, and Steve Dale's Pet World. He also hosts the popular podcast show “The Bitey End of the Dog” where he chats with the foremost experts on dog aggression. He is a featured keynote speaker at conferences, universities, and seminars around the world, and offers a variety of educational opportunities on the topic of canine aggression, including the Aggression in Dogs Master Course and the annual Aggression in Dogs Conference. Relevant Links:Website: https://aggressivedog.com/Aggression in Dogs Master Course: https://aggressivedog.thinkific.com/courses/aggression-in-dogsThe Aggression in Dogs  Conference (10.24.21-10.26.21): https://thelooseleashacademy.com/conferenceThe Great Big Dog Aggression Workshop Ii: Meds, Moods, And Modification (11.6.21-11.7.21): https://aggressivedog.com/event/gbdawii/

Our guest on Barking From The Rooftops today is Kim Brophey.  Jim highly recommends Kim's book - https://www.meetyourdogbook.com/#:~:text=Meet%20Your%20Dog%20is%20an,by%20dog%20owners%20and%20trainers. (Meet Your Dog - The Game-Changing Guide to Understanding Your Dog's Behavior)  Kim also have an amazing course - https://kimbropheylegscourses.thinkific.com/courses/legs-applied-ethology-family-dog-mediation-professional-course (https://kimbropheylegscourses.thinkific.com/courses/legs-applied-ethology-family-dog-mediation-professional-course) Kim has an amazing set of credentials: - Applied Ethologist, member of the International Society for Applied Ethology - Owner of the awarded http://www.dogdoorbehaviorcenter.com (Dog Door Behavior Center)  - Certified Dog Behavior Consultant (CDBC) / Certified Member - International Association of Animal Behavior Consultants - Board member - Asheville Humane Society - Certified Professional Dog Trainer (CPDT-KA) - Member of the Association of Professional Dog Trainers (APDT)  - APDT Outstanding Trainer of the Year 2009 - TED talk presenter - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=46ND3suK1y8 (The Problem With Treating a Dog Like a Pet) We would love to hear from you in terms of what specific areas you would like us to discuss in the future. Use the contact form https://quitethethingmedia.com/barking-from-the-wooftops/ (here) to get in contact, or find the show on https://www.facebook.com/BFTWpodcast (Facebook) and https://twitter.com/Barkingwooftops (Twitter). You can find video content from Barking From The Wooftops on https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCf7g3O0uXrM88uiH9Iy6NsA?fbclid=IwAR0M0xOHPkYgby1iBQCBnZVRph-nyB4TZxdft84i3WGm8_dsZs6VvOXqmec (Youtube) too. A member of https://quitethethingmedia.com/glasgower/ (Glasgower) This podcast uses the following third-party services for analysis: Chartable - https://chartable.com/privacy

The first guest on Barking From The Wooftops is none other than world-renowned dog aggression expert Michael Shikashio CDBC. Michael has a list of accolades, achievements, and accreditations: - internationally sought after keynote speaker and presenter - fully certified through the International Association of Animal Behavior Consultants and is one of fewer than 300 CDBCs worldwide - founder of the Aggression in Dogs Master Course and currently teaches trainers and behaviour consultants in more than 25 countries - ex-president of  International Association of Animal Behavior Consultants (IAABC) - full member of Association of Professional Dog Trainers (APDT) - featured guest for numerous media outlets including the New York Times, New York Post, SiriusXM Radio, Real Simple Magazine, Baltimore Sun, WebMD, WTNH Channel 8, Steve Dale's Pet World, and Women's Health. - he is referred to by countless veterinary professionals, rescue and shelter organizations, and behaviour professionals from all over the world for working with aggression cases. Below are links to Micheal's websites: - https://aggressivedog.com/ (Aggressive Dog) - https://www.completecanines.com/ (Complete Canines) Michael also has a Master Course for Trainers and Behavior Consultants - https://l.facebook.com/l.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Faggressivedog.thinkific.com%2Fcourses%2Faggression-in-dogs%3Ffbclid%3DIwAR3n8hAv-YhClZ9Y3PtBI4r2HGmBgep3r2n1UWN6LiOqX-mnKt3PcJDvieA&h=AT2uWm8nTQY7giQe3GNGdTBMGuNUFEE_nQbyK4e8NJxSZuF1uKSVCU4N0pmVCIy2M9YV1ALJOUJFcusBzXIuTKPfUHjAq4VLC0FLfBWzOKUV3TeJ8QKMNaLoQ5sFtAPjomCL&__tn__=-UK-R&c[0]=AT1cs00wJB_EvMogn7-G-t07HU5FFckU_k5UCzpff4QKqxJQ7lnoMSIeqC7HwfXnn1iKrHtL_0zgHLquWOERys6WmKAkxqdWWvARWDY4R9IYxlyt-MIMNA1u3q7WyeDNiN2fFJK0FRDzR49jXd7ShDzs7eVpN1UKzmabRSLWHKIaIg (Aggression in Dogs) We would love to hear from you in terms of what specific areas you would like us to discuss in the future. Use the contact form https://quitethethingmedia.com/barking-from-the-wooftops/ (here) to get in contact, or find the show on https://www.facebook.com/BFTWpodcast (Facebook) and https://twitter.com/Barkingwooftops (Twitter). You can find video content from Barking From The Wooftops on https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCf7g3O0uXrM88uiH9Iy6NsA?fbclid=IwAR0M0xOHPkYgby1iBQCBnZVRph-nyB4TZxdft84i3WGm8_dsZs6VvOXqmec (Youtube) too. Barking From The Wooftops is hosted by Jim Gillies (A.Dip CBM) and is a member of https://quitethethingmedia.com/barking-from-the-wooftops/ (Quite The Thing Media) - a Scottish podcast network creating podcasts that speak to you. This podcast uses the following third-party services for analysis: Chartable - https://chartable.com/privacy

This week the fabulous Cathy Madson returns to "Why Do Pets Matter?" to speak with us about transitioning back to work with a Pandemic Puppy, how training your dog becomes far more doable when you break it into bite-sized steps, consulting with behaviorists and vets when your dog has behavior issues, and virtual support communities to connect with -- including the resources at PreventiveVet.com. She is a Certified Behavior Consultant and professional dog trainer from PreventiveVet. Last month, April 2021, she spoke with us about how to acclimate your dog to being alone right now to help ease the transition for those of us who are returning to work in the near future.   More About Cathy Madson, MA, CBCC-KA, CPDT-KA Cathy Madson became a certified dog trainer in 2008, but she likes to think that her career began when she was six years old and a stray wandered into her yard and became her first dog companion. She completed her CPDT-KA certification in 2017 and her CBCC-KA certification in 2019. Cathy is a Fear Free Certified Certified Professional, a member of the Association of Professional Dog Trainers (APDT), and a training professional member of The Pet Professional Guild (PPG). She's also a member of the Dog Writer's Association of America. Cathy loves to geek out at dog behavior and training conferences. As Preventive Vet's dog trainer on staff, Cathy focuses on helping humans and their pets build a strong relationship based on trust, clear communication, and the use of positive reinforcement training methods. Her specialties include canine separation anxiety, leash reactivity, and dog aggression. When she's not working, you can usually find her paddle boarding or knitting yet another dog sweater for Sookie, her Welsh Cardigan Corgi.   Resources: YouTube of our latest Yappy Hour: From Pandemic to Pupstanding! https://youtu.be/Y3eBeEbwxwE Puppy Essentials and Dog Training Essentials Workshops - https://www.PupstandingAcademy.com https://www.PreventiveVet.com   Connect with Cathy: Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/PreventiveVet YouTube: https://youtube.com/c/Preventivevet Twitter: @PreventiveVet Instagram: @PreventiveVet

During this episode of "Why Do Pets Matter?" We're speaking with Cathy Madson, a Certified Behavior Consultant and professional dog trainer from PreventiveVet. She was one of our special guests in December 2019 and gave a mini-training about leaving your dog alone. At the time, little did we know that we would really need that training in 2021. So, Cathy's back with another training on how to leave your dog alone, plus how to address things your pet might be doing right now since you've been home more, and what's going on with "Major Biden".    More About Cathy Madson, MA, CBCC-KA, CPDT-KA Cathy Madson became a certified dog trainer in 2008, but she likes to think that her career began when she was six years old and a stray wandered into her yard and became her first dog companion. She completed her CPDT-KA certification in 2017 and her CBCC-KA certification in 2019. Cathy is a Fear Free Certified Certified Professional, a member of the Association of Professional Dog Trainers (APDT), and a training professional member of The Pet Professional Guild (PPG). She's also a member of the Dog Writer's Association of America. Cathy loves to geek out at dog behavior and training conferences. As Preventive Vet's dog trainer on staff, Cathy focuses on helping humans and their pets build a strong relationship based on trust, clear communication, and the use of positive reinforcement training methods. Her specialties include canine separation anxiety, leash reactivity, and dog aggression. When she's not working, you can usually find her paddle boarding or knitting yet another dog sweater for Sookie, her Welsh Cardigan Corgi.   Resources: YouTube of our latest Yappy Hour: From Pandemic to Pupstanding! https://youtu.be/Y3eBeEbwxwE Puppy Essentials and Dog Training Essentials Workshops - https://www.PupstandingAcademy.com https://www.PreventiveVet.com West Paw Toppl toy (alternative to Kong): http://amzn.to/2m5E2zR Michael Shikashio -- aggression specialist (and who the Bidens should really hire) Denise Fenzi -- amazing with high drive dogs   Connect with Cathy: Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/PreventiveVet YouTube: https://youtube.com/c/Preventivevet Twitter: @PreventiveVet Instagram: @PreventiveVet      

Kim Brophey, CDBC, CPDT-KA, FDM, is an applied ethologist and owner of The Dog Door Behavior Center in downtown Asheville, NC. Kim's 20-year commitment to Family Dog Mediation™ has been recognized internationally, nationally and locally, awarded the Association of Professional Dog Trainers (APDT) Outstanding Trainer of the Year in 2009 and the Best Dog Trainer of WNC seven years in a row. Kim Brophey's work has been featured in: Psychology Today, The Washington Post, National Geographic, Pet MD, The Human Animal Bond Research Institute (HABRI Central) Resource Library, HGTV Magazine, WLOS, The Asheville Citizen Times, The Family Dog podcast, Writers Voices podcast, Canine Conversations podcast, The Bitey End of the Dog podcast, Hair of the Dog podcast, Family Paws, Oh My Dog blog, NPR's All Things Considered and Here & Now, Steve Dale's Pet World and numerous other radio shows (BPR, WAMC, KPR, KAXE, Radio Pet Lady, Animal Radio, WCCO, WRKF, KNPR, KYMN, KMA) . She is a member of the International Society for Applied Ethology and the Association of Professional Dog Trainers (APDT), a certified member and past board member of the International Association of Animal Behavior Consultants (IAABC), a Certified Professional Dog Trainer (CPDT-KA) and past board member of the Asheville Humane Society. 2020 has proven to be one of the most critical professional years for Kim's work so far, as the leading expert in dog aggression, Mike Shikashio, secured Kim's participation in the popular Aggression in Dogs Master Course, Aggression in Dogs Conference (2020) and Bitey End of the Dog podcast. Website http://www.dogdoorcanineservices.com/ Applied Ethology & Family Dog Mediation Course - ONLINE in 2021!!!!! Online course preregistration. Wolf Park Applied Ethology & Family Dog Mediation Professional Certificate Course - The L.E.G.S.® of the 21st Century Dog" with Kim Brophey – Aug 04-08, 2021 TED talk - The Problem with Treating a Dog Like a Pet Book: Meet Your Dog (Amazon) If you like the show, please Subscribe, Rate, Review, and Share with other Dog Lovers! If you want to work with Susan, you can find her at www.doggydojopodcast.com/work-with-susan/ The music was written by Mac Light, find him at www.maclightsongwriter.com --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app

Today we are talking about an industry that is booming: the pet industry. According to the American Pet Products Association, consumers in the U.S. spend $70 billion on our pets. There are many pet professionals that are tapping into this boom by providing services such as training, grooming, boarding, and walking. In this episode we focus on dog trainers as independent service professionals:- How do people become dog trainers? What is the typical career path for dog trainers?- What’s the scope of services that dog trainers provide?- How much do dog trainers typically charge?- Do you need to be licensed or certified?- How does the Association of Professional Dog Trainers (APDT) help dog trainers?- Is there a consensus in the industry about the right and wrong way to train a dog?- Are there any major changes happening in the industry that anyone considering a career in dog training should be aware of?Our guest is Nick Hof who has been a dog trainer for over ten years and holds several nationally recognized certifications from the Certification Council for Professional Dog Trainers, the Karen Pryor Academy, and more. He is also the Chair for the Association of Professional Dog Trainers, the largest trade organization for dog training. He owns Paws Look Listen, LLC in Cincinnati, OH which offers private dog training services to busy families.

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!

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!

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

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

Welcome to Bark & Wag 15 Minute Vet Talk – I am your host Polly ReQua Today we are talking to Kersti Nieto, trainer at Dog Training Camp USA in Raleigh, NC about tips on how to find a dog trainer. Here are some frequently asked questions from pet parents who are seeking professional behavioral help for their pet: What are the differences between pet-behavior professionals? Trainers Pet trainers use a number of different titles, such as “behavior counselor,” “pet psychologist” and “pet therapist.” The level of education and experience among this group of professionals varies greatly. Most learn how to work with animals through apprenticeships with established trainers, volunteering at animal shelters, attending seminars on training and behavior and training their own animals. And some are certified by specialized training schools. Certified Professional Dog Trainers (CPDTs) The Certification Council for Professional Dog Trainers (CCPDT), an independent organization created by the Association of Professional Dog Trainers (APDT), offers an international certification program. To earn the designation of Certified Professional Dog Trainer (CPDT), an individual must accrue a requisite number of working hours as a dog trainer, provide letters of recommendation and pass a standardized test that evaluates her or his knowledge of canine ethology, basic learning theory, canine husbandry and teaching skill. A CPDT must abide by a code of ethics and earn continuing education credits to maintain certification. Applied Animal Behaviorists, Certified Applied Animal Behaviorists (CAABs) and Associate Certified Applied Animal Behaviorists (ACAABs) An applied animal behaviorist has earned an MS, MA or PhD in animal behavior. They are experts in dog and cat behavior and often in the behavior of other companion animal species as well, like horses and birds. Certified Applied Animal Behaviorists (CAABs, those with a doctoral degree) and Associate Certified Applied Animal Behaviorists (ACAABs, those with a master’s degree) received supervised graduate or post-graduate training in animal behavior, biology, zoology and learning theory at accredited universities. Effective applied animal behaviorists will have expertise in (a) behavior modification, so they know the techniques that produce changes in behavior, (b) the normal behavior of the species they’re treating, so they can recognize how and why your pet’s behavior is abnormal, and (c) teaching and counseling people, so they can effectively teach you how to understand and work with your pet. Most CAABs work through veterinary referrals, and they work closely with veterinarians to select the best behavioral medications for pets. Veterinary Behaviorists Knowledge of animal behavior isn’t required to earn a veterinary degree, and animal behavior isn’t comprehensively taught in most veterinary training programs. However, some veterinarians seek specialized education in animal behavior and earn certification through the American College of Veterinary Behaviorists. To become a Diplomat of the American College of Veterinary Behaviorists (Dip ACVB), veterinarians must complete a residency in behavior and pass a qualifying examination. In addition to having knowledge of domestic animal behavior and experience treating pet behavior problems, veterinary behaviorists can prescribe medications that can help with your pet’s treatment. Issues that often require the use of medication include separation anxiety, phobias, compulsive behaviors and fear of people, objects or other animals. What kind of training does my pet need? Once you’ve determined that you and your pet need some professional help to keep your household harmonious, consider what kind of training or treatment you need. Group Class If your pet needs to learn some basic manners and skills, like sit, down and come when called, you might benefit most from group obedience classes. Group glasses are also ideal for young puppies who need socialization. Private Sessions If your dog or cat has a specific behavior problem, seeing a professional outside of a classroom context would be best. Problems like resource guarding, handling issues, separation anxiety and aggression toward people or other animals require custom treatment plans and individual attention from a qualified behaviorist. Other less serious behavior issues that trainers and behaviorists can’t usually address in a group class include house training problems, excessive barking and destructive chewing. Day Training & Board-and-Train Day training is a great service for busy pet parents. The trainer comes to your house while you’re at work, or alternatively, some train your dog in their home or facility. The trainer teaches your dog the specific obedience behaviors you want, for example recalls (coming when called), wait, stay, walk on-leash without pulling and greeting people and pets politely. If the trainer is qualified as a behaviorist, she can also treat issues like resource guarding, handling issues, some other types of aggression, some types of excessive barking or meowing and some fears. Board-and-train services involve leaving your pet in the trainer’s kennels for a specified period of time. Be sure that you know and agree with the methods that your board-and-train or day training professional plans to use, since you will not be there to supervise. This method should also provide a training package with instruction for you. Board-and-train and day training programs are only effective if the trainer teaches you some skills so that you can maintain your pet’s new behaviors after her training is done. How Do I Decide Which Professional to Choose? After you’ve decided between group classes, one-on-one private help and board-and-train, how do you figure out which professional is right for you and your pet? Your decision will be based on a number of factors, including the type of problem your pet has, the professional’s education and experience and the availability of behaviorists and trainers in your area. Ask the right questions. We advise contacting more than one professional in your area so that you can compare their methods, credentials and experience before making a choice. Don’t hire any professional without first thoroughly interviewing her or him and asking for a couple of references from former clients or veterinarians. A good behaviorist or trainer will be happy to speak with you about her or his qualifications, background and treatment or training methods. Consider the nature of your pet’s behavioral problem. If your pet has a serious behavior problem that puts him, people or other animals at risk, or if he’s developed a problem that causes him significant stress, seek an expert with both academic training (either a master’s or doctoral degree) and practical experience. Although some CAABs, ACAABs and Dip ACVBs charge more per session than trainers, it’s because they’ve acquired a great deal of knowledge through years of study and research. Rule out physical problems. If your pet has a behavior problem, contacting a trainer or a behaviorist is a great first step on the road to resolution. However, some behavior problems can be caused or exacerbated by physical problems. For example, if your nine-week-old puppy urinates indoors when you’re not supervising him, he probably simply needs house training, but if your five-year-old dog who hasn’t made a mistake in the house for years suddenly starts urinating indoors, you might have a medical condition on your hands. Trainers and behaviorists specialize in pet behavior problems. Only licensed veterinarians can diagnose medical conditions. If you think that your pet is sick, injured or experiencing any kind of physical distress, please contact your veterinarian immediately. Dog Training Camp USA 919-401-9050 dogtrainingcampusa.com