Dog Behavior Blog

The Demands of Pet Parenthood: Is a Dog Right for You?

Note from Con Slobodchikoff:   This is a guest post by Paige Johnson who is a self-described fitness “nerd.” She possesses a love for strength training. In addition to weight-lifting, she is a yoga enthusiast, avid cyclist, and loves exploring hiking trails with her dogs. She enjoys writing about health and fitness for LearnFit.org.

 

For many people, getting a dog seems to be a natural life event. It’s a sign that you’ve hit a point in your life where you are stable enough to care for a living being other than yourself. However, depending on your lifestyle, a dog may not be the best choice – even if you’ve reached middle age and have a stable career.

Dogs require love, care, attention, and a number of other things that make dog ownership a less-than-ideal choice for some people. Here are a few reasons you might want to reconsider adding a furry friend to your family.

Dogs Need Routine

Each day, dogs need a reliable routine in order to flourish. They should eat, sleep, and go on walks at roughly the same time each day. When dogs feel secure in knowing that they’ll be fed and cared for every day, they respond better to occasional changes such as moving or their owner going on vacation. Dogs with a predictable routine are also typically better behaved. If you work an unpredictable schedule or struggle with remembering daily tasks, a dog may not be in your best interests.

Dogs Can Be Expensive

Even if you adopt an adult dog from a shelter (which is always the best option if saving a life is your goal), maintaining a dog’s health and well-being can be quite costly. Though inexpensive foods are on the market, cheap brands are little more than empty fillers such as wheat, corn, and animal byproducts. Plus, many well-known grocery-store dog food brands have been the subject of pet food recalls in recent years.

A quality dog food can cost as much as $45 for a large bag, sometimes more. Dogs also need toys, treats, chews, leashes, collars, ID tags, beds, and other items that keep them healthy and happy but add to your overall expenses. On top of all the physical items a dog needs, your pet will also need regular veterinary care for things like shots, yearly checkups, and treatment for illnesses, chronic disease or injuries. So, those with limited or unreliable income may not want to take on the responsibility of a pet.

Dogs Need to Go on Walks

Your dog will need plenty of exercise. Regular walks and play time are mandatory for healthy, happy dogs. With that in mind, dogs (particularly large or active breeds) may not be suitable for those with mobility issues or a crunched schedule.

Of course, dogs are also extraordinarily beneficial for stress reduction and alleviating depression which can be helpful for both overworked individuals and those with mobility issues. If you have a limitation that would prevent you providing your dog with walks, you can always hire a dog walker through a site like Rover.com to be sure that your pet is receiving the exercise and attention they require.

Dogs Limit Vacations and Travel

When you have a dog, taking impulsive trips or extended vacations is more complicated. Dogs aren’t cats; they cannot be left alone overnight without care. Someone needs to be there to let them outside, feed them, and give them attention. If you enjoy last-minute road trips or long-term traveling, a dog is likely not the best option for you. Of course, if you really feel that a dog would benefit you, there’s always the option of hiring pet sitters and boarders to care for your beloved four-legged friend while you’re away.

Dogs can be wonderful companions and have been shown to elongate the life of their owners. People who own pets are, on average, healthier and happier. However, if your lifestyle will not allow you to tend to a dog’s needs, you may want to wait for a time in your life where you can better care for a pet. No matter how much a dog might benefit you, you need to keep the dog’s needs in mind too.

A dog should also benefit from living with you. If you feel you can provide for your pet and that owning a dog will make your life better, then by all means, visit your local shelter. If one of these sections made you stop and think, you may want to consider waiting until your life is a little more stable or suitable for pet ownership before taking this particular leap.

Paige Johnson is a self-described fitness “nerd.” She possesses a love for strength training. In addition to weight-lifting, she is a yoga enthusiast, avid cyclist, and loves exploring hiking trails with her dogs. She enjoys writing about health and fitness for LearnFit.org.

Image via Pixabay by JojoSamek

A Paradigm Shift: From Punitive to Positive

Note from Con Slobodchikoff: This is a guest post by Stephen Lewis, KPA-CTP, of Finding Fido LLC. He can be reached at: [email protected]

I’ve gravitated to animals my entire life.  As a kid living on a farm, I had gerbils, fish, cats, and dogs.  They all had names and unique personalities.  I would watch them for hours, trying to figure out what they might be thinking.  I remember wondering how amazing it would be to speak their language.  When I wasn’t watching them in real life, I was watching them on TV.  To this day, I can still hear David Attenborough’s voice narrating “The Living Planet” series on BBC.  My passion and love for animals has never faded and one of my favorites has always been the dog.

Throughout my life, I have had wonderful relationships with my own dogs and those of others. When I found myself in Baltimore six years ago, in a shelter, surrounded by hundreds of barking dogs, one amazing Pit Bull calmly stared back at me. I fell in love with her joyful spirit and playful nature.  It took some convincing but my wife finally agreed and we brought her home.  We named her Lexi, short for Alexandria “defender of man.”  She quickly captured our hearts with her rambunctious love of life and her amazing capacity for forgiveness.  Lexi became my teacher and my friend.  Her persistent playfulness won over our pug Henry and they became buddies.  Then came the training.

I began teaching Lexi all the basics I knew using my old tried and true methods.  From the beginning, despite my prompt leash “snap” corrections and handling, I struggled to teach her to walk on leash.  I began to get frustrated with her overly excited responses to other dogs and worst of all her insanely intense response to squirrels.  I resorted to stronger corrections, body blocking, and harsh verbal reprimands. Our walks to the park became stressful and filled with a battle of the wills.  I desperately tried to analyze my training procedures and criticized myelf for not getting through to her. 

I began taking a serious interest in dog behavior and I immersed myself in all things doggie.  I read books, watched dvds, and volunteered at the shelter.  I researched training methods and read all of “The Monks of New Skete” books cover to cover. I watched every episode of Cesar Millan and I embraced dominance theory, the idea that I should be the “pack leader” by walking through doors first, eating first, and various other rigid procedures.  I believed that by establishing myself as the “alpha” my dogs would respect me and, therefore, do what I asked of them.  I used food lures to teach new behaviors and then supported this technique with leash corrections or verbal reprimands for noncompliance.  As my leash handling skills improved and the timing of my corrections became spot-on I began to believe that I was a humane and effective trainer.

Over time, confidence in my own abilities began to grow and I spent more time at the shelter.  I would seek out the strongest and most unruly dogs, then take them for a walk and pit my will against theirs.  Occasionally, I would have success and in my own mind truly believe that I had taught the dog something. Then the day came when I met a dog named “Red”.  He was a large American Bulldog mix with botched ears from a home crop job and a beautiful rust colored coat.  He stood at the front of his kennel with his chest puffed up and his huge head within inches of the wire door. I grabbed my slip lead, took a deep breath, and slipped quickly into his kennel.  With a quick flick I put the slip lead over his head and moved quickly down the hall to the door.  As I approached the exit he began to forge ahead; “snap” I gave him a quick correction with the rope lead.  He paused and pushed on towards the door.  I was impressed by his strength and confidence but knew it would take some hard work to get him under control. 

Once outside, Red continued to pull and lunge on leash. “Snap, snap, snap” I corrected him several more times and each time he used his body language to communicate his dislike of how I was treating him.  I was persistent and so focused on teaching him to walk properly on leash that I ignored or missed most of his subtle but clear communication. He forged ahead one last time so I instinctively snapped the leash again. I corrected him much harder this time and he stopped in his tracks.  He gave me a long hard stare and moved his body to face me.  As I leaned forward towards him he jumped hard and fast into my chest muzzle punching me so hard in the nose I nearly fell over.  I felt wet hot blood coming from both my nostrils and my eyes began to water.  When I got my bearings and my vision became clear again I remember thinking to myself “there has to be a better way.”

That day, I learned the hard way that force is not compatible with mutual respect.  It took him breaking my nose for me to fully appreciate the impact that punishment has on the learning process.  I learned that punishment and the adversarial relationship it fosters erodes a dog’s trust and dramatically stunts or stops true learning from occurring.  I learned the importance of observing and understanding dog body language and I finally realized that effective training had to be a cooperative reciprocal relationship between dog and human.  With this epiphany, I began to seek out other ways of training and luckily I stumbled across Patricia McConnell’s book “The Other End of the Leash.”  I devoured her book and it served as a catalyst to propel me on my journey to understand the science of animal behavior. I worked hard to learn all the scientific jargon like operant conditioning, classical conditioning, and desensitization.  I embraced the science and began to apply it in my training.  I learned about clicker training and the many benefits of using positive reinforcement to communicate with my dogs.  I began to see them transform into unique intelligent thinking animals.  It was a miraculous shift in thinking that affected my entire life.

So far, my journey with dog training has led me through many seminars, an intense six month dog training program, and hours upon hours at the shelter.  I’ve helped family, friends, and co-workers learn to better communicate with their beloved four legged friends and I’ve witnessed first hand the magic of positive reinforcement and clicker training.  I’ve seen a dog's eyes light up when it makes the connection between a “click” from a clicker and the forthcoming reward. My lens for observing life has changed and I spend as much time looking for desirable behaviors in the people around me as I do in my own dogs.  I wait for that moment when a friend, client, or co-worker does something great and I’m ready with some sincere encouraging words, a pat on the back, or a piece of chocolate if appropriate.  When challenging or undesirable behaviors in dogs and people crop up I look for ways to manage them.   If possible, I eliminate any reinforcement that may be keeping them strong and I think to myself, what behavior would I rather see and how would I want to be treated if I were in their shoes.

Today, we have a chance to teach our dogs amazing things through positive reinforcement training.  We can work on changing reactive old habits focused on punishment and learn to be proactive.  We can use clear communication like the clicker to pinpoint the exact constructive behaviors we want to see in our dogs.  We can make the choice to build a long lasting relationship built on trust, communication, and love.  If we use this love to fuel positive reinforcement training, we will have evolved to become a more thoughtful, gentle, and enlightened species.  

High Tech Reaches Your Dog

Note from Con Slobodchikoff: This is a guest post by Nikki Longo, @NikkiDLongo, about.me/NikkiDLongo. Nikki has previously written about pet safety on the Dog Behavior Blog.

The High Tech Pet

Technology doesn't have to be limited to the two-legged human crowd. Nowadays, more and more technology is being applied to the hairier members of the family, making it easier to stay connected to pets, as well as come up with new and improved ways to keep track of their health, accelerate their training, or just keep close to them when away for long hours. 

PetCube

Even when pets are fine with their owners being away for extended amounts of time, that isn't always the case with the owners. There isn't a pet owner in the world who hasn't wiled away time at their desk, wistfully wondering what their pet is up to. Then there are the pets who pine all day for their owners, woefully wishing their favorite human was there to play with them. The PetCube is a small, compact bundle of technology that encompasses a camera, a microphone, and a laser pointer on movable platform. The camera streams HD-quality video to users on a wireless network and is easily accessible on the go. So not only does the PetCube allow you to keep your pet engaged throughout the day, but it will allow owners to see what their pet is up to and if there are negative behaviors they need to address as dogs can become destructive when bored.

Remote Training Collars

There are dozens of ways pets can get into danger: sniffing a coiled snake on the ground, getting caught up in a group of unfriendly dogs when off leash at a dog park, running off after a rabbit and crashing into a barbed wire fence. Leashes aren't always feasible and there are moments in a dog's life where even the most well-trained canine won't respond to the voice commands they know. Remote training collars are gentle and effective at training dogs to distinguish between "right" and "wrong" behaviors with a vibration or mild pulse of electric stimulation. A handheld remote gives the owner control over their dogs for distances of up to two miles with some collars. 

Remote training collars are also great for dogs with unsavory behaviors like food stealing, trash digging, or furniture destruction. 

Keep Track of Your Pet's Health

Phones and tablets keep track of everything lately, so why not let it keep track of health information for pets, too? There are plenty of apps for pet lovers. One app called "MyPetED--Pet Health Center" makes it easy to keep track of vaccine history, surgical information, veterinarian contact information, as well as receive articles directly on the application about various health and behavior articles geared specifically for animals. 

Another app, "Pet First Aid" offers important videos and information about common injuries to pets, giving owners time to help treat minor injuries and stabilize serious ones en route to the veterinarian. 

Man’s Best Friend’s Eye View Camera

Dogs are brilliant. Every dog owner will attest to that. And there are times when owners walk through the door and their dog has done something so mind boggling that they think "How did they do that!?". Now there's a petcam that can answer those questions. This tiny camera attaches to the pet's collar and lets owners see exactly what their critter has been getting up to while they're away. Just plug into the computer via a USB and watch all of kitty's shenanigans at once. And don’t let the name fool you, it works with cats too!

 

So what this all boils down to is this – your dog doesn’t need an iPad, but there are various high-tech tools that you and your dog can use to keep them active, keep them  consistent in their training and to just keep them having fun.

 

Who Is Guarding Whom?

Note from Con Slobodchikoff: This is a guest post by
Nikki Longo, who has been a home safety consultant based on the East Coast
for the better part of a decade. Mom to two wonderful corgi mixed dogs, she has
been writing on personal and public safety issues for the past five years. Feel
free to reach out to her at [email protected]

Putting an End to Breed-Specific Legislation

Profiling is supposed to be a thing of the past.

As a society, we've notarized our acceptance of people from
all walks of life, and advanced our understanding of sociology, science, and outright
decency. Segregation and stereotyping are quickly being stomped out by forward-thinking
generations. So why hasn't the same thing happened in the canine community?

Breed-specific legislation, the catch-all term for the laws,
guidelines and recommendations for selective dog ownership, is a prickly thorn
in the side of the amiable pet lover. And as of late, breed-specific
legislation has found a place in the news thanks to a press release from the white house which decried its existence.

"Research shows that bans on certain types of dogs are
largely ineffective and often a waste of public resources," stated an
official release from Obama's desk.

Yet, in light of our societal reconstruction and the written
support of our executive branch, there are still plenty of jurisdictions across
the United States that forbid the ownership of select breeds such as Pit Bulls
and Staffordshire Terriers.

Home Security and Dog Ownership

The discord lies in a firmly-rooted misconception. Many
policymakers and homeowners still adhere to the outdated
notion that certain dog breeds are indisputably primed for belligerence. In
reality, most of the data on dog bites relates to the popularity of the breed.
In the '70s, Dobermans were en vogue, and correspondingly, most instances of
canine aggression toward humans could be chalked up to Dobermans. The same goes
for Pit Bulls in the '80s and Rottweilers in the '90s.

When people start looking into a family dog, many maintain
this surface level understanding of canine aggression. Furthermore, some
households will even make a point to purchase dogs they perceive as more aggressive,
so as to circumvent the effort of buying or installing a home security system.
In fact, some even consider a dog as a type of DIY security system.

Again, that's a misconception.

True DIY security systems come with a host of snafus and missing
pieces, from unreliable protection to non-existent monitoring backup (you can
read a much bigger list of cons at securitycompanies.com).
The point is, if you're looking for home security, you need to get the real
deal. And by pegging your dog as your security system, you're doing a
disservice to both yourself and your pet.

Understanding a Dog's Purpose

A dog should never be purchased with the sole intent of
using it to guard and protect. Not only are they incapable of such a large
task, they're just not meant for it. What rule makers and pet buyers need to
understand is that dogs are built to be so much more than a sentry tower. They
can provide a loving, calming presence for the household they're born or
adopted into, and their purpose far exceeds their debasing history in blood
sport – no matter their breed.

This isn't to say there aren't any protective benefits to owning a dog. With its keen hearing and sensitivity, your dog might be able to give you a leg up by letting out a bark when it hears
or feels unusual rhythms around the house. But beyond that, residential
security is the homeowner's onus.

Once more of us are willing to take home security into our
own hands rather than putting it in the paws of our furry friends, we'll be
able to diminish the aggressive stigma around certain breeds. Provided
policymakers open their ears and read a little further into the data, there
will come a day when breed-specific legislation will no longer be an issue at
the federal, state or local level.

When the Lights Go Out, Dogs Steal Food

One Halloween, I bought little packaged chocolate candy bars
and put them into a bowl on a table in the darkened hall next to the front door.
I told my Standard Poodle, Zephyr, to leave the candy alone, because I knew
that chocolate can be poisonous to dogs.

As the Trick-or-Treaters came up to
the door, I gave each a candy bar while Zephyr stood nearby, wagging his tail
and obviously enjoying the kids and their costumes. Even though I sometimes
stepped out onto the front porch, stepping away from my sight of the candy
bars, Zephyr made no effort to touch the bowl.

Then my phone rang in another room. I thought that I was
safe leaving the candy for the thirty seconds that it took me to walk into the
other room, pick up the phone and carry it back to the front door. After all,
Zephyr was an obedient dog, and I had told him sternly that he should leave the
candy bowl alone.

Imagine my horror when I came back and found that the entire
bowl was empty. Zephyr had swallowed about twenty candy bars, wrappers and all.
He was standing as far away from the bowl as possible, with a look that said,
Candy, what candy? I don’t know what happened to it. It wasn’t me.

It was time to haul out the peroxide, take him out on the
back porch, and pour a couple of teaspoons down his throat. A few minutes
later, the peroxide did its job. Out came all twenty candy bars, unscathed by
dog teeth, just covered with goo.

I had saved my dog, but I still had a dilemma. That was my
entire supply of candy, and the evening was still young.

The candy wrappers were still intact, and I had a fleeting
thought of simply washing the wrappers and giving the kids the candy. But I
thought, no, that’s pretty gross.

My solution was to turn off the lights and pretend that no
one was home, and keep Zephyr from barking when kids rang the doorbell.

So did Zephyr realize that he could eat the candy bars
because I wasn’t watching?

A new study in the journal Animal Cognition suggests that
the answer is yes.

In the study by Kaminski et al. (2013, Animal Cognition
16:385-394) the experimenters set up situations were dogs were always forbidden
by a person to eat food that was available, but sometimes the person was lit up
with a lamp while the food was in the dark, sometimes the food was lit up while
the person was dark, sometimes both person and food were lit up, and sometimes
both were in the dark.

Whether or not the person was lit up with the lamp, as long
as the food was in the dark, the dogs felt that they could eat it. They
apparently realized that as long as the person couldn’t see the food, the
person also couldn’t see the dog stealing it.

This is yet another study showing that dogs are a lot
smarter than we sometimes assume.

For more of Zephyr’s antics, check out my ebook,
Autobiography of a Poodle, available on Amazon.com

--Con Slobodchikoff

Do Dogs Have Language?

In my recent book, Chasing Doctor Dolittle: Learning the
Language of Animals (http://tiny.cc/sam5nw), I show that a number of animal
species either have language or have language-like abilities.

Do dogs fall into the category of animals with language?

As we find out more and more about the behavior of dogs, we
find that they have elaborate body-language cues. Some of the large-scale cues
have been known for a long time. For example, the position of the tail, the
ears, the head, and the body torso have been known for a long time as signals
that dogs give to other dogs.

New research shows that within those large-scale cues, there
are more subtle ones, such as dogs laughing, or wagging their tails differently
to show their enjoyment.

We all know that dogs bark, but for a long time people
thought that the barking lacked any meaning. Now research is showing that dogs
give different barks in different contexts, and that other dogs can understand
the contexts from the barks.

Interestingly, we have a hard time understanding the meaning
of the barks, while some dogs seem to have no trouble understanding our words.
The border collie Chaser knows upwards of 1,000 words in English, and the
border collie Rico knows upward of 200 words in German.

And then there are the odor cues in anal glands and other
sources of odor. We have a hard time understanding the meaning encoded in
odors, but it is likely that anal glands can signal a considerable amount of
information to other dogs.

So the bottom line is, it is likely that dogs have a
language, just like the prairie dogs, dolphins, chickadees, honeybees, and ants
that I talk about in Chasing Doctor Dolittle have their own forms of language.

--Con Slobodchikoff

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Animal Behavior Course

What Would You Like To Know About Animal Behavior?

Would you like to know about why animals do what they do? Would you like to know why your dog does the things she does? Would you like to know how animals, including dogs, learn?

Now you can find out through my Animal Behavior Course, at www.animalbehaviorcourse.net.

It is an edited version of the lectures that I have been teaching to animal behavior classes for a number of years. I have edited it so that everything is people-friendly, with no big scientific terms or jargon.

You get a pdf file for $37. There are 11 modules in this file, and each module teaches you the highlights of what we currently know about the behavior of animals in areas such as learning, aggression, feeding, reproduction, migration, navigation, homing, communication, and social behavior.

You risk nothing in buying it. The course is sold through Clickbank, which has a 60 day return policy. So if you buy it and find that it is not right for you, Clickbank will return your money.

Also, if you haven't read it yet, I invite you to read my new ebook, Autobiography of a Poodle, which sells for $3.47 on Amazon and Barnes & Noble. The book tells the story of Zephyr, a standard poodle, and offers in a painless and fun way a lot of advice on the training and behavior of dogs. You can find the Amazon version at:http://tinyurl.com/9de6g6p

Finally, I would like to invite you, if you are on Facebook and haven't yet visited it, to visit my new page called Dr Con (www.facebook.com/doctor.con). If you are interested in animal intelligence, animal abilities, or animal language, I talk about recent findings in all of those areas. Click on the Like button, check it out and let me know if you like it or if you have suggestions for what to include.

 

--Con Slobodchikoff

New Book: Autobiography of a Poodle

What kind of book would a dog write? In my new book,
Autobiography of a Poodle, I try to answer that question.

The book is an uplifting story about a standard poodle named Zephyr, and
chronicles his life from puppyhood on. All of the events described in the book
actually happened to Zephyr, an eternal optimist. 

• 
  He had to go through dog training classes
• 
  He went to a dog show
• 
  He had to adjust to living with a cat
• 
  He had to stay in a crate while his people slept
• 
  He ran off-leash some of the time
• 
  He had dog friends
• 
  He encountered a dog who bit him
• 
  He ate some poisoned food
• 
  He had to learn to live with another standard
  poodle who came into his life

Along the way, Zephyr shares his philosophy of life and how
dogs might see the world.

There are three possibilities for how this book was written:

1. 
   Zephyr wrote the book at night, typing on the
   computer while everyone was asleep
2. 
   Zephyr dictated the book to me, and I faithfully
   copied down every word
3. 
   I wrote the book based on events in Zephyr’s
   life and my knowledge of dog behavior

What you choose to believe is up to you.

--Con Slobodchikoff

Career Advice for Aspiring Behaviorists and Trainers

Note from Con Slobodchikoff: This post is by Karen London, PhD, CAAB, CPDT, who regularly contributes posts to this blog and is also a frequent contributor to Bark Magazine as well as author or co-author of a number of books on dog behavior.

One of the questions I receive most often is how to become a
canine behaviorist or trainer. Neither is a career with a typical path made up
of a standard educational program followed by an exam or an approved
internship. All of us in the field have carved our own way, which is why there
are so many variations on the story we each tell about how we came to do what
we do. While there are many paths to a career in this field, some basic advice
applies to all of them.

The most important advice I like to give to anyone with an
interest in this type of work is that there are two equally important aspects
of preparing for such careers. I feel strongly that the best trainers and
behaviorists have pursued both avenues as part of their education.

One is acquiring the knowledge you’ll need in this field,
and that involves learning a lot about a variety of areas: canine ethology,
learning theory, coaching skills, proper equipment, and business. To educate
yourself in these areas requires a lot of reading of books and blogs,
supplemented by seminars, online or in-person courses, webinars, and workshops.

The second, and equally important area is practical
experience and hands-on work with animals. All the book learning in the world
will not take you very far as a behaviorist and trainer if you don’t have the
skills to actually work with a dog. The best ways to acquire these practical
skills are with a combination of workshops, training your own and friends’ dogs,
and volunteering at a place with a lot of animals, such as a shelter or humane
organization, a rescue group, a veterinary clinic, or a dog-training business.

In my experience, most people are stronger in one area or
the other. Either they are really on top of the knowledge and information side
of things but a bit weak on dog handling skills or they are highly skilled with
dogs but could benefit from having more information at their disposal. The
people who really excel as dog trainers and behaviorists are balanced—very
knowledgeable and highly skilled.

When I started doing this kind of work full time, I was far
more advanced in my book learning than my dog handling skills. I had completed
my Ph.D. in zoology with an emphasis in ethology, and I was in good shape in
terms of what I knew. (To clarify, I think it’s critical not ever to be done
learning, so I follow my own advice and continue to learn, especially with a
lot of reading and also with webinars and conferences when I can). Though I had
good practical skills for working with large colonies of stinging wasps, as was
required for my dissertation work, I lacked enough experience with dogs, and
that’s what I set out to correct.

I worked as a dog groomer for a year just to get to know my
new species of choice, while I worked as an assistant trainer and then as a
trainer. I remember after that year when I began my internship with behaviorist
Patricia McConnell, she once said to me, “I’m as proud of my dog training
skills as I am of my Ph. D. They were equally hard to acquire.” That comment
has always stayed with me, reminding me of the importance of excelling in both
knowledge and practical skills. These skills must be practiced regularly to be
maintained.

If you haven’t yet worked a lot with dogs, you may wonder what
sorts of skills I’m talking about. The things that people who work with dogs
need to be able to do is practice with dogs of every temperament, size, and
learning style. They include:

Getting them in and out of kennels and crates

Using your own expressions and postures to set even fearful
dogs at ease

Having excellent timing with reinforcement, such as treats
and clickers or other markers

Using your voice and modulating its tone and volume

Managing the leash when working with exuberant or even
aggressive dogs.

Attaching and fitting all sorts of head collars, harness,
and leashes

Body blocking

Moving in space with dogs for turns, stops, accelerations

If you are interested in a career as a behaviorist or
trainer, know that you will be working with people as much as with dogs. If you
want to work with animals because you love them and aren’t so fond of people,
this is not the right field for you. People and dogs are two of my very
favorite species, which is lucky since I spend so much time with members of
both of them.

Best of luck to all of you who want to be in this field. I
love my work and I would recommend it to anyone who loves dogs as much as I do!

 --Karen London

 

Dog Training Certifications – The Credential Craze

Note from Con Slobodchikoff (www.conslobodchikoff.com): The following post was written by Starr Ladehoff, Certified Professional Dog Trainer -- Knowledge Assessed (CPDT-KA), and Director Elect, Board of Directors, Certification Council for Professional Dog Trainers. She is an AKC Canine Good Citizen Evaluator (#71153) and a Canine Life and Social Skills Evaluator (#E750403). Starr does training and behavioral consulting at Arizona Pet Professionals, LLC, www.ArizonaPetPro.com. Her email is [email protected].

(Disclaimer: The Dog Behavior Blog has no affiliation with, nor receives any compensation from, any of the dog behavior web sites or organizations listed in this post).

In a world full of credentials for everything from doctors to technicians, it is often challenging to make sense of what they mean and in the dog training and behavior industry, credentials are becoming quite popular. Many trainers have some form of certification or are on their way to obtaining one. Through the maze and haze of all of these symbols that grow every year, it is worth taking a look at what several of the popularly listed credentials mean.

There are three main types of certification as described by Susan Smith, CPDT-KA, CDBC of Raising Canine, LLC in her article posted on her school website – www.becomeaprofessionaldogtrainer.com.

· The first certification signifies you have completed a course of study and met standards discerned by the organization providing the course – giving you a certificate of completion or diploma. The testing process is geared to the organization’s curriculum so one may or may not be limited in proficiency.

· The second type of certification is where one has met standards of a member-driven organization and, like the first, it may be driven by a certain point of view or methodology.

· The third type is where one has met standards that are independent of any organization; these standards are based in science, or are accepted industry standards. Regardless of how you obtained your education, the tests are standardized for the profession.

In the second and third cases, there are often continuing education requirements to keep the certification up to date and in the third case periodic renewal of the certification almost always required.

The Certification Council for Professional Dog Trainers (CCPDT) is the only independent, psychometrically sound, certifying organization for dog trainers, to date. The certification is met by sitting for a knowledge based exam (CPDT-KA); CCPDT has recently added a skills based exam (CPDT-KSA) and an exam for behavior consultants (CBCC-KA or -KSA).

The Association of Pet Dog Trainers (APDT) encourages people to attain certification and has a list of approved certifications they recognize as meeting their standards. Below is the list of approved certifications by the APDT as listed on their website www.apdt.com:

Credential By Organization

CPDT-KA (Certified Professional Dog Trainer – Knowledge Assessed) By Certification Council for Professional Dog Trainers

ACAAB (Associate Certified Applied Animal Behaviorist) By Animal Behavior Society

CAAB (Certified Applied Animal Behaviorist) By Animal Behavior Society

CABC (Certified Animal Behavior Consultant) By International Association of Animal Behavior Consultants

CDBC (Certified Dog Behavior Consultant) By International Association of Animal Behavior Consultants

CCAB (Certified Clinical Behavior Consultant) By International Association for the Study of Animal Behavior

DACVB (Diplomat of the American College of Veterinary Behaviorists) By American College of Veterinary Behaviorists

The following are some of the schools with certificate programs that provide a certificate upon completion of their program (there is usually no requirement for continuing education):

Credential By Organization

ABCDT (Animal Behavior College Certified Dog Trainer) By Animal Behavior College

DipCBST (Diploma of Canine Science Behavior and Technology) By Companion Animal Science Institute

KPCT (Karen Pryor Certified Trainer) By Karen Pryor Academy

PMCT(1,2,3) Pat Miller Certified Trainer levels 1, 2 & 3) By Pat Miller Academy

TCA Trainer By Triple Crown Academy

If you are thinking of becoming certified as a dog trainer, when deciding on a certification, consider the type of credential you feel would best suit your needs and what value you will receive in obtaining it. If you are looking at a program that gives a certificate or diploma upon completion, look at methodology and course curriculum. Communicate with graduates and ask why they chose a specific program in addition to asking if they feel benefited by the credential. Most credentials and programs offer benefits and perks to those who have graduated or obtained the certification including exposure to the public, discounts for various items or services and groups to join for advice and support. Other programs that don’t offer a certification, such as www.becomeaprofessionaldogtrainer.com provide a thorough curriculum to prepare you for training and/or CCPDT certification in the future.

If you are trying to find a dog trainer who is credentialed, ask them what their designation means and what it took to get it or look at where it was obtained and what standards were met to get it. Talk to the trainer’s references. Make sure you feel comfortable with the trainer and their methods and experience. Ask questions of those who state they are a “behaviorist” without the PhD or certification to back it up.

While there are many amazing trainers without a certification, it is my opinion that we improve ourselves and our profession by obtaining a valid and respected credential that was obtained by testing one’s knowledge of the science of canine behavior.