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Non Kennel Dog Boarding
One To One Dog Training
Below is an excellent article by Sarah Kalnajs of Blue Dog Training talking about the power of positive dog training as opposed to punitive methods of dog training. It is long, but it is well worth reading. Sarah is an internationally acclaimed trainer and lecturer and is coming to Victoria in May 2012 to give a weekend seminar. Please see events section above for further details...
Links, Articles and Events
Links
Events
Articles
One to One Dog Training
Non-Kennel Dog Boarding
Please click on the photo or icon to follow the link
Woofers' Facebook Page
Log on to Woofers' Facebook page for updates about boarding dogs, videos, articles and information. You can also leave messages on the page if you wish!
Woofers' Channel on YouTube
Click on the link to go to Woofers' YouTube channel where you will find videos of boarding dogs when they are playing, out on walks, or just plain lazing around!
Vancouver Island Big Dogs Club
An informal club (no forms or fees) founded by me in 2007 for owners of giant breeds or giant breed mixes. The Club meets every two weeks in the greater Victoria area to walk together so their Big Dogs can socialise with others of their size.
Dr. Ian Dunbar's website which is packed with articles, training tips and free downloads. Dr Ian Dunbar is an internationally known and respected figure and a "guru" to dog trainers around the world.
Victoria Stillwell
Victoria Stillwell has a TV programme called "It's Me Or The Dog" which shows on Animal Planet. Victoria is an advocate of positive dog training. Click on the icon to go to her website where you will find lots of information and interesting stuff that I like! She has written books about positive training and also gives seminars. I briefly met Victoria a couple of years ago and she's just fab!
Big Heart Rescue
Rescuing dogs and cats in need. Please see their website for adoptable dogs/cats.
Big Heart works in BC with a special focus on remote First Nations Reserves, such as Bella Bella, Shear Water and Bella Coola on the Central Coast, and Kuper Island in the Gulf Islands. They refer to their work in these communities as "Spirit's Mission".
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Citizen Canine Dog Owners' Association
Citizen Canine is a non-profit network of individuals and organizations working together to promote responsible dog ownership and support the dog-owning community in Greater Victoria. Our three areas of focus are advocacy, public education, and canine community building.
(Oh - and we also organise some really neat events!)
Shut Down Puppy Mills
Did you know that puppy mills and irresponsible breeders use avenues such as Pet Stores, Brokers, newspaper ads and internet web sites to sell their puppies? See this website to find out why you should never buy a puppy from any of the above. This website will give you information that will help you make an informed decision if you decide to buy a new puppy. Please consider signing the online Petition.
Vancouver Island Animal Training Association
An organisation dedicated to promoting humane training and handling methods of all animals on Vancouver Island.
Click on the icon to go to their Facebook page
Victoria Adoptables
If you are thinking of adding a new pet to your home, then please first consider a rescue organisation. On the Victoria Adoptables website you will find many animals from different rescue centres in the greater Victoria area.
Broken Promises Rescue
Broken Promises is a relatively new rescue organisation formed from the coming together of several people who spent years working in rescue. They are doing great work, helping animals who might not be taken in by other rescues and they need help and donations to further their cause. They also have animals for adoption.
SPCA Victoria Branch
The SPCA Victoria branch does great work. Please click on the icon to go to their site where you can search animals awaiting adoption
K9 Fit Fur Fun
A K9 Swimming Pool in North Saanich where dogs have fun!
What makes a good Dog Park?
Click on the APDT logo to go to a useful article on the APDT website which tells you what to look for in a good dog park. Some dog parks are great and some not so great and it's helpful to know the difference
What leads up to a dog bite?
Please click on the Retriever to go to a You Tube link which shows a short video of what leads up to an act of aggression on the part of a dog. You will see that things can happen very quickly and the signs can be subtle. If you know what to look for, you can intervene before things get this far.
Dog Body Language
Click on the Best Friends Animal Society
logo to link to a very helpful article on their
website about dog body language.
Once you are at the dog park, it is very helpful to be able to read the body language of the dogs around you. Sometimes what looks like play isn't play at all and if you can spot the difference then you will be able to intervene between your dog an another dog before things go wrong. When at the dog park, or when out anywhere with your dog, you should always be paying attention to your dog and the other dogs around you both.
A few words on Positive Reinforcement Training
By: Sarah Kalnajs CPDT-KA ,CDBC
Recently I've heard from trainers referring to themselves as "balanced" that Positive Reinforcement trainers use no form of correction or punishment, think all "positive punishment" methods are "evil" and are only about flinging cookies.
This is not at all an accurate representation. If you're looking for a dog trainer, and you're confused by all of the controversy, hopefully this short piece will help you.
Positive Reinforcement Trainers / Dog Friendly Dog Trainers / Clicker Trainers / Science Based Trainers - those are a few of the phrases commonly used to describe the group of trainers who promote dog training through the use of a thorough understanding of the science of learning theory. They use both classical and operant conditioning techniques to train dogs and while food is used in training, when done properly, reinforcement training is about just that - reinforcement, and not, as some would put forth, bribery.
Keep in mind that positive does not equal permissive (thanks Susan Garrett) and the trainers in this category do in fact use punishers in training, including some positive punishers. The distinction is that their preference in training is whenever possible to use Positive Reinforcement and Negative Punishment (the removal of something the dog wants in order to decrease the frequency of a behavior) and when necessary use the tools of Positive Punishment (the addition
of something unpleasant to the dog that will reduce the frequency of a behavior) and Negative Reinforcement. Positive trainers fully understand that there must be consequences in learning but see no need for those consequences to be harsh physical punishers in order to have a wonderfully trained and well mannered family (or performance) pet. While they may sometimes opt to use Positive Punishment as a tool, their choice would be perhaps clapping their hands and making a noise or moving just a bit into the dog's space.
My personal rule is this: If you wouldn't do it to a pre-verbal child, then please don't do it to your dog. Why? Because your dog doesn't have the cognitive capability of understanding what you are doing any more than your pre-verbal child would understand that his drawing on the kitchen wall produced a sound spanking.
I am a crossover trainer. This means that many years ago (goodness how time flies), I used the metal collars, holding a dog on the ground, forcing them to "face their fears" etc.
Was I able to train dogs that way? Yes... BUT - The dogs didn't get excited about training and many became fearful of the collar, the leash, the car, dog class (the list goes on and on). You CAN train a dog through force and intimidation but mostly you are training them what NOT to do with a good dose of "be afraid of the person on the other end of the leash".
It is true that some dogs are much more sensitive to the use of the quite harsh physical methods than others, but the point I learned...the reason I switched training methods and did not look back?
Why take a chance with a dog if you don't have to?
In other words, if you can get a wonderfully trained and well behaved dog using positive reinforcement and negative punishment methods, why on earth would you want to use a technique that at best the dog wouldn't exactly love and at worst could create more problems than you started with?
Reinforcement trainers avoid the use of metal training collars, shock collars and physical manipulation methods (alpha rolls and the like) that have been shown in an impressive quantity of scientific research and literature to have no meaning or merit in dog training. (See David Mech, take a glance through "Coercion and It's Fallout by Murray Sidman or Google Scholar search studies of the use of shock collars on dogs to learn more about this).
To state it plainly, both experience and science have shown us that it is erroneous to think that by rolling a dog over on their back we are "showing them we are dominant" and they will then change their behavior. It simply isn't true.
There is a very large difference between an offered behavior and a FORCED behavior. One can not force an emotional state on another mammal by placing them in a physical position. Clients who comes to my office having done this to their dog report the same things:
1. Their dog became more aroused or more aggressive in response or
2. Their dog became very frightened of them and shut down.
What didn't happen as a result? LEARNING
People should NOT be able to walk into a pet store and walk out with a remote controlled shock collar to place on their dog's neck shocking the animal each time they "misbehave". Many times the damage of this type of, hmmm, I can't even call it training....so INTERACTION then, is so severe that the dog must be euthanized. Also, we need to call it what it is. It is a collar that uses an electric shock as an aversive to the dog. It bothers me greatly that some put "gentler" names on these devices calling them "e stim" or even "training collars". I've never had to disguise the term "liver treat" after all!
A final comment on the shock collar, anticipating the typical response by it's advocates, is the following...
"Well the dog is only shocked once or twice and then it's ONLY a beep".
Remember Pavlov's dog everyone? The dog that began salivating at the sound of the bell since it came to predict food? That is an example of classical conditioning and it is exactly what happens with the shock and the beep.
To Pavlov's dog, the bell became the food in the dog's mind. The bell produced the same physiological reaction in the dog as the food. In the use of shock collars and shock fences, the beep becomes the shock. The dog experiences the same physiological reaction to the beep as they did to the shock. They become one and the same and that is why it works! (That is, until the dog is sufficiently motivated to break through to follow a deer or rabbit and then too fearful to return as they'd have to endure the shock to enter back in to their own yard.)
For those that say the shock isn't painful? Look, if it wasn't painful, it wouldn't work. Is it the most painful thing ever experienced? No. But how many of you would be willing to put it on a three year old and try it out? Enough said.
Am I biased towards this type of training? Absolutely! Proudly so! Am I passionate about this subject? Certainly! Do I hope that others will take time to learn about these issues and cross over as I did? I very much do.
At the same time, I believe firmly that everyone who works with dogs, loves dogs. I don't think any trainer of any method is clasping their hands thinking...."hmmm, how can I hurt a dog next". All I'm saying now, all I've ever said is this:
If there is a way to train your dog just as well, if not better and without the risk of any fear, without physical discomfort and without the potential of fallout (such as the development of behavior problems from training)...
Why wouldn't you want to do that?
In other words, if you can get a wonderfully trained and well behaved dog using positive reinforcement and negative punishment methods, why on earth would you want to use a technique that at best the dog wouldn't exactly love and at worst could create more problems than you started with?
© Brenda Axon Woofers Non Kennel Dog Boarding and Woofers One to One Dog Training. All rights reserved.
