Puppy behavior questions??? Get answers from a professional behavior consultant

[Golden Beauties Driven 2 Doodles]

Feel free to throw me some questions. Iove to help people out and make your puppy experience as full as it possibly can be!

[Carol Brand]

Who were you certified through and what sort of training have you done (i.e.  Have you titled dogs in performance?)

[Golden Beauties Driven 2 Doodles]

Hi carol, I have degrees in human and animal psychology, I am currently working towards a terminal degree in psychology. I have 2 degrees from animal behavior institutes, I hold Dip. CBST (a diploma of canine behavior science and technology), and have been actively working as a consultant for over 10 years. I have attended APDT conference, other conferences, worked with obedience instructors, show breeders, veterinarians and often get many clients from trainers in this area who have "difficult cases".

I have and continue to work with the prevention of behavior problems in puppies as I am a breeder and have a commitment to my puppy owners to arm them with the information that they need to have a successful experience and to prevent behavior problems of all sorts.

I dont show dogs I work specifically with behavior problems and the prevention of- these are two completely different realms. The "training" I do is a bit more than training it is behavior modification which based on professionals such as Ian Dunbar, Karen Pryor, Jean Donaldson. I have specialized in canine aggression, working with dogs whose owners have been brought up on charges from an attack or a bite where I would work with the dog and write reports of my notes to determine whether the dog's behavior is modifiable or not.

I have indeed worked in obedience through group puppy, adult and advanced classes in the past and I often teach a couple group classes a year, depending on my workload.

 

There are many different variations of animal behavior professionals; agility, field, obedience, behavior modification (aka behavior change programming), service dog training, schutzhund, herding training...

Just like in the field of psychology there are many variations, just because someone is a psychologist does not meant that they are a psychotherapist, they could be in research, cognition, learning and behavior, teaching, perception, clinical etc..

 

Personally I am not an agility trainer although I have run my own dogs in agility classes just for fun, and I do hunt but I choose not to train hunting dogs or "field trials" as my main focus is to help dogs who have issues that are on their last legs, those that have behavior problems. This is a specialization within the field just as a psychologist may be aware or the basic theories in clinical psychology but they choose to work in research.

 

I am into helping people and helping animals, I am not a competitive person, I prefer to make a difference in the world, in society and to educate people.

 

You can start a man a fire to keep him warm at night but if you show him how to start it himself he will stay warm for the rest of his life.

[Jennifer,Chloe & Myla]

Can you come to our house?????? LOL!!

[Golden Beauties Driven 2 Doodles]

I would love to! I am in Rochester Ny though....  :)

[shelly]

Hey... That's NOT too far from me!  LOL

[Lucy & AnnaBelle's Mom]

Been watching this discussion and a couple of times you have mentioned for the poster to drop you an e-mail.  Would it be possible to please keep the discussions here within this discussion so that others can see the responses.  If your responses are truly on target and results are seen by the original poster, then there are many others than can benefit from these discussions rather than seeing them started here but no results shown.  Just a thought!

[Golden Beauties Driven 2 Doodles]

Absolutely, I do want to be sure that everyone I am working with is on the right track and sometimes catching me through email or calling me when there are bumps in the road or anything that they need answered asap and I just want to be sure that they are on the right track and I can help them at any point. But I will post info and have them post progress as well so you all can benefit from it! Good point and I appreciate you wanting to learn more! I do offer for anyone who does not want to post here for any reason that they can always send me an email or call me, so to maintain their privacy if they choose that.

[Traci -Bexter & Maggie]

Your advice sounds a lot like my Petsmart trainer!  I like your ideas!  I have a question that may be a stupid question, but I just started thinking about this...

Bexter (4 months old) does really well when someone comes to the door now.  He goes to his "greet spot" and sits & stays while the person comes through the door.  He is awesome at that!  However...when I come home, he of course jumps all over me as soon as I get in the door.  Here's my statement/question...I DO NOT CARE if he jumps on ME.  I actually kind of like it.  I know that sounds stupid, but we are very affectionate with each other.  I don't just want to pet him when he is sitting.  I love him to jump on me & I put my arms around him & hug/pet/kiss, etc.  So...is it possible to train a dog to only jump on the owner(s) BUT NOT others/visitors??  Or will this totally confuse him?

[Golden Beauties Driven 2 Doodles]

Okay this is a challenging one because it is hard to get them to differentiate between people although it can be done. I would suggest training a cue word for him to jump on you that way he can only jump on you when you ask him to and he wouldnt be able to jump on anyone else... now mind you by doing this you can not allow him to jump on you without the cue word. So be careful.

 

Thanks for the compliments, I know a lot of people who were disappointed with trainers from stores in the past but I think the stores are now starting to hire people who are professionals in the field.

Most all professionals now a days have a positive reinforcement based technique, I am impressed with that as in my area I was hearing from clients many times that they had trainers who used aversives and that just doesnt work and we have so much research that validates positive techniques.And I like many others are bound by a code of ethics, doing more good than harm in the welfare of the animal is one of those listed in the code!

 

Let us know how it goes with Bexter!

[Jane, Guinness and Murphy]

Please consider joining our Training Group.  We'd love your insight.

[Golden Beauties Driven 2 Doodles]

Will do!

[shelly]

You do realize by now that we feel you are an angel (with paws) that has been dropped down on us from Heaven onto our wonderful sight!

Thanks for being so accepting and patient with all of our concerns!!!