In My Search For Help....

[shelly]

I posted this in the Anxiety group as well as on the main forum, but figured I'd try and reach as many as I can...

     While looking for behaviorists/trainers to help us with Tori's barking craze when visitors come, someone gave me a friend's card.  After the woman's name it said "ABCDT" .  Does anyone know if these initials truly mean something?  I get a bit guarded with all the people out there who claim to be trainers.... it just seemed funny to me that the letters happen to be the first four of the alphabet followed by a "T".  sorry if I am being too skeptical!  .

[Jeanne, Tura and Dolly]

It means Animal Behavior Certified Dog Trainer, according to Google anyway. Maybe they go thru some training to get certified?

[Deb, Connor & Simon]

I don't know if this is true for the person you met...but ABC is how they refer to Animal Behavior College (maybe an alumni). "DT" I would guess stands for dog trainer. You can check out ABC training on line. :-) Hmmmm....maybe trying to be clever??????

A well-used spray bottle or canned air along with correction...and/or clicker training might be a good thing. Just a thought - you have probably already tried both. :-)
Deb & the doodles

[Lyn Glover]

Hi Shelly,
ABCDT can mean either "Animal Behavior Certified Dog Trainer" or "Animal Behavior College Dog Trainer". Some trainers have spent the time and taken classes to earn such a certification. I would call the trainer and in your conversation simply ask her to explain the ABCDT after her name and how she attained it.

I don't think you're being too skeptical at all - in the world of dog training, I think there are, unfortunately, some people who do not have the best interest of our canine family members in mind and it's always good to very careful.

[shelly]

WOW! YOU guys are fast! And have I mentioned one TERRIFIC group of people!? I intend to ask her... but the alphabetic sequence of the letters just caught my eye (maybe this teacher has been on vacation too long - lol)

Deborah - we have tried the squirt bottle... she's not phased by it at all - she's so zoned in on her "whatever she thinks she's doing..." but forgot about the air burst can. One of my friends told me about that a while back.. I should order it now! Thanks for the reminder!

THANKS AGAIN ALL!!!

[Sally, Ditzy Mitzi & Sgt. Pepper]

Just a guess, but maybe it stands for ABC Dog Training. An old, and very obvious, way to get listed first in the phone book is to start with the letter A in the product name.

[shelly]

That's one of the things I was actually thinking.... or maybe a way to get others to think she holds some training... which the poor girl PROBABLY does - now that I read above, and here I am questioning her credentials before I even got a call back from her! LOL

[Carol and Banjo]

It's good to be skeptical Shelly. You'll no doubt spend good money for a good trainer. I think there are alot of folks out there claiming to be trainers. Advanced Behaviorist certified dog trainer would be my guess. I would want to know where she received her certification, and I'm sure she'd be happy to provide you with past client names and contact info so that you could talk to people who've used her services.
I'm sure you'll find some answers to Tori barking soon. Best of luck!!!!

[Sally, Ditzy Mitzi & Sgt. Pepper]

Please let us know what works. Mitzi also barks a lot! Though it usually is something outside that she sees or
hears and I do enjoy have a watch dog, but sometimes we wonder just what she is watching, birds, lizards, toads! lol !

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

I hope it isn't "Animal Behavior College", because there is an awful lot of info on-line suggesting that this is an on-line program which perhaps isn't run very well and doesn't provide the best education in animal behavior. Here's a sample of some complaints:
http://www.complaintsboard.com/complaints/animal-behavior-college-i...
Of course, I really don't know anything aboiut them. But this is very different from the type of education that the behaviorist at Jack's specialist's office has. There is a BIG difference betwen an animal behaviorist and an animal trainer.
Here are the behaviorist's qualifications:
John Ciribassi, DVM, DACVB has been a veterinarian since 1984 and is a graduate of the University of Illinois. He has been in general practice in Pennsylvania & in the Chicago area since 1988. He earned his Diplomate status in the American College of Veterinary Behavior in 2006.
I have a feeling that this "American Behavior College" is trying to capitlaize on the name of the veterinary school above. You see that a lot in some professions where there are no state licensing requirements, like personal training. When I was doing it, there were a lot of bogus certifiaction programs for trainers that were little more than a 3 day seminar (no hands on training) where you basically paid for your certification. Since at that time, the most respected certification program was the American College of Sports Medicine's, you'd see all these similar sounding names of programs, all using "College", that had no admission requirements other than money, designed to confuse people, I guess.
As with anything else, it's important to do your research.

[shelly]

Well Karen... YOU are correct AGAIN! She said it was "Animal Behavior College". However... she did admit that she is not trained as a behaviorist and did think that she would be "doing me and the field a disservice to say she could handle this", but she did refer me to the woman that she is under, she took my number to have the woman call me, and she gave me the woman's website, but I can't pull it up on google. Hopefully the woman will call me back???? In the meantime, I am going to put a call into the gentleman I got off my vet's website. I'm on a mission today!!!

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

Yes- most truly qualified veterinary behaviorists (and all specialists) work by referral only through your regular vet. I would definitely go with your vet's referrals as a starting point.

[Kyoko]

Wow.. How do you learn to train dogs on-line? Puzzles me......