Puppy Prodigies
June 16, 2013 | 
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Few people know how important puppy socialization is to a well-adjusted adult dog. The Puppy Prodigies TM website has excellent information on working with puppies. Even people with an “accidental” litter should work with the litter and not just let them ‘grow up.”
Finding Good Trainers
This article was published in the Journal of Veterinary Behavior in 2006. The information is written from veterinarians to veterinarians. It’s a thorough analysis of what to look for that should be included and excluded in a search and is also valuable to owners and the public. The authors are veterinary behaviorists.
Good trainers: How to identify one and why this is important to your practice of veterinary medicine
Produced by the Advanced Behavior Course at the North American Veterinary Conference, Post Graduate Institute, 2004
Purpose The purpose of this brief article is to demonstrate the value of identifying “good trainers” and incorporating this knowledge into your practice. The following recommendations represent a consensus document compiled by the authors as one of the final projects in the Advanced Applied Clinical Behavioral Medicine course at the 2004 NAVC PGI. Many of the authors are now using these recommendations in their practices in ways that have increased their productivity and altered the way they now practice medicine.
Posted in Education, Philosophy | 
Tags: behavior, behaviorists, dog trainers, dog training, dogs, trainers, training | 
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Tools and Methods to Avoid
I heard this from veterinary behaviorist, Patrick Melese, DVM, MA, DACVB:
To use shock as an effective dog training method you will need:
A thorough understanding of canine behavior.
A thorough understanding of learning theory.
Impeccable timing.
And if you have those three things, you don’t need a shock collar. –Author unknown
Leah Roberts has collected an extensive reference list from a variety of sources of tools or methods to avoid:
shock collars,
invisible fences,
choke collars,
prong collars,
outdated methods,
alpha theory, and
the dominance myth.
Posted in Education, Philosophy | Tags: choke collars, collar, dog, invisivle fence, prong collars, shock collars, slip collars | No Comments »