Just like most people that are in the dog business I have loved animals of all types throughout my life. It didn’t actually occur to me until 1999 to “get into” the dog business. In 1999 I got a German Shepherd pup named Samson and wanted to raise him right, train him and have a dog that would be a pleasure to be around. Serious study began at that time.
I read everything that I could get my hands on and found that there is conflicting information out there in the dog training world. I started Samson with compulsion training. This simply means that he wore a choke chain and was jerked whenever he did the wrong thing. Doesn’t sound very nice does it? No, it didn’t to me either. I feel very guilty for this.....but when we know better, we DO better.
I kept up my research and found a better way - positive reinforcement training. This is training where the dog is rewarded when they do something right. Bad behavior is ignored or the dog is distracted from doing the unwanted behavior and then immediately rewarded for doing what we like. Makes much more sense to me. Wow. I loved it. Basically the most punishment our dogs get when they make a mistake is that the reward is not given. They are "paid" for a wise choice! They don't have to fear the consequence, which makes for a much more confident dog. As Susan Garrett says, "Positive is not Permissive", and I subscribe to that principle. I want a well behaved dog that knows the boundaries and respects them. My dogs are healthy, happy, confident, and also a joy to be around.
I volunteered at a shelter thinking that I could make a difference, but I just couldn’t do it. I couldn't stand going into the shelters seeing the sad and frustrated faces of those hopeless dogs. There had to be something else that I could do.
An opportunity opened up in a local community to give dog training classes in 2004. I jumped at the chance and loved it. Once I started giving classes and attending more seminars I found my opportunity to make a difference in a positive environment. Puppy Headstart is my alternative to the shelter situation. I wanted to work with the puppies and their owners on the front end . Meaning that instead of finding homes for unwanted, thrown away dogs, I would join with owners to get them on the right track with their pups so they wouldn’t end up at a shelter.
Since 1999, I've continued to research through reading, training my own dogs, working with other dogs, attending seminars and competing in dog agility. I have attended seminars from the top positive trainers in the dog industry. Jean Donaldson, Ian Dunbar, Brenda Aloff, Melissa Alexander, Suzanne Clothier, and Karen Pryor to name a few. I also joined the Association of Pet Dog Trainers (#66603 - http://www.apdt.com ) and started attending their annual conventions. I've attended the APDT conventions for the last 3 years. Last year, I attended the 5-Day APDT Conference in Portland Oregon where I went to 4 different seminars per day as well as buying the conference CD that I could listen to all of the other speakers that I missed while attending. In November of 2007, I went to a 3-Day Susan Garrett Seminar in Houston where I could fine-tune many of her techniques that I was exposed to beforehand. In April I attended a 3-day seminar with Brenda Aloff and Steve White that was hosted by Michele Crouse of Super-K9. (http://www.super-k9.com/steve-and-brenda-details.html)
One of the recent seminars that I attended was the C.A.T. for dogs seminar in Dallas. http://www.spca.org/site/PageNavigator/CATforDogs?JServSessionIdr012=e0a6t01jf4.app20a . This is a technique to Shape Away Aggression and is Presented by:Kellie Snider, MS & Jesús Rosales-Ruiz, PhD. I took my GSD Samson to be used as the "passive" demo dog in the "hands on" portion of the seminar.
January 15 - 18, 2009, I spent 3 days brushing up on the latest in dog training news and science at Clicker EXPO in Austin, TX. If you'd like to check out who I got to meet and learn from , please go to http://www.clickertraining.com/clickerexpo/.
As of April 15, 2009 I officially graduated from the Karen Pryor Academy and am now a Karen Pryor CERTIFIED TRAINING PARTNER- check it out http://www.karenpryoracademy.com . This was a very intense training course and I am very proud and honored to be among the first Texas graduating class and only 1 of 4 total that achieved certification.
As you can see, keeping current on the latest positive dog training techniques is very important to me and is what I love to do!
So now here I am – I have been giving classes and working with owners in their homes since 2004. I now have Samson who is 9 years old, Barley, a Pembroke Welsh Corgi who has just turned 5, and Prada who is my Border Collie puppy who is now 18 months old..
I got Prada in September of 2007 and I continue to fill her once "empty head" with all the good stuff that makes her a joy to live with and a joy to take anywhere that dogs are welcome! Samson is now retired from agility, Barley is a crazy agility addict and I will be working with Prada so she loves the sport just as much as Barley and I do.
