Choose to Train Humane with Annie Phenix

09/22/2025

www.choosetotrainhumane.com

09/22/2025

09/22/2025

Link to sign up for this course:

https://choosetotrainhumane.com/cbl-1/

By Anke Herrmann, September 20, 2025

09/21/2025

We chew.
You chew.
We all chew.

09/20/2025

This unique course kicks off LIVE on Sept. 28th

Link to sign up or learn more about this course:
https://choosetotrainhumane.com/cbl-1/

By Anke Herrmann, September 20, 2025

09/20/2025

We sleep as a unit around here. 💤💤💤

09/20/2025

Update on grass roots action against PetSafe Brand⚡️We must stop normalizing shock collars in American culture.

What we expect from PetSafe is simple: make a clear, written statement denouncing shock/e-collars and commit to ending their sale, marketing, and promotion. End sponsorships that platform aversive methods. If leadership continues to endorse these products or strategies, they should step aside.

Want to help? Make this highly problematic brand aware of your position today. Leave factual comments on PetSafe’s newest posts, and vote with your wallet.

Here’s the backstory: PetSafe recently posted a video promoting shock/e-collars with claims that weren’t scientifically sound. Thanks to pushback from our community, they pulled it within 24 hours of our formal boycott of the PetSafe brand. You can see the now deleted video in my stories.

But that doesn’t mean they stopped selling shock collars to the public - which enables further harm to dogs and the relationships between people and their dogs.

Across veterinary and behavior organizations worldwide, the guidance has been consistent for years: shock/e-collars have no place in dog training or behavior modification. Research links these devices to more fear and anxiety, elevated stress, increased aggressive responses, and erosion of trust between dogs and their people; humane, reward-based methods meet the same goals without those costs.

The commercial success of shock collars depends on public confusion and euphemisms that rebrand pain as “stimulation” and control as “freedom”.

The boycott continues until actions, not PR, match modern standards of animal care. We’re prepared to widen the pressure to the retailers that carry PetSafe products.

Pain is not a training plan. Trust is non-negotiable. Dogs, and the people who love them, deserve better.

More info on this boycott here https://www.facebook.com/share/v/1FPLrEuu4b/

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American College of Veterinary Behaviorists position statements on veterinarians’ responsibility when working with behavior cases, and humane and effective evidence-based training https://www.dacvb.org/page/PositionStatement

American Veterinary Society of Animal Behavior position statement on Humane Dog Training Methodshttps://avsab.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/AVSAB-Humane-Dog-Training-Position-Statement-2021.pdf

More sources and a list of organizations worldwide who have condemned shock in training at zakgeorge.com

09/19/2025

HOW IT ALL BEGAN

I'm Finn - the white one in the middle with the name Joe under me. My brother Cooper is the blue one to the far end with the name Jeff. Funny his name was Jeff as that is our Dad's name!

Our mom saw this ad of us in the classified and she knew we were the ones for her, although she was troubled that we all looked uncomfortable and nervous and very, very still in this photo of us while we were so very young. She knew as a canine behavior expert that we needed help desperately to learn that our world was indeed safe with her because for the first few weeks of our lives, we felt no safety.

We were under 5 weeks when this photo was taken.

Too young to be separated from our mom and a safe environment that was all we knew. But we were taken from our mom at 5 weeks of age, we were thrown into the back of a pick up truck and driven 7 hours and put alone in a back yard where we got two kinds of worms an ld had fleas all over us. We learned to fight for the once daily kibble put out. We were so scared!

Mom found us and took us home when we were just little wee lads at 5 1/2 weeks old.

This is our story of healing.

We are sharing it for all of the other dogs - and dog Moms - who begin life in such a startling way.

We hope you will stay for the journey and share our remarkable healing story.

Finn & Cooper