Live your best life with your best friend. My name is Catherine Brueckner, CCS CPDT-KA. My service area includes Snohomish and King County.
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I offer private training and behavior modification in your home or environments you frequent with your dog. I am a Certified Professional Dog Trainer-Knowledge Assessed, through the Certification Council for Professional Dog Trainers and also have a Certificate In Canine Studies from The Northwest School of Canine Studies. I adhere strictly to the CCPDT’s principle of utilizing a least intrusive,
minimally aversive approach to training. Not only because I don’t believe in harming animals to teach them from an ethical standpoint, but also because there is no efficacy in doing so either. A punished dog is a fearful dog and a fearful dog is far more likely to develop anxiety and unpredictable behavior which are the exact things we want to work to avoid or address in behavior modification. I utilize a three-pronged approach to training and behavior mod that involves managing a dog’s environment to set them up for success, finding outlets for drive behaviors so that a dog is both physically and mentally stimulated with learning opportunities and enrichment activities, and clear owner leadership–I help you understand how your dog learns and processes information so that communication between you and your dog is clear and consistent. I not only want you to understand what we do to train or modify a behavior but to empower you by helping you understand why we do it and why it works. I believe strongly in the value of continuing education and collaboration in the field of dog training and routinely seek out opportunities to learn, teach and advance my skills from attending conferences to discussing cases and sharing feedback with a team of mentors and colleagues in the field. I see other trainers as my support network, not my competition. A great trainer is part of a community of professionals that share our passion and knowledge so that we bring the best to our clients. Outside of Whole Dog, I am a passionate animal welfare worker having worked at PAWS, on the behavior team at Kitsap Humane Society, and at Seattle Animal Shelter. Prior to working in animal welfare I worked in veterinary medicine for several years. I also taught everyday skills and manners classes at Four Paw Sports Center. I sincerely believe in the magic of helping humans understand their dogs, and dogs their humans, and I look forward to working with you and your dog to build strong communication and a bond that lasts a lifetime.
Such an important message.
We can all man handle a pet and take chances on their emotional health and our personal safety. But that get-it-done-at-any-cost attitude is not a proper measure of competence or capability.
Choose your animal care professionals wisely.
The pet professionals in your life should always be advocating for your animals. ❤️
Four Paw Sports Center, where I teach manners classes, will be hosting a drop-in open house on July 4th from noon to 5pm. Most of our training team will be on staff to show you how confidence-boosting and fun dog sports can be and to help tire your pup out and provide some enrichment prior to the booms and pops of the Independence Day festivities. We will also be giving talks and sharing advice on ways to keep your pups safe and home on the 4th and ways to support them through their fears and sensitivity to noise. Please join us!
The Fourth of July can be very hard for some dogs. Fireworks can be frightening, and we have some great ideas!
Join us on July 4, anytime between 12:00 and 5:00 to give your dog some exercise (tire them out physically), learn about dog sports (tire them out mentally), and learn how different sports and activities can help them throughout the year!
We will also be having a short talk every hour about how to work with your dog to overcome concerns about loud sounds.
The $15 fee for this event covers up to 90 minutes at our facility.
Visit our website now to pre-purchase your pass for this event!
Hey dog lovers! It would mean the world to me if you would make a donation to my PAWSwalk fundraising page!! PAWSwalk is PAWS's annual campaign to raise money for Cat City, the Companion Animal Shelter and the Wildlife Center so we can continue to provide much needed care to cats, dogs, bears, bobcats, birds and beyond!
Will you join me in doing amazing things for animals? (And a couple bonus points for making me look good at my new job, lol)
My man Kujo is making killer strides.
Kujo and his humans just welcomed his first human baby sister into the world and we have been working on some behaviors to make him a great big brother.
Kujo resource guards and his highest value item to guard has become his baby sister’s pacifier—which he will also eat, if given the chance.
We have been slowly building up to Kujo being able to calmly observe and disengage from his favorite forbidden items and just look at him totally ignoring the binky in the glass bowl behind him.
Me and his humans are so proud of the progress he made today!
Proud Puppy Start ‘Em Right grad, Leo and his final play sesh in the six-week series.
Purchased this weekend seminar at the KPA Ranch with Ken Ramirez and Susan G. Friedman on coaching clients. I was so bummed I missed the opportunity to register for her last Ranch seminar before it sold out that I made sure to jump on this one. August can't come soon enough!
Built by Karen Pryor Clicker Training
I'm up early watching the training team at Cheyenne Mountain Zoo work with hippos and lemurs on voluntary medical behavior as part of Clicker Expo Live 2023. LOVE this conference!
We’ve come a long way with Plucky’s anxiety around bath time. She was a trooper today. Lick mats and liver paste help, but so does the thoughtful set up at Rub-A-Dub dog wash where dogs have ample space and visual barriers from each other, safe tubs with moveable slip leads and mats to keep pets on solid footing, head huggers for the pups and ear protection for us humans too, and extremely helpful and attentive staff. Such a nice facility, 10/10.
Not all dogs are right for the job.
An excellent reminder from OVC as we make it through this heat wave--
Please be careful with your dogs. We often don’t think about the temperature in the PNW. Watch not only the temp but the asphalt is known to be above 125 these days and that causes terrible burns.
Plan ahead to ensure your noise-phobic dog is set up for success this 4th.
The thunderstorms, outdoor festivities, and Fourth of July fireworks of spring and summer can spell misery for dogs with noise aversion and their families.
Exciting changes are happening to my training schedule over at Four Paw Sports Center!
Alexis Brinkley of Canine Savvy Training and Behavior LLC and I are going solo. We had a blast co-teaching and are ready to push off in new directions. I'll be taking over our Puppy Start 'Em Right class and adding on a Learn the Basics class for dogs six months and older, which I'm really excited about. Behavior modification is my jam and adding a manners class for adult dogs means a greater opportunity to work with rehomed shelter/newly adopted dogs. Helping people build a bond with a dog that's in a new home or perhaps missed out on socialization and training opportunities as a puppy will allow me to really put my behavior mod skills to the task. I find this type of work so rewarding on so many levels.
LTB is Saturdays at 2pm and starts June 4th. Puppy Start 'Em is currently running every Saturday at 3:15 with rolling enrollment for puppies under 16 weeks of age at the start of their first class.
Alexis will be taking over our Canine Good Citizen prep class Saturdays at a new time of 12:45pm. She has put countless hours and tons of heart into training her hound mix, Molly, in scent work and agility and so it is no surprise that she will be looking to pursue her passion of moving in the direction of sport dog training and offering introductory agility classes in the near future. I am SO excited for her--and also very much looking forward to seeing her and Molly compete at the May NADAC agility trial at SchaSam Farm in Stanwood this Sunday!!
Nothing feels like a job when you get to work with dogs.
Happy 90th birthday, Karen Pryor!
A trillion dogs and their humans are grateful for your leadership, wisdom and innovation in the field of animal behavior and training. Why ever would we have hurt dogs when there is a way that is both more humane and a thousand times more effective. Thank you for paving the way.
How to help pets from Ukraine 🇺🇦
Food toys provide enrichment and healthy outlets for core drives. Why not turn thirty seconds of bowl feeding into fifteen minutes of mentally stimulating scavenging activity? While we employ a variety of food puzzles and toys to keep dinner time interesting, the Kong Wobbler featured here is my go-to after a long day for its ease of preparation.
Plus, it never gets old watching Plucky bat it around the room with her big block head.
Most times I want to promote my business page with meaningful content that educates the two people that read it and highlights the work I do.
But other times I just wanna post up a picture of my boy, Shakey, who is a straight gangsta.
Tell your friends. The Dog Aging Project is seeking puppies! By enrolling you get to be a part of the largest research project of its kind ever undertaken.
DAP started as a joint venture between the University of Washington and Texas A&M University to explore the aging process in dogs with the goal of increasing longevity and of utilizing the same data to learn about the aging process in humans.
This endeavor, now includes a multitude of research projects at universities across the US and the world and has several tens of thousands of dog participants enrolled. But many of these participants are aging out and they are in need of more puppy participants as well as looking to diversify their participant base to include dogs outside of the West coast of the United States.
If selected, the enrollment process includes annual surveys regarding your dog's lifestyle and environment, submission of veterinary records and the option to participate in specific studies within the umbrella program as a whole. There is also a very fun online community for human participants to join and social network with other dog owners.
The research garnered from this venture is going to bring so much groundbreaking data to the field of veterinary medicine and help so many dogs in the coming years. I want to encourage as many people as possible, but particularly puppy owners to enroll their dogs.
Partner with us to discover the keys to healthy lifespan! The Dog Aging Project is an innovative initiative that brings together a community of dogs, owners, veterinarians, researchers, and volunteers to carry out the most ambitious canine health study in the world. The Dog Aging Project will follow...
This good boy wears a muzzle for an important reason and its not aggression--he likes to put things in his mouth and then eat them. Unfortunately this is not uncommon. Dogs are mouthers and love to shred, dissect and often times consume things their little bellies can't always break down.
As a trainer who also works in the veterinary field, I know all to well the dreaded symptoms associated with a potential foreign body--lethargy, inappetence, vomiting, diarrhea and unproductive defecation. Bruno ate a sock and had to have emergency surgery to remove it. Since then his amazing humans have made a very smart choice to muzzle him when in environments that might present opportunities for him to ingest things he may not be able to properly digest.
The Muzzle Up Project aims to take the stigma out of muzzle training and reminds us that this is yet another wonderful safety net a properly fitted muzzle can provide a dog.
Muzzled dogs aren't bad dogs--they're honest dogs, or as in the case of Bruno, just big fans of all the amazingly smelly and novel things they find on the ground.
Today was my super very best girl's fifth birthday and we got to celebrate her special day with a trip out to Marysville to check out soon-to-debut dog bakery and training center, A Barkery Unleashed.
Cassie Erickson has put so much work into this space and it is coming along beautifully. Marysville is in for such a treat! Well, TREATS. Treats and training. And there's a groomer and dog-friendly brewery just right down the street. It is going to be so cool. I cannot wait to see it open.
I'm so excited to begin teaching classes next month at Four Paw Sports Center. I'll be teaching Canine Good Citizen and puppy manners classes Saturday afternoons with Alexis Brinkley. Bring us your puppies--we can't wait!
Lynnwood, WA
98037
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Food toys provide enrichment and healthy outlets for core drives. Why not turn thirty seconds of bowl feeding into fifteen minutes of mentally stimulating scavenging activity? While we employ a variety of food puzzles and toys to keep dinner time interesting, the Kong Wobbler featured here is my go-to after a long day for its ease of preparation. Plus, it never gets old watching Plucky bat it around the room with her big block head. <3
Around the Ring Conformation Handling Classes
212th Street SW
