Empowered Canine Solutions

12/18/2024

Our Canine Good Citizen Prep Class officially starts Jan 4th!

Do you have a young dog you are looking to do therapy work, service work or complete the AKC Family Dog Program with?

We’ve got you! Saturdays at 10:30 we will be hosting our first group class for CGC prep with flexible testing dates!

Want to join us? Book through this link or email us at [email protected]

Online appointment scheduling and payments for Empowered Canine Solutions

12/13/2024

11/25/2024

If you’ve been thinking about training - now’s the time!!

We will be running a Black Friday/Small Business Saturday promo on all of our packages, classes, and gift certificates!

Stay tuned for more!!

11/11/2024

New Puppy?

Puppy Life Skills starts next Monday, the 18th at 5pm! I have 3 spots available in this class!

From leash skills, to resource guarding prevention and more! Join us to raise the best puppy possible!

11/01/2024

Because sharing is caring, growing is good, and methods matter 🤎👇

Sharing my background as a former balanced trainer isn’t for shaming others who choose to train differently our dog owners who use these methods…

It’s to be transparent and show where I started from because we all start somewhere and like many other trainers my start happened to be learning from others who used those methods.

There’s nothing wrong with learning from those around us, it’s natural.

👉 But there is something wrong with refusing to grow, learn more, do better, and realize the impact you have on the animal in front of you and the people around you👇

Perhaps we should reframe positive reinforcement versus balanced… to non human constructs. Science-backed ethical training vs anything that’s not?

Here’s how we can thoughtfully address common statements like “train the dog in front of you” and “there’s no one way of doing things” when advocating for modern, positive reinforcement base training:

👉 the statement can be interpreted as encouraging us to understand and work with the dogs individual personality, needs, and motivations. Science-backed positive reinforcement training is adaptable and encourages identifying what motivates each dog, allowing for individualized approaches without compromising humane practices.

👉 the idea of “ no one-way” should mean flexibility within humane and scientifically-supported methods, not justification for outdated practices. When we follow science, we don’t rely on tools or methods that create fear or discomfort, but choose methods that foster cooperation trust.

Let’s keep the conversation going! What other statements or common thoughts can we reframe?👇

10/27/2024

Differential reinforcement (DR) is a process where a desirable behavior is reinforced and an undesirable behavior is extinguished by withholding reinforcement. Using the principles of operant conditioning, the desirable behavior will therefore be more likely to occur in the future while the undesirable behavior will be less likely to occur in the future. Slowly, the undesirable behavior will become extinct as the reinforcement has been removed. There are 5 types of DR. I will briefly cover two types: differential reinforcement of other behaviors (DRO) and differential reinforcement of alternative behaviors (DRA). When doing DRO, the animal is reinforced for doing any behavior other than the undesirable or target behavior. For example, the target behavior is a dog showing interest in a guinea pig cage. If we were to do DRO for this behavior, we would reinforce the dog for doing anything other than paying attention to the guinea pig cage. This could include laying down, chewing on a bone, playing with their toy, etc. For DRA, the animal is only reinforced when doing an appropriate alternative behavior. In this case, the alternative behavior must have the same function as the target behavior. If the target behavior is a dog chewing on shoes. We will only reinforce the dog when they are chewing on their bones, an appropriate alternative behavior.

10/15/2024

Our next class begins on Monday Oct 21st!

Click here to reserve you spot today!

https://pocketsuite.io/book/empoweredcanines/item/puppy-life-skills-(our-location)

10/10/2024

🤎 In case we haven’t met....👇⁣
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Swipe to meet us! 👉⁣
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I (Gwenyn) spent years working in public health (holding a Master’s in Public Health and a Master’s in Business) while also studying dog training and animal behavior on the side. Before becoming a fully certified trainer, I worked with rescues, training rescue foster dogs, and worked under other dog trainers⁣.👇
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But I’m also a cross-over trainer 👇

I started out my dog training journey like many others, using balanced training I had seen replicated by those I surrounded myself with in the dog training world. This means I used aversive tools to train, I used corrections or punishment along with positive reinforcement.

🤎 I wouldn’t change my experiences for anything👉 I started out working in several specialities such as police dogs, personal protection, and service dog training.

Then I found my passion for working with the dogs that REALLY struggled. Aggressive, anxious, reactive, neurotic, all together crazy 😂☠️

I made it my BUSINESS to figure out the WHY behind these behaviors and to show others the HOW in addressing it 🤎

I realized as I continued to educate myself, the overlap of our dog training industry and public health. This led to my discovery and passion for One Health and force free training. This is why I talk a lot about social and environmental determinants of health, and the impacts of training methods and styles 🧠

The leap into the dog training world was terrifying but I believe in our mission to bring access and education on humane dog training to help pet parents make informed decisions⁣👇
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AND! I’m so grateful to have added a business partner, Jessica, this last year. She has been my missing puzzle piece in providing holistic and integrative training to our clients. As a certified canine nutritionist, trainer, and groomer, Jessica allows us to address the WHOLE dog.
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We’re so excited to share more with this amazing community!

To support us, the best thing you can do is share my content! Sharing is caring🤎

THANK YOU for being here!

09/30/2024

We have one last minute slot that opened up in our Basic Obedience series starting tonight at 6!

Let us know if you’d like this spot!

09/23/2024

Before we start a new week let's talk about something that won't EVER change, however much us humans try to intervene.

DOGS SNIFF EACH OTHERS BUMS!

It's actually NORMAL and POLITE for a dog to do this. It's a really unthreatening way of saying hello. Pictured is Tilly (the brown dog) who is really concerned by dog-dog interactions so to see her engaging in this behaviour with a dog she's only just met is really promising! Reactive dogs tend to lose this skill so bringing it back into a dogs behavioural repertoire is really important.

Pllllleaaaase stop calling your dog away or pulling your dog away and CERTAINLY stop chastising them for engaging in this behaviour. UNLESS you can see the dog being sniffed is uncomfortable with it, we need to swallow our discomfort with it.

I've got a challenge this week for my dog walkers: Adam & Amy - can you please collect as many bum sniffing pics as you can - let's show the world just how NORMAL this interaction is!

Feel free to join in and drop any pics below 👇🏻

Let's embrace the bum sniffers! 🐾💜

09/20/2024

This class begins September 30th at 6pm!
We have 3 spots available!

Learn Basic Leash Skills, Capturing and Reinforcing desired behavior, Stationing skills and more!!

DM us for the link to book this class with us before it fills up!

09/16/2024

Getting many of our digital guides and other resources translated into Spanish! We have an editor to help ensure translations are correct and we are so grateful!!

We hope that all of our educational content can be available in Spanish and English, as well as any of our online courses to ensure our training can be available to more people!

We will keep updated when they are all available!!

09/10/2024

Our Trailblazing Tails leashes and longlines are here!

We LOVE these handmade leashes. Waterproof, Odor proof, and durable leashes made of the best biothane and American made brass clasps. These are truly some of the best gear for walking hands free, giving your dog more room to sniff and showing off personal style!!

If you’ve been waiting for a leash, it’s here!

09/09/2024

We have ONE more space available in our Puppy Life Skills series starting tonight at 5pm!

This class lasts 5 weeks and takes place at our Newberg studio!

Email [email protected] or DM us for details!

09/06/2024