You Me We

20/08/2023

https://fb.watch/mykIdQlPEN/?mibextid=cr9u03

25/08/2021

Giving the opportunity and freedom to a dog to be a dog is fundamental to their wellbeing. They choose what they find enriching.

14/08/2021

19/04/2021

Quality and quantity of rest is crucial to your dog's wellbeing and learning. That's why we provide care and training in the best environment to support proper rest.

Our premium space exceeds professional standards and provisions, while providing the individualized comfort and low stress atmosphere of home. We welcome your dog to enjoy the outdoor enrichment enclosure, play in the 800+ sqft indoor romp and training area completely outfitted in non slip industrial mats, or relax on the cot beds beside the wood burning stove. If they prefer the company of people, they are welcome to wander the 3200 sqft family living space and seek out endless cuddles. Or if they enjoy their solo time best, the private suite might be just the R and R they have been looking for.

I cannot emphasise how important quality and adequate rest is for our dogs (and for ourselves!).

Just think how you feel when you've not received enough!

Don't be afraid to have non-walk days to allow your dog to recover and decompress, do some sniffing in their garden, and other enrichment activities.

It's something we massively work on in doggy day care, and it's such a good skill for the pups to learn to settle when there are potentially other things happening around, and other dogs.

Is your dog currently getting enough rest?

Please do feel free to share or print this, providing you keep our logo and details on! 😃

www.AmityPetCare.co.uk

13/03/2021

The mild weather is ushering in Spring. COVID vaccinations are under way. Restrictions are easing. It's been a year but there is light on the horizon!

In preparation for boarding and training ramping back up, there are a lot of things to do. My legs are sore from hauling rocks and enrichment around the dog yard in preparation for a big haul of rock and bark chip. The smell of organ meat hangs in the air 🤢 as I prep reinforcement.

Exciting!!!

24/01/2021

25/11/2020

I am so grateful for the support, opportunities, education and talents that make it possible for me to provide for my family. It is so fulfilling to offer services that are meaningful to others. I'm grateful to help people understand themselves and the animals they share their lives with. I'm grateful to provide reassurance to pet parents that their dogs are lovingly cared for and truly safe when they are away. I'm grateful to spend each day in the fresh air amongst nature to provide dogs with the chance to play, explore and experience. I'm grateful for every single dog entrusted to me, and how much I learn from each of them. Very few come to my care as easy, reliable dogs and most are a lot of work to fulfill individual needs, and manage and overcome specific challenges. It is so rewarding and inspiring to help dogs learn and change. It makes it possible for them to find more joy, enrichment and connection in their lives. I'm grateful for wonderful, caring clients, many of which I am privileged to now call friends. I'm grateful to sincerely love what I do.

15/11/2020

Enrichment is crucial to the welfare of our dogs. Walking them while restricting access from sniffing, exploring, observing and playing deprives them solely for the sake of stringent control, and it negates the effort of walking a dog almost entirely.

Give your dog the opportunity to experience the world in a way that is meaningful to them. It is such a small sacrifice on our part compared to how much it will benefit your dog's life in captivity.

What did dogs do before leashes and fences? Did they stay inside homes except for short excursions outside to march along staying within 6 feet of their humans and several other dogs from different households? Did they walk in straight lines and ignore their environment? Or did they roam in loose packs exploring and interacting with their environment?

There is nothing natural about someone outside your household collecting your dog to take them on a pack walk with 6 or more other dogs to march in straight lines on leashes no longer than 6 feet.

Give your dog the gift of adventures instead. Find safe places to walk where your dog can explore, sniff, roll, choose the route and express other natural behaviors. Select dog walkers that walk dogs individually or in small groups so each dog can recieve individual attention and have their needs met.

Image text: Adventures will benefit your dog more than pack walks. Let them sniff, choose routes, and express other natural behaviors. Being on a 6 foot leash, marched along with 6+ dogs handled by one person is stressful and unnatural.
Image: Dog exploring grass on a long line near a lake.

05/11/2020

"ONE DOESN'T HAVE TO OPERATE WITH GREAT MALICE TO DO GREAT HARM. THE ABSENCE OF EMPATHY AND UNDERSTANDING ARE SUFFICIENT" ~Charles M. Blow

Someone self-designating as a dog trainer without adequate, quality education, and ongoing experience and mentorship from experts in scientific fields, is a lot like your average vehicle operator claiming they are an automotive master mechanic or professional race car driver.

I am a driver's education graduate, Class 2 license holder, a driver for over 20 years, owner of various vehicles, proficient in manual and automatic transmissions, and an AMA member. Yet, none of my experience or memberships qualify me for anything beyond just owning and driving a vehicle, which is quite frankly a fairly common and uninspiring level of knowledge and skill compared to the complex engineering and design of a vehicle.

All too often, self-designated trainers with only a crude understanding of how to influence behaviour will confidently offer primitive techniques and tools, demanding compliance without ever fully understanding behaviour or the animal they are handling. They will even call it modern training methods, but cocktailing punishment and praise is not even remotely a new or sophisticated idea. They will teach you to wage a war of attrition with your dog; a fictitious battle for respect and control under the euphemism of attaining balance. This does not require a great depth and breadth of skill and knowledge, just a stomach for coercion and confrontation with your beloved dog. They are successful because they are masters of manipulating people and animals. It is so misleading that it takes a qualified professional to decipher the heaped together fiction for what it actually is, buzzword bingo myths. Their claims will require no expertise to substantiate and are impossible to do so because they are saying nothing evidence-based.

With an inflexible level of rudimentary techniques and dependency on tools, they will go through the motions while sorely lacking the expertise to problem solve, adapt or individualize. Most concerningly, when they do not thoroughly comprehend what they are doing, there is no assurance they can avoid doing harm. In fact, when working with sentient animals, the less they know, the more harm they are likely to do.

And yet they will steam ahead and amass clients with miscalibrated confidence in a phenomenon known as The Dunning-Kruger Effect and the "double curse of incompetence", essentially when they don't know enough to even recognize how much they don't know, and as a result fail to seek out learning more.

They dangerously settle in at the Peak of Mount Stupid in a comfortable place of influence, as they profit off you and your dog's trust in an unregulated industry.

06/10/2020

Today's takeaway: Just because a resource is popular, published, or perpetuated over time does not mean it is researched, reputable or reliable.

"...it could be argued that punishment-based techniques have been shown to be associated with fewer benefits than reward-based training methods and in fact, have been associated with significant negative effects (e.g., aggressive responses). Considering all of this, advising the dog guardian public to use physically aversive training techniques, as suggested in some of these books, may not be the most prudent course of action in terms of safety and animal welfare."

"This is an important study since it is the first time scientists have investigated the type and quality of information available in best-selling dog training books. It is careful, thorough, and methodical – and to be frank, the results are alarming.

It is especially concerning that books that recommend aversive methods continue to be so popular, given the scientific literature suggests a risk to animal welfare from using these methods (as well as a potential risk to human welfare if the dog is aggressive in response). It shows just how much work needs to be done to teach people how best to train their dogs.

It also shows that as well as choosing a dog trainer wisely, it is important to choose dog training books carefully. Unfortunately many people will be guided by what is on the most popular lists."

https://www.companionanimalpsychology.com/2017/10/can-dog-training-books-be-trusted.html?m=1

Scientists assessed 5 best-selling dog training books for accuracy – and found big variations in quality. Plus my dog training book recommendations.

11/09/2020

To all the heroes great and small
That saved lives and gave their lives
Offering hope and healing
With gratitude we honor you
And remember all who said goodbye that day.
09/11/2001
❤

24/08/2020

"Animal training is an ancient craft based on intuition, fact and folklore. But what was fact and what was folklore. Behavioral science has given us many of the answers.

Before modern science and technology there were crafts. Crafts change slowly. Crafts preserve the old. Crafts resist change. Craft skills and knowledge are passed on one to one. Never question the Master. Do not change "The Truth"."

"Science, properly practiced, is self correcting. New principles are discovered and old (less efficient) principles are discarded; an important feature of science, over time it changes. Science replaced crafts because science progresses and crafts are slow to. All sciences change with new information. If it does not change, it is not science. If people do not want to discard old information for new information, it is not science or technology."

"Animal training as a craft, little changing for thousands of years, are heavy on relationships, having close relationships with the dog, heavy on domination, based mostly on coercion (corrections)."

"Two early trainers, and only two, were THE pioneers over 80 years ago in translating the science and technology of animal training from the university psych lab to the real world of commercial animal training; Marian and Keller Breland."

"Despite the widespread availability of science-based technology, many, if not most, trainers adhere to emotion-based and craft-based training procedures, grounded more on punishment (stopping behavior) rather than reinforcement (getting behavior)."

"When enough trainers discover the simplicity of skillfully and precisely applying a few principles, processes and procedures to modify behavior, animal training will truly become a profession practicing a science-based technology."

-Excerpts from a presentation by Bob Bailey called "The History of Animal Training..."

Here is some of the Breland's incredible work https://youtu.be/Egm_98WbE4s

20/08/2020

Safely including animals in communities means owners are being accurately informed about their pet's behaviour and needs, and owners are then being held accountable for their animal's behavior and needs.

Owners and lawmakers need to learn from REPUTABLE, KNOWLEDGEABLE sources who can provide fact-based, ethical guidance on responsible ownership. BSL is a clear indication that those at the helm are not well informed. That will be detrimental if we do not stand up for evidence based governance and stewardship.

If you would like to advocate for responsible pet ownership, please participate in the polling and make sure your voice is heard.

https://engage.calgary.ca/petbylaw?fbclid=IwAR0gnflm5BMb34UL7doURMoIWPkFQC8me9gPX8zhEiqcGLc4MQ_mgHjntIM

Justice for Bullies is a great non profit organization working hard to educate about evidential, effective legislation. If you would like to learn more about BSL and the current bylaw polling in Calgary please follow the link below.

"Please send the message loud and clear – Calgary needs to take lessons from its own past, when it was a world leader in animal control legislation in the early 2000s. Only breed-neutral, evidence-based legislation will have any chance to address dog-related problems in the community."

https://justice-for-bullies.myshopify.com/pages/calgary-responsible-pet-ownership-bylaw-review

We have been made aware of the City of Calgary’s current engagement survey and proposed changes to the Calgary Responsible Pet Ownership Bylaw CLICK HERE It is incredibly disappointing to see the suggestion of breed specific language being added to a bylaw that was once world-renowned for its succ...

18/08/2020

14/08/2020

I'm really struggling with this one today.

The "proper tools to train" are actually expertise and education in behavior analysis, ethology, affective neuroscience, and many other scientific disciplines that study how and why animals exhibit behaviour and learn. Education, mentorship and experience in these disciplines sufficiently informs a practitioner about the animal as a whole and what will safeguard or compromise the physical and psychological well-being of that animal. Without this broad scope of understanding and ability, difficult cases cannot be ethically and effectively addressed.

The current best standard for professional training is certification through internationally recognized organizations who anchor their ethics in LIMA, require continuing education, and rigorously test and uphold their members to the highest level. You will not see this scenario of training a dog from these reputable organizations that include multi-species care providers, shelter professionals, veterinary professionals, veterinary behaviourists, and behaviour consultants. The depth and breadth of knowledge required and the mentorship provided, equip their membership to navigate severe cases the world over, and across species, without resorting to this scenario. This scenario would not pass an ethics committee of any LIMA based organization. No certified member in good standing from these organizations would put your dog in this scenario. There are entire countries in which this scenario is illegal. This scenario is possible simply because legislation and regulation of the industry is absent here to prevent it, not because it is ethical or necessary.

Unfortunately the average pet owner doesn't know that individuals can simply self designate as a "trainer" or find many avenues that will bestow that status without providing nor requiring the level of knowledge or experience needed to ethically train animals or instruct owners, let alone be qualified to handle behaviour cases.

To add to the confusion, or I should say illusion, membership that only requires payment is not the same thing as certification or being subject to regulation. To the undiscerning eye this "membership" gives clout that misleads a pet owner to believe they are dealing with a professional that is somehow beholding to any standard or regulation which in reality is not true. In fact, one seemingly impressive organization is actually solely sponsored by a remote collar company.

I watched the short video of this dog being taught "how to be a dog". It consisted of two very tense dogs avoiding interaction with each other, this one tipping into learned helplessness, which is a well studied state that animals will resign to when they cannot escape aversive stimuli. This tightens the lid on the pressure cooker. It does not take the pot off the heat, and all too often I've seen the outcomes of pressurizing a sentient animal's life like this. This allostatic load can have a detrimental impact on the well being of a dog.

07/08/2020

Sharing our life with pets intimately affects our mental, emotional, physical, social, and financial bandwidth. We always hope they will have a welcome impact on our lives but sometimes they struggle, and as a result, so do we, sometimes severely.

There are far reaching impacts and consequences in a person's life for having a pet that concerns them, and the opportunity to support someone who is reaching out should not be squandered by lack of education, ethics, or experience when expertise matters most.

It amazes me how many practitioners tout their ability to take on behavioural problems when they do not have the depth and breadth of knowledge and experience to qualify them. Poor advice and care can exacerbate or even create issues, all the while burning up people's bandwidth for addressing or coping with them. There is much more on the line than just getting a "well behaved" pet.

Why do I divide my time in offering care services when I am a professional trainer with behavioural expertise? Support services such as walking, boarding, and daycare when provided by a well educated professional, can provide necessary respite for owners. Owners need a break; they need to be able to go on vacation, or even to work without worrying. They also need the effort and investment they are making to resolve or manage their pet's concerns to be safeguarded and supported, not compromised.

Even pets without concerns deserve the inoculating, discerning and reassuring care of a professional. Maybe a better question should be, why is anyone less qualified or educated offering services?

Did you know there are no overseeing regulations for who can even offer care or training? Many people are surprised and concerned when they learn that anyone can hang out a shingle for a pet business. Does this mean the local individual or facility being recommended to you may not have sufficient and ongoing education to provide you with proper care and advice? Unfortunately the answer is "yes" all too often.

If a pet owner is dealing with a difficult circumstance, this can be so betraying. In a tenuous situation, the last thing you want to worry about is if the lifelines you are reaching out to are going to fail you and your dog due to their own undisclosed deficits. Frankly, they may not even know enough to realize what they don't know.

Have you asked your service providers what qualifies them and what continuing education they are committed to? Transparency and accountability are hallmarks of professionalism. Individuals and facilities should make it their business to invest time and resources into knowledgeable care. After all, they are asking owners to invest in them so there is no reason they shouldn't be active and open about it. If they're not learning, they're not growing. If they're not growing, they're not changing for the better in any intentional way. Are they then well equipped in helping an owner and their pet to learn, change and grow? Experiences shape learning so care, not just training, plays a huge part in a pet's behavioural journey.

Other professionals may not always create the issues I commonly see, but they should be qualified enough to recognize it early on and provide meaningful intervention before owners' bandwidths are completely depleted. Expertise and committed, continuing efforts to learn from excellent resources are necessary in all facets of pet services.

Have you experienced disruption or ongoing stress as a result of your pet's challenges? How has it affected you in other areas of your life? What keeps you from talking openly about it? Are there things you wish you could find or change to feel supported as a pet owner?

https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/animals-and-us/202008/the-problem-loving-pets-behavior-issues

Loving pets with behavior problems can be a heavy psychological burden.

30/07/2020

A client gave me this today. They were no longer using it and thought I might find some innocuous purpose for it. This tool cost them hundreds of dollars, and the trainer to "educate" them and their dog, thousands. They had every intention of being responsible owners and invested in raising a well trained dog.

There are so many things I could say, that I want to say, that I don't say. There is so much that has been said by others greater than myself. But as I reflect on my experience and education, I am compelled to at least say what I can.

Dogs are highly intelligent; emotionally and cognitively sophisticated animals. They share a distinctly wonderful attribute with humans; the exceptional ability to affiliate and to bond with others, especially others that are not familial or even the same species.

I experience this miracle of nature every single day. If you take the opportunity to see, really see the incredible and wondrous nature of dogs, you too cannot help but feel that stir something deep within. I truly love these animals and they command my awe and respect.

So, as I ponder the wonder of these magnificent companion animals, I again look at this "gift" that was somewhat sheepishly and gratefully handed to me, like a welcome unburdening of shame and blame. They felt responsible, that they should have known better, or would have done better if they had only known who to trust as a professional.

The trainer was highly recommended by the breeder, and this successful trainer put their young dog in a program that included this e-collar. Their human-affectionate, dog-social, joy-filled dog landed severe bites as it reached a few years old. What changed? The e-collar was removed and the elderly owner was physically compromised by a stroke. Both of these things compromised the efficacy of keeping the suppression lid locked on the pressure cooker of this dog's life.

This client's dog will never be the animal it should have and could have been because of a trainer who implemented this tool. With behavioral and pharmacological support, this dog is now stable enough to live a decent life. There are however, emotional and physical scars this dog incurred and inflicted in the wake of it's "education" and rehabilitation.

The box sits in my lap and its weight gets heavier as I read the expert marketing, cleverly delivering a very deceptive message. It will not even tell you what it is. That is intentional. There is something markedly unpalatable about saying it is a shock collar or electronic collar. The box says educational collar. That's not what the "e" actually stands for. It is a remote battery pack that tension straps to your dog's neck. It is to be snuggly fitted there for a reason. Every animal, including us, finds the neck area innately vulnerable feeling, a primordial preservation instinct, so a "stimulation" there will command a psychological response from an animal. The battery pack is equipped with nodes that deliver and carry an electric current of varying length and strength you control, through your dog's neck. It will shock your dog literally and psychologically.

I read the manual. Read the caution page for yourself. It describes dogs I have worked with and I am again overcome as I recall the humans and dogs I have worked with. The excruciating remediation efforts. The real faces, the real lives, the real mental and emotional anguish. The physical pain of this tool is most often debated, but it is actually the psychological impact that drives the most significant torment inflicted and felt by both sides of the relationship. The cards are played in a high stakes game with this tool, and the true cost strategically withheld from owners is then unknowingly gambled. It is true that often people win, but when you lose, the debt comes due in untold ways and it can bankrupt dogs' and people's lives.

I have watched instructional videos from expert practitioners in the proper use and expert application of this tool. I read the research papers. I have watched dogs being trained with this tool.

I have watched videos of people experimenting with this tool on themselves. The psychological responses are so pronounced if you look past the thin veil of comedic frenzy. The anticipation that makes people writhe, become anxious and overreact are all fear responses of fool around/fret, freeze, fight and flight. Dogs experience the same psychological panic without the context of consent or the benefit of understanding what it is they are experiencing. They want it to stop and they will work to make it stop.

I have thoroughly read the convoluted debates that play out among trainers for and against methods employing this tool. I am acutely aware of the applications and justifications. I am well acquainted with extreme behaviour.

I have devoted years of my life to living and breathing behavior, training and dogs.

Humankind's meaningful relationship and symbiotic coevolution with dogs started long before the invention of this tool. Along the way it appears humans decided to exploit this devoted partnership. This tool has been invented as a potent means of compulsion to bend an animal away from its own needs and communication and to comply with a human's demand for control and possession.

Undesirable and uncontrollable behaviour are completely defined by humans. This tool puts the onus on the dog for being "wrong" in attempting to communicate or self determine. The dogs we own are the products of contrived selection; heavy human impact on animals required to live under circumstances so contrary to natural selection and their intrinsic needs and coding, that inevitably we see drastic departures from functional behaviour, and affiliation or cooperation.

The one justification often touted for this tool is it reaches deep into an animal's hardwired fear response to compete with potent motivating operations. Extreme aggression. Extreme prey drive. Extreme reactivity.

Ingenuity should interface with our humanity to instead, intelligently design ways to raise and support dogs as sentient, autonomous animals who are capable of succeeding. Extreme behaviour should be recognized as an animal we did not ensure was adequately equipped through nature or nurture to navigate the expectations and experiences we are trying to place on them. We need to set dogs up to succeed by fulfilling their needs before expecting them to comply with ours.

The ends do not justify the means.

23/07/2020

I’m not impressed by perfection.

I’m not impressed by obedience.

I’m not impressed by endless down stays or heeling dogs void of joy or recalls by way of fear avoidance.

I’m not impressed by quick fixes.

I’m not impressed by any fixes that place compliance above wellbeing.

I’m not impressed by power and control.

I’m not impressed by coercion.

What impresses me is compassion.

I’m impressed by kindness, patience, and humor.

I’m impressed by dogs with opinions who aren’t afraid to be their true selves and people who make that possible.

I’m impressed by relationships built on reciprocity, cooperation, and consent.

I’m impressed by teaching that’s informed by what’s most ethical and humane, not just by whether or how quickly it works.

I’m impressed by joy.

I’m impressed by imperfect people loving imperfect dogs…just as they are.

I’m impressed by every single person who each day chooses compassion over perfection in a world that tells us otherwise.

02/06/2020

The 3/3/3 Rule
This can be such a helpful guide for new puppies and adopted older dogs alike!

Please give your new pup time

11/05/2020

A recent uptick in my caseload where the dog is “suddenly aggressive towards another dog in the home” reminded me of just how much our emotions influence our dog’s behavior.

Research shows just how intuitive dogs can be when it comes to our own emotional states (Mills, Miklosi). And after all, many of us are experiencing a wide range of emotions that we didn’t just a few months ago.

In many cases, the aggression is directed at the other resident dog only when the aggressor is near the owner, and the other dog approaches. Resource guarding? Perhaps. Jealousy? Perhaps. Health issues that affect communication? Perhaps.

Though when the dogs have a history of peacefully co-existing for years, and the only significant change is an event that is emotionally taxing on the owner, the catalyst can often be their current emotional state.

And what an incredibly difficult situation this presents! The owner now has the revelation that they may be part of the cause for the conflicts. A terrible stressor to pile on top of the current heap of emotions.

What can be done?

First, it is important to know that this is not the owner’s fault. We are human, and humans experience emotions. No one purposely decides to “get all stressed out” and see if their dogs proceed with a battle royale.

Second, management. Separating the dogs to prevent further conflicts for the time being is absolutely OK. Time can be spent with each dog individually (preferably out of earshot and eyeshot) to provide ample enrichment.

Third, destress - not just the owner, the dogs too. Training shouldn’t be arduous. Go with activities that are fun, provide exercise for all, and remind us of one of the main reasons we get dogs for in the first place.

Fourth, determine the contexts in which the behavior is most likely to happen (often with the help of a professional experienced with aggression). Decide what you want the dogs to DO INSTEAD of going after each other. Does it happen only when the owner is on the couch watching Netflix and the other dog approaches? Teach each dog to “station” on their own beds during that time…and make it highly reinforcing for them to do so.