The FFTW members are passionate about education and take pride in collaborating with each other to help pets and their owners.
We are a membership group of professional, active trainers and veterinary professionals advocating for the physical, emotional and environmental well-being of companion animals. The Force Free Trainers of Wisconsin Mission Statement:
The Force Free Trainers of Wisconsin (FFTW) is a membership group of professional, active trainers advocating for the physical, emotional and environmental well-bein
g of companion animals. The FFTW is dedicated to training methods and techniques that focus on teaching animals by rewarding desired behaviors and exclude the intentional use of physical or psychological pain or intimidation. The Principles by Which We Live Our Mission
Our Training:
• FFTW is always about compassion.
• We’re passionate about sourcing and implementing the most ethical, science-based techniques.
• We do not use or condone ideologies, methods or gear that impart physical or psychological punishment or pain (including, but not limited to, the use of prong collars, choke-style collars, shock collars for the use of training or containment, citronella collars, throw chains, noodles, shaker cans and/or sq**rt bottles). Our Professional and Business Members:
• We embrace diversity. Together we create, learn, share, and educate.
• We treat each other with respect and dignity, while holding each other to our primary mission.
• We provide a safe, humane, science-based resource for our clients and their companions.
• We respect client confidentiality and provide an environment free of judgment and celebrate humane values.
• We strive to understand and respect the bond between you and your pet, and work to enhance that relationship through education, training and support.
• We are reviewed by the FFTW Steering Committee each year to ensure we are providing the best possible learning environment to our clients. Our Clients:
• FFTW starts with the promise of respect, but goes far beyond.
• We emphasize the human-companion animal connection, and identifying the needs of both.
• We create and deliver programs that are specific to those needs, and provide the knowledge and training for the client to implement. The Professional Ethics of our Members
Following the FFTW Mission Statement, our members...
• Are dedicated to the use of science based training methods, utilizing the least aversive techniques possible.
• Are committed to using positive reinforcement as a teaching tool and negative punishment as complementary management.
• Adhere to the Humane Hierarchy, as outlined by Dr. Susan Friedman.
• Adhere to The Five Freedoms of The Farm Animal Welfare Council.
• Do not use or condone ideologies, methods or gear that impart physical or psychological punishment or pain on animals.
• Pursue and impart knowledge, maintain competence in animal behavior through continuing education, active training and applied experience.
• Respect client confidentially.
• Are not judgmental of clients.
• Embrace human, specie and breed diversity.
• Are aware of our abilities and will refer clients beyond our training expertise to a qualified colleague.
• Will report to proper authority cases of human or animal abuse.
• May not approve of methods used by some trainers outside of FFTW, but will not demean those trainers to our clients.
• Understand the safety of the client, animal, self and public is essential.
• Will discuss all options and possible outcomes with our clients.
Join our members for this great event!!
We had the address incorrect for Broken Bat Brewery on our original post! It’s located at 135 E Pittsburgh Ave! If you have already registered we will be sending you a message to confirm the correct address!
For every entrepreneur/solopreneur small business owner, keep going!
Thanks for sharing this!
Acronyms are helpful, right?!
Getting a puppy for the holidays??
Muzzles carry a lot of stigma, but can be a really useful tool!
Change is coming!
The state of dog training, with all the advancements in the field still has an element missing that is creating welfare implications and unattainable expectations for our dogs and ourselves. How did we get here? Let's explore.
A solid relationship with our animals is the basis for a happy, healthy, and harmonious household; this article gives you some ideas for building that relationship and bond!
Animal behaviorist Dr. Karen B. London on how to strengthen your pet-parent bond.
Dogs see the world differently than we humans do, but how...?! This article explains some of it!
Dr. Mindy Joyner describes dog eye anatomy and explains how dogs see the world compared to humans.
Growling is an important piece of doggo communication - it's something we don't often say we love, but we do!
I LOVE growling dogs. Say whaaaaaaaat? Hear me out: A growling dog is a dog that’s saying, “hey, I don’t want to bite, please don’t make me.” A growling dog is a dog that is actively trying to diffuse a situation so that they don’t need to escalate their behavior. A growling dog isn’t ...
This post was a challenge for last month, but it's such a great topic to consider!
If you’d prefer to listen to this blog post, click here. Happy November, everyone! As always, with the start of a new month, we have a new training challenge for you and your dog! (This also applies to different species, so if you have a bird, cat, turtle, or something else, you can also […]
Looking to support force-free training AND a member of our group??? Member trainer, Upward Hound, created some apparel for you to sport your support of force-free training!
Buy Upward Hound Dog Training merchandise from Casey. Featuring Charcoal Premium Unisex Tees, professionally printed in the USA.
Frustrated that your dog "isn't listening" to you...?
It can be such a difficult topic, but member veterinarian Helping Hand Veterinary Behavior Counseling provides some ideas for broaching the topic of your family's loss with your kids
BY MANETTE KOHLER, DVM I’m Maddie’s mom and stepping in to discuss a sensitive topic but one that is very important. This article is for parents and will offer resources and tips on how to help kids cope with the loss of a pet. 1 in 5 kids will experience the death of someone close […]
Doggie daycares seem to be increasingly popular these days; but, when looking for an option for you and your dog, take some time to get some answers to your questions!
Ever wonder why your dog yawns? Member veterinarian, Helping Hand Veterinary Behavior Counseling , has some answers for you!
Dr. Manette Kohler talks about what it means when a dog yawns and whether it’s normal for dogs to yawn a lot.
Trainer member, Puppy Tutor Dog Training , wrote a blog post about the concept of threshold and the effect it has on your training with your dog!
If you don't understand "threshold" in dog training, you will struggle. The better you understand it, the better your training will be.
Veterinarian member, Happy at Home Veterinary Care LLC , was recently written about in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinal!
Veterinarian Rebecca Feiring started house calls for patients in 2015. The pandemic added a new dimension to her work.
Have trick or treaters today? Member trainer, The Dog Lady has you covered!
https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=3048077155469603&id=1462215440722457
We talk a lot about embracing force free methods, but this article sums up three reasons why!
Dog training has come a long way in recent years and yet some methods that are rather archaic still exist in the dog world. Despite science demonstrating how dogs learn and the benefits of positive reinforcement, such techniques still manage to resurface. Why is this the case?
"All too often, that blame is misguided. But try as I might, it is very difficult to convince some owners that their behavior may actually be playing a role in that of their cats. In such cases, people find it almost impossible to believe that how they interact with their cats, the resources they provide for them, and how they react to unwanted behaviors could be directly influencing how their cats behave."
By Andrea Carne Aggression in cats. It’s a sensitive and difficult issue for many cat owners and one that can lead to relinquishment or even euthanasia – particularly when the behavior is directed …
Halloween is just around the corner!
"Dog training is not regulated, and against a backdrop of misinformation and out-dated ideas, it can be hard for dog guardians to know where to seek help. As the science has changed over the years, so have our ideas about the best ways to train dogs."
Dog obedience training and behaviour modification should use reward-based methods, according to a new position statement from the American Veterinary
"A recent study in Frontiers in Veterinary Science puts aside for the moment issues of welfare and focuses on the question: Is there really a difference in effectiveness between positive reinforcement training and training that incorporates an electronic collar? Using concrete measurements of training success, the authors find no significant difference in number of cues disobeyed. In fact, positive reinforcement was more successful by some measures: Dogs trained with positive reinforcement responded to the trained cues faster and with fewer repetitions."
Do you have clients who believe electronic collars are more effective? A recent study finds that positive reinforcement works more quickly.
Enrichment! Always an important topic!
In this episode, I am joined by Jenny Efimova of Dogminded in Boston, MA. Jenny is a Karen Pryor Academy Training Partner and a Fear Free Certitfied Trainer. We both love to talk about enrichment - and that's just what we did! What is "enrichment"? Wh...
Think of training like a conversation. Both individuals should be engaged and listening to each other for the conversation to be effective.
Have you ever tried to have a conversation with someone who’s watching television, playing a video game or studying for an important test? Probably not a very effective conversation. That’s because in those moments, each individual has competing interests.
Have you ever stepped outside with your dog, and no matter what you said or did, it was like you didn’t exist to your dog? Been there, felt that 🙋🏻♀️
In that moment, your dog’s interest and engagement is with their environment rather than with you. They aren’t ready for a conversation….they aren’t ready for a training request…and that’s okay!
Your dog's level of engagement with you is good feedback for us and should be seen as a gauge for their ability to respond to different cues, behaviors or requests.
Inside of the home, there’s typically little other competing interests or distractions in the environment for our dogs, so our dog’s level of engagement with us is pretty high. That’s why when teaching new behaviors we highly recommend starting their learning process inside of the home to build up the fluency of the behavior as well as a history of reinforcement before taking these behaviors outside of the home.
It’s also important to understand that your dog's level of engagement with you is changing as their environment changes. When you step outside of the home the environment can be unpredictable and full of new and changing smells and other exciting stimuli.
🐿🚲🌳🍃🚗🐕🚶
You could be in the middle of a training exercise with great engagement from your dog, quick and optimal performance….then all of a sudden: off leash dog appears. Boom, the dog has left the conversation and is now engaged with the environment. The behaviors you were asking for just seconds ago, may not be behaviors your dog is capable of performing at this moment. Maybe you need to simplify your cues, or maybe creating distance from the dog is the better answer. Let your dog’s engagement with you guide what you ask them to do. 👏🏼✨
A key concept I think we all need to remember is that no matter what the behaviour is that we are trying to modify, the more opportunity the animal has to rehearse the behavior, the more likely it is that it will continue.
You may have heard dog trainers emphasize that prevention and management is so important. We know how hard you’re working to try to help your dog create more healthy patterns and we don’t want you spinning your wheels, nor do we want dogs practising unhealthy behavior. So when you hear us preach that you should work at a conservative distance around triggers and avoid reactions overall it’s not because we don’t want you to actually work on behaviour modification. What we do want is for you to make progress and you won’t do that if your dog continues to practice the undesired behaviors.
Vocabulary check! Examining word choice may seem unimportant or nitpicky, but I think the words we choose can influence the way we feel about—and interact with—our dogs. What are some words you use while working with or talking about your dogs? What are some words you avoid or that send you running in the other direction?
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