Long Road Home: Positive Pet Training by Paula Y

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It’s Been a long road

My love for all types of critters started at a very young age. Growing up we always had a dog. My family loved animals as well, but my parents were very old school when it came to pets. They were there for a purpose, whether it was for hunting or guarding the house, they were not to mistaken as a member of our family. Even then I felt that there had to be more to improve their lives, which in turned would enrich our experiences with them. At age sixteen, I took full responsibility for the dog my sister bought at a pet store then quickly lost interest in. He was a little Westie named Harley and due to poor breeding had many problems. Both mentally and physically as many pet store/ puppy mill pets do. This didn’t stop me from trying to improve this ones lot in life, transforming him from this thing that was there not being stimulated or challenged at all to an animal that was thriving up until his death. Although he was never perfect, he did teach me a lot about animal behavior and changed the course of my life forever.

After Harley passing, I adopted my second dog Quinn from a rescue down south which lead down the path of positive based training I follow now. Quinn is a very soft dog that does not respond well to the methods of training that unfortunately are still popular in our area today. Any sort of force and “dominance” training would make her completely shut down. I refused to make my dog live in fear of myself or of anything in her environment, and went in search of a better way. Once I stumbled upon positive/ reward based training I was hooked! I could take this animal that already had a fearful temperament and build her confidence up to the point where she was happy! *MIND BLOWN*

I began lapping up all I could find on animal behavior science, positive reinforcement training, and animal communication. Quickly I realized that this method of working with dogs could be applied cross species very effectively and create real lasting change in behavior that you typically don’t see in correction based training. These animals learn how to react appropriately in situations eventually without the use treats or rewards because you build a foundation of trust and understanding. Finding out the root or cause of the behavior, then figuring out how to interrupt the start before it starts and replacing it with desired response. Which is a stark contrast to the “quick fix” methods like prong collars, choke chains, shock collars, citronella collars, and the like that work by causing discomfort after the behavior happens only stopping the response not working on why the behavior happened in the first place.

This lead me to years of study and practice working with clients dogs and shelter animals in need of some mental resetting. I will never be done learning how to improve my craft, but I relish new challenges that are coming. My hope is to soon open my doors to clients needing a little extra help in the beginning with on site board as well begin a new chapter in my life with rescuing long time shelter residents find their forever homes.