“A Note of Thanks” to Rachel Williams – “The Dogsmith”

I have to write to thank you for taking care of my Golden Retriever, Abbey (2 yrs. Old), over a four day weekend while I was busy with my Catering Company.
I did consider boarding Abbey with a local vet. Wow… what a mistake as I thought about it. Being confined in a kennel, maybe exposed to unhealthy animals, and bombarded by multiple handlers, in a hectic business environment that is closed and empty at 6 pm.
What an extreme contrast I found in your care. Abbey was in a family environment, introduced to your home and family pet (Chloe), protected, exercised, loved, and handled by a professional TRAINER!!!
I can say with great confidence, that my decision to leave Abbey in your care during a busy time with my business was calming to me and an absolute “adventure” for Abbey.
I was impressed at your level of attention, care, and great communication with me over the time that you were caring for Abbey. It was a bonus to receive phone text msgs. and even a quick photo to keep me informed of what she was doing. The caring service you provided extended beyond the treatment of my puppy. I was impressed with your careful attention to activity, any diet concerns, and importance of making a comfortable environment for Abbey by suggesting her favorite toy and her bed.
Lastly, I appreciate you delivering Abbey to my home at the end of her stay with you… I was amazed that you were thoughtful enough to give her a bath. I actually teach “Customer Service” in the Hospitality Industry and I feel that your level of care far exceeded all my expectations and felt compelled to write this note to recommend your business to anyone that is searching for outstanding care and thoughtful training of their family pet.
Sincerely,
John Carlino


The DogSmith, pet care in our home, pet sitting in your home, dog walking, www.dogsmith.com
call Rachel Williams 561-271-3033

An Invitation to Learn More about The DogSmith and How To Become A Professional Dog Trainer

An Invitation to Learn More about The DogSmith and How To Become A Professional Dog Trainer
Join The DogSmith Founder Niki Tudge on a webinar in February and learn more about how you can become a professional dog trainer. In fact, through the DogSmith Franchise you can become a professional pet care provider offering product and services across several business units. The DogSmith, America’s Dog Training, Dog Walking & Pet Care Franchise, invites you to join this webinar so you can learn all about The DogSmith, our training approach, business model and our mission, vision and values that steers our course every day.
The DogSmith® Unrivaled Pet Care - your Neighborhood Expert.
Visit our website to learn more about our company and see if you qualify for the DogSmith opportunity .

1. Please join my meeting on February 3rd at 8 pm Eastern Time, 7pm Central Time, 5 pm Pacific
https://www1.gotomeeting.com/join/320913120
2. Use your microphone and speakers (VoIP) - a headset is recommended. Or, call in using your telephone.
Dial 218-844-4924
Access Code: You will receive this by email
Audio PIN: Shown after joining the meeting
Meeting Password: You will receive this by email
Meeting ID: 320-913-120
GoToMeeting® Online Meetings Made Easy™

Email Niki Tudge and receive the conference access code and password.
NikiTudge@DogSmith.com
Niki Tudge
President & Founder
DogSmith® Franchise Services Inc
CPDT, E-Nadoi, CBC
AABP- Professional Dog Trainer
Dip, ABT, Diploma. Animal Behavior Technology
Pet Care Services CPCT, CAPCT
AKC “CGC” Evaluator
www.DogSmith.com
Toll Free 1-888-Dog-Smith (364-7648)
Fax 1-888-694-3433

The DogSmith Home Made Treat Guide

The DogSmith Home Made Treat Guide

By Catherine M. Zehner, CDT
The DogSmith of Florida's Emerald Coast
Delta Society Pet Partner, Member, IAPDT
AKC CGC Evaluator, Member, APDT

As a dog trainer, I am constantly on the hunt for tasty, nutritious and affordable treats. Unfortunately, I have found that “tasty,” “nutritious” and “affordable” rarely come in the same package.

Santa brought me the solution this holiday season – a food dehydrator!

Before you yawn, “ho-hum,” read on: I can make a gallon freezer bag full of treats for less than $5 – with all human-grade ingredients right out of my pantry/refrigerator. (You can also make human treats too, such as beef jerky, dried fruits, fruit roll-ups, trail bars at a huge cost-savings.)

A dehydrator works by forcing hot air over food, removing the moisture. As a result, your treats are dried, so there is no refrigeration necessary. This is a big bonus for avid dog people who might occasionally on a hot summer day leave the treat bag in the car. With homemade dehydrated treats, you not only don’t have a stinky mess to remove – you can still use them!

And the best part is – your dogs will never know the treats are good for them! But you’ll have the satisfaction of knowing that only foods that meet your standards have gone into these treats. You’ll never have to worry about missing a pet food recall alert. I use these treats with so many different dogs, that I always use oats as the starch since many dogs are sensitive to corn, wheat and soy products. Knowing what’s in my treats gives me great peace of mind when dealing with dogs that may have allergies. However, if your dog isn’t sensitive to those ingredients, you can use flour or corn meal.

The sky is the limit as far as the recipes. They can be as simple as dehydrating sliced deli meats to more elaborate recipes using cooked vegetables and meats. The favorite so far is simply chicken breast sliced through my food processor and dehydrated with nothing added. Runner up was a leftover Boston butt roast that we smoked one weekend. Tired of eating barbecue, I sliced it up and dehydrated it. Instant dog treats out of leftovers! And I looked like the pied piper at the dog park the next day.

I’m still experimenting, but I’ve had about two dozen canine quality-control inspectors indicate to me that these also are favorite recipes.


Happy drying, and “Bone Apetit!”

For the recipes visit The DogSmith Website FREE E-Book Download

How is the decision made when training dogs to use aversive training methods?

How do professional dog trainers and behavior counselors determine which training and behavior interventions to use and when is the application of aversive's in training pet dogs justified?

The decision making process used by a companion animal professional to determine how intrusive training and behavior interventions should be is driven first and foremost by the professional’s ethical obligations. The companion animal professional must use the least intrusive and effective intervention available. The companion animal professional has an obligation to use effective protocols to address the target behavior but must also recognize that they are responsible for the animal’s entire well being (O’Heare p 14 2009).

When developing training programs or behavior change interventions the professional needs to decide if they are adding to the animal’s behavior repertoire, training a new behavior or reducing the strength of an existing problematic behavior. When choosing an intervention or a training program, the risks and benefits must be considered particularly when taking into consideration whether to use aversive stimulation. Intrusiveness is on a continuum and the professional, having completed a function assessment and developed a contingency statement, should proceed forwards using the least intrusive procedure available to them from a recognized behavior change strategy (O’Heare p 10 2009).

The companion animal professional should start their intervention at the lowest level of “the least intrusive effective behavior intervention algorithm and levels of intrusiveness table” (LIEBI). If the least intrusive behavior change program is unsuccessful the professional trainer needs to reconsider and revaluate the components used to determine the contingency statement and then make the necessary adjustments to the behavior change program.

If the professional has continued failure in achieving the behavior plan goals using the intervention then before considering an increase in the intrusiveness of the intervention it would be wise to obtain another perspective on the problem from a more qualified professional and either work under their supervision or consider referring the case to them. The professional trainer can also decide at this point to move to level 2 or level 3 on the LIEBI model as both of these levels are considered minimally intrusive (O’Heare p 14 2009).

If the behavior change program is still not effective and the companion animal professional is considering more intrusive interventions a decision should not be made prior to or without considering if the client needs to explore psychopharmacological solutions. The professional also needs to, in concert with the animal’s owner, consider if the behavior is an unacceptable safety risk or is unmanageable. It may be necessary, based on these factors, to make a decision on whether the environment can be manipulated through antecedent control measures to “mitigate the effect of the problem behavior” (O’Heare p 15 2009).

The professional should consistently be looking at the risks and benefits prior to making any decisions particularly as they move further along the algorithm. The decision to make use of more intrusive interventions is weighed against doing the least harm and the animal’s dignity. The decision to increase the intrusiveness of the intervention needs to be well thought through and justified. Could the consequences of a failed behavior change program be more aversive to the animal then a behavior change program with a more intrusive intervention? If a companion animal professional is considering using an aversive behavior change program they need to decide if they are competent enough to ethically carry it out and if not, they should decide between referring the case or working on the case under the supervision of a more competent professional (O’Heare p 14 2009).



O’Heare, J. (2009). The least intrusive effective behavior intervention (LIEBI) algorithm and levels of intrusiveness table: A proposed best-practice model. Journal of Applied Companion Animal Behavior. 3(1), 7-25.

Niki Tudge is the owner and founder of The DogSmith, America’s Dog Training, Dog Walking and Pet Care Franchise. To learn more about joining the DogSmith visit http://www.888dogsmith.com/franchise.html
CPDT, E-Nadoi, CBC
AABP- PDT
DIP. ABT
Pet Care Services CPCT, CAPCT
AKC “CGC” Evaluator
You can reach Niki via email at NikiTudge@DogSmith.com or www.DogSmith.com
For all your training needs contact your local DogSmith or Rachel Williams 561-271-3033

Good Dog, Smart Dog

By SARAH KERSHAW
Published: October 31, 2009

Life as a Labradoodle may sound free and easy, but if you’re Jet, who lives in New Jersey, there is a lot of work to be done.

He is both a seizure alert dog and a psychiatric service dog whose owner has epilepsy, severe anxiety, depression, various phobias and hypoglycemia. Jet has been trained to anticipate seizures, panic attacks and plunging blood sugar and will alert his owner to these things by staring intently at her until she does something about the problem. He will drop a toy in her lap to snap her out of a dissociative state. If she has a seizure, he will position himself so that his body is under her head to cushion a fall.

Jet seems like a genius, but is he really so smart? In fact, is any of it in his brain, or is it mostly in his sniff?

The matter of what exactly goes on in the mind of a dog is a tricky one, and until recently much of the research on canine intelligence has been met with large doses of skepticism. But over the last several years a growing body of evidence, culled from small scientific studies of dogs’ abilities to do things like detect cancer or seizures, solve complex problems (complex for a dog, anyway), and learn language suggests that they may know more than we thought they did.

Their apparent ability to tune in to the needs of psychiatric patients, turning on lights for trauma victims afraid of the dark, reminding their owners to take medication and interrupting behaviors like suicide attempts and self-mutilation, for example, has lately attracted the attention of researchers.

In September, the Army announced that it would spend $300,000 to study the impact of pairing psychiatric service dogs like Jet with soldiers returning from Iraq and Afghanistan with post-traumatic stress disorder. Both the House and Senate have recently passed bills that would finance the training and placement of these dogs with veterans.

Hungarian researchers reported in a study last year that a guide dog for a blind and epileptic person became anxious before its master suffered a seizure and was taught to bark and lick the owner’s face and upper arm when it detected an onset, three to five minutes before the seizure. It is still somewhat mysterious how exactly dogs detect seizures, whether it’s by picking up on behavioral changes or smelling something awry, but several small studies have shown that a powerful sense of smell can detect lung and other types of cancer, as the dogs sniff out odors emitted by the disease.

Beyond these perceptual abilities, in which trainers can use the dogs’ natural instincts, some research has examined dogs’ actual cognitive ability, and found not just good doggie, but smart doggie.

“I believe that so much research has come out lately suggesting that we may have underestimated certain aspects of the mental ability of dogs that even the most hardened cynic has to think twice before rejecting the possibilities,” said Stanley Coren, a psychology professor at the University of British Columbia and an author of several books on dogs.

Dr. Coren’s work on intelligence, along with other research suggesting that the canine brain processes information something like the way people do, has drawn criticism. And there is good reason. For most of the last century the specter of a horse named Clever Hans hung over anyone who tried to prove that dogs were acting in thoughtful ways — not merely mimicking or manipulating people into believing that they in fact grasped human concepts.

Clever Hans was said to be able to count, make change and tell time by tapping his hoof, until investigators in the early 1900s learned that Hans was merely responding to his trainer’s body language, tapping when the trainer nodded his head. This provided an enduring example for those who believed thought was the exclusive domain of humans.

But in 2004, German researchers reported that a border collie named Rico could learn the name of an object in one try, had 200 objects in his repertoire and remembered them all a month later, all very human. Even skeptical animal behavior researchers found the Rico results impressive and sound. Is it possible that Rico turned the tide on the Clever Hans problem, even though there is debate about how we can reliably measure what dogs know?

By giving dogs language learning and other tests devised for infants and toddlers, Dr. Coren has come up with an intelligence ranking of 100 breeds, with border collies at No. 1. He says the most intelligent breeds (poodles, retrievers, Labradors and shepherds) can learn as many as 250 words, signs and signals, while the others can learn 165. The average dog is about as intellectually advanced as a 2- to 2-and-a-half-year-old child, he has concluded, with an ability to understand some abstract concepts. For example, the animal can get “the idea of being a dog” by differentiating photographs with dogs in them from photographs without dogs.

But Clive D. L. Wynne, an associate professor of psychology at the University of Florida who specializes in canine cognition and has himself said he met a border collie who knew 1,500 words, takes issue with efforts to compare human and canine brains.

He argues that it is dogs’ deep sensitivity to the humans around them, their obedience under rigorous training, and their desire to please that can explain most of these capabilities. They may be deft at reading human cues — and teachable — but that doesn’t mean they are thinking like people, he says. A dog’s entire world revolves around its primary owner, and it will respond to that person to get what it wants, usually food, treats or affection.

“I take the view that dogs have their own unique way of thinking,” Dr. Wynne said. “It’s a happy accident that doggie thinking and human thinking overlap enough that we can have these relationships with dogs, but we shouldn’t kid ourselves that dogs are viewing the world the way we do.”

For all your pet care needs and Training Advise go to www.DogSmith.com to find your local DogSmith or call Rachel Williams, DOgSmith Palm Beach county at 561-271-3033.

DogSmith Dog Trainer Professional Ethics

DogSmith Dog Trainers & Behavior Analysts are guided by The DogSmith’s mission, vision and values and a set of professional ethics. Professional ethics covers the moral issues that can arise from the specialist knowledge that a professional body has. The industry’s ethics govern how this knowledge is used when providing a service. The dimensions of ethics collectively represent “the positive, ethical ideas and values of the profession” to the benefit of the client, the professional and the industry(Welfel p 4 2009).

The public benefits from professional ethics as they recognize and respect the client’s autonomy and dignity. Ethics detail that individuals will be treated with respect and that the professional will do no harm through their professional conduct. Professionals will not only practice non maleficence but also beneficence and the professional will seek informed consent from their clients, be fair, confidential and loyal.

Professional ethics are also important to the individual professional because the individual professional benefits from the trust earned by being part of a professional body that is governed by a set of professional ethics. The individual professional also has access to a valid and reliable body of scientific knowledge so they can continue their education and collaboration with other like minded professionals (O’Heare 2009).

Professional ethics are important to the profession itself because they bring credibility to the profession. Professional ethics govern that professionals will adhere to a code of conduct, will act competently and will only consult within the range of their competency. When necessary, professionals will refer clients to another professional.

The DogSmith Professional Ethics are as follows.

1. A DogSmith will always hold the dog’s welfare as our top priority. The dog is the vulnerable component in the consultation process as they cannot offer informed consent

2. The role of a DogSmith is one that is beneficial to the dog and never to its detriment. We seek to do no harm.

3. A DogSmith will not condone or endorse any treatment by a dog’s owner that is physically or mentally cruel. We will opt out of a consulting agreement rather than attempt to manage an unethical course of action.

4. A DogSmith will only consult with clients who offer cases that we have the professional competence to deal with.

5. A DogSmith will only use procedures, protocols and training tools that are empirically based and have a proven track record.

6. A DogSmith trainer considers communications with their clients privileged. We will only break that confidentiality if a dog is being abused and the client cannot be dissuaded from changing their current approach. We will act according to local and state laws in terms of reporting animal cruelty.

7. A DogSmith recognizes that the owner is responsible for their dog and the owner has the right to make decisions about the professional treatment of their dog.

8. A DogSmith will apply the following ethical principles to each situation we encounter:

* Respect for the freedom and dignity of others
* Do no harm
* Do good
* Act fairly
* Be faithful to promises made

O’Heare, J (2009) AABP A Guide to the Association of Animal Behavior Professionals’ professional practice guidelines

Welfel, E.R, (2009) Ethics in Counseling and Psychotherapy. Fourth Edition. Brookes Cole USA.

Tudge, N.J (2007) DogSmith Professional Ethics. www.DogSmith.com

call Rachel Williams your local DogSmith at 561-271-3033

Stop Complaining and start Training!

The DogSmith, America’s Dog Training, Pet Care, Dog Walking, and Pet Nutrition Franchise, encourages all dog owners to participate in the Association of Pet Dog Trainers National Dog Training Month.

January 2010: The Association of Pet Dog Trainers (APDT) has designated January as the national “train your dog” month to promote the benefits of positive training methods and socialization as a way to create a healthy, long-lasting relationship between dogs and their owners.

Hundreds of thousands of dogs are turned in to animal shelters every year because their owners did not know how to deal with behavior problems that could have been easily fixed. DogSmith Franchise Services joins with the APDT in this important mission because a “trained dog is a retained dog” and with so many families starting out the new year with four legged additions to their family, The DogSmith wants to help new pet parents start off the year in the best way possible.

By training your family dog using modern, scientifically based, positive methods, such as those taught by The DogSmith, you can establish an exceptional bond with your non-human family members allowing actual communication to take place. And the training is fun and easy. The DogSmith emphasizes methods that are kind, gentle and have a positive impact on building a trusting relationship with your dog.

The DogSmith offers a comprehensive variety of training and pet care plans to fit every budget and lifestyle. From private 1-on-1 training lessons, Group Classes and “Latch Key” Training (in your home with your dog while you are at work), there is a suitable program for every dog. Even those dogs whose owners are too busy but are still committed to their dog’s education can enroll in the popular DogSmith “board and train” program.

In addition, The DogSmith website provides a variety of free dog training e-books available for download as well as information on how to contact your local DogSmith. Visit www.DogSmith.com and start communicating with your furry best friend.

DogSmith’s Don’t Whisper, They Translate!®

About The DogSmith

The DogSmith Franchise Services Inc. is a Florida based company whose mission is to enhance the lives of pets and their owners by improving their relationship, and the quality of the life they share, through providing professional support and training to pet dog owners, supporting and assisting animal shelters and rescue organizations to minimize the number of unwanted animals and offering affordable and professional care to family pets so that pet ownership is never a burden. To learn more about, or to become a DogSmith Dog Trainer visit www.DogSmith.com or call 1-888-364-7648 your local Dogsmith Rachel Williams 561-271-3033