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In Australia an estimated 200,000[1] dogs each year end up euthanised in pounds as unwanted pets. That's 40% of all puppies born who will later meet this fate. And it's believed that 90%[2] of dogs in pounds are there because of preventable behaviour problems – where manners & obedience training or just providing owners with practical information on behaviour problems would have turned the situation around.
That's where our soul is. In helping prevent shelter dog cases, helping adopted dogs thrive in their new home, and helping all owners live successfully with their pets. So everyone can enjoy dogs as much as we do!
Prevention begins in puppyhood, and most people are simply unaware for example, of just how critical the socialisation period up to 12 weeks of age is for a dog's adult personality, or how to go about teaching puppies things like proper bite inhibition and soft mouth. We run puppy classes that help prevent problems right from the start, following best-practice positive training methods, and have initiated campaigns such as making Dr Ian Dunbar's BEFORE & AFTER You Get Your Puppy books freely available to everyone.
Adult dogs can sometimes be far from perfect, but then we as owners are the same. Some puppies seem to turn unmanageable at 6 months of age, and adopted dogs have a reputation for coming with hidden history or baggage - but that shouldn't be a deal-breaker. What matters is knowing the right way to address unwanted behaviour. So we run adult classes to help put relationships with dogs back on track and keep them there - using practical, safe, reliable and proven training principles. And using our professional network we can always find someone who can help with special cases.
The science of training has been known for decades, and those who follow it find success. Science is not a cult or "one person's way of doing things", nor is it something to treat with suspicion.
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Instead it's an incredibly powerful way to sort out myth from fact. Scientific, or evidence-based training methods have been scrutinised for more than 100 years, ever since Dr B. F. Skinner first proposed the tenets of behaviourism. That means literally millions of people, including those with vested interests in disproving it, have scrutinised the world's collective knowledge on dog behaviour for decades, but none have been able to shake its foundation.
What we teach in our classes then is based on fundamentals like 'the Law of Learning governs all behaviour', ideas such as 'punishment isn't necessary in training', and that 'motivational methods work best'[3]. Our methods are also considered "best-practice" because they incorporate the latest strategies for teaching people as well as the dogs. The same strategies that get used every day in schools, colleges and universities around the country.
Knowledge is always evolving so staying up-to-date is important too. Theories that developed decades ago like "dominance in dogs" have since been abandoned (and in fact recanted) and we now have much better models to describe what's going on with dogs. It can be hard to counter the teachings of other trainers that aren't up-to-date though, especially charismatic ones with highly visible public profiles, but at least no amount of propaganda and no media machine can ever change the fact that aversives, abuse, pack mentality and avoidance training will never provide the miracle solution owners look for. Instead, we ourselves focus on humane, dog-friendly and safe training methods that are not only free of unwanted side-effects, but are known to work better than any other methods.
Mostly we hope to help owners achieve the relationship they want with their dogs. When our relationship with dogs, and our understanding of their nature improves, then so does our dogs' behaviour. We offer friendly help, solid advice – and fun class environments – to try and make that happen as often as we can.
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