14 minute read
NEWS
PPG Establishes Advocacy Panel to Broaden Educational Reach
PPG has established an Advocacy Panel as part of its key mission to support pet guardian education and make it accessible to a wider audience. PPG considers it to be critical that pet guardians are equipped with the tools they need to ask informed questions of training and behavior professionals prior to hiring, so they are aware of what training philosophy, equipment and methods will be implemented.
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As such, the newlylaunched Advocacy Panel will host a series of live Expert Panel Discussions which will take place on Zoom and/or Facebook, eventually on a bimonthly basis. During the sessions, the panel experts will focus on topical issues important to pet professionals and pet owners. Discussions will remain simple and straightforward, with panel members simply sharing their expertise on a variety of topics that will help inform both pet guardians and pet professionals. After the live session, a recording will be released as a podcast via PPG’s media platform, BARKS Podcasts, to reach an even wider audience.
The first Expert Panel Discussion was scheduled for Friday, August 27, 2021 with the topic, How To Best Advocate for Positive Reinforce‐ment Training. The second event will take place on Friday, September 24, 2021 at 3 p.m. ET and feature the topic How To Reach and Work With Your Local Veterinarians. Zoom links are posted on the Advocacy Panel website and announced on social media prior to each event.
Panel members to date include Dr. Laura Donaldson, Dr. Eduardo Fernandez, Dr. Robert Hewings, Judy Luther, Linda Michaels, Pat Miller, Helen Phillips, Kim Silver, Dr. Kristina Spaulding, Claire Staines, K. Holden Svirsky, Dr. Zazie Todd, Dr. Karolina Westlund, and Sam Wike. Sessions will be moderated by ShockFree Coalition chairman Don Hanson and PPG president Niki Tudge, with discussion topics announced at least four weeks before the scheduled air date. PPG is currently planning to build a dedicated Advocacy Panel webpage to efficiently share session topics, dates and times, as well as provide information on individual panel members.
“Hopefully, we will not only advocate and inform but also have some fun along the way and build some great relationships,” said PPG president Niki Tudge. “We intend to keep the Facebook Live sessions free flowing, giving each participant the opportunity to answer key questions and supplement other panelists‘ responses. We also encourage audience members to participate with comments and questions, making it an interactive, educational and enjoyable experience for all. It is essential that the pet owning public is made more aware of the differences in training philosophies amongst pet professionals to ensure they can make the best decisions for themselves, their pets, and their families. We aim to address that need.”
Join the Advocacy Panel on Friday, September 24, 2021 at 3 p.m. E.T. to discuss How To Reach and Work With Your Local Veterinarians
PPG Appoints Don Hanson to Board of Directors
PPG has appointed longtime PPG associate Don Hanson (right, with Muppy) to its board of directors with immediate effect. Hanson is a Bangor, Mainebased canine and feline trainer and behavior consultant of some 25 years, who has been cochair of PPG's Advocacy Committee since 2016 (and, as of 2021, chairman), and chairman of the ShockFree Coalition since 2017. PPG established the ShockFree Coalition at that time as a global advocacy campaign aimed at ending the practice of using electric shock to train, manage, and care for pets; building a strong and broad movement committed to eliminating shock devices from the supply chain; and creating transparency on the methods used for consumers seeking professional advice on pet behavior or training issues.
By strengthening its board of directors with the addition of Hanson, PPG aims to enhance its ability to react quickly and appropriately to arising issues at all times. "Don Hanson has headed up the PPG Advocacy arm for the past few years, in particular the ShockFree Coalition, and has a track record of leadership in our industry that the board felt would benefit PPG at a higher level," said PPG president Niki Tudge. "He has the skills and experience to positively and critically contribute to some of the important conversations and decisions we anticipate having to make in the next couple of years regarding ethics, approach and industry progression. By making such changes and amendments to the operating practices within PPG, we guarantee that we can not only serve our membership with a high degree of competency, but that we can best represent our membership body by positively shaping the topography of the industry in which they practice."
"It is an honor and a privilege to be asked to serve PPG and its members on the board of directors," added Hanson. "I've been a pet care professional since 1995 and have been active in industry associations since 1998. It has always been my goal to help people care for their pets in a kind and gentle manner, fostering a lifelong bond based on mutual trust. Unfortunately, either due to ignorance or intentional malice, pain, force, and fear are still used in the training and management of pets far too often. I believe that PPG's emphasis on science, empathy, and ethics and its members' passion can bring about the positive changes we need in this industry. To be part of that will be a capstone to my career."
About Don Hanson Don Hanson is the co‐owner of the Green Acres Kennel Shop in Bangor, Maine. He is a Bach Foundation registered animal practitioner (BFRAP), certified dog behavior consultant (CDBC), associate certified cat behav‐ior consultant (ACCBC) and a certified professional dog trainer (CPDT‐KA) and also produces and co‐hosts a weekly radio show and podcast, The Woof Meow Show on The Pulse AM620 WZON. He writes about pets on his blog and is chairman of PPG's Advocacy Committee and the Shock‐Free Coalition. Read Don Hanson’s full bio.
Pet Professional Guild Announces Corporate Partnership with Zigzag Puppy Training App; Valuable Tool For PPG Members to Use in Their Businesses
PPG has announced a new corporate partnership with Zigzag, an allinone puppy training app designed to help puppy parents teach their pups core life skills using positive reinforcementbased methodology. The app was scheduled to be made available to the public starting August 30, 2021.
As part of the new partnership, the PPG Canine Committee will provide technical support to help users with app navigation and FAQs. In cases where additional support from a trainer or behavior consultant is requested or needed, the puppy owner will be referred to the PPG Member Directory to help them find a professional in their area.
Phase 2 of the corporate partnership will be rolled out in the coming weeks. During this phase, the app will be made available to PPG members for FREE, along with a member affiliate program. This will enable PPG member users to refer their clients to the app as a support tool for their own training programs and curriculums.
To support the August 30 app availability, PPG president Niki Tudge will host Zigzag head of program Lorna Winter and PPG Canine Committee chair Judy Luther in a live discussion on September 3, 2021 that will be streamed via PPG’s public Facebook page. The pair will discuss and outline PPG’s support role for the app and how PPG members can benefit from using it, as well as discuss the many advantages for puppies and their owners.
No Formal Training
The early stages of puppyhood are critical for a dog’s healthy cognitive and life skill development, but according to the PDSA Animal Well‐being Paw Report (2019), 60% of dogs in the UK get no formal training, while 12% of dogs never get any kind of training, socialization or life skill development at all. This can lead to a variety of behavior problems, and risks creating puppy parents who feel overwhelmed, leading to the possibility of relinquishment and, consequently, increased strain on shelters and rescue centers and, ultimately, the number of dogs facing euthanasia.
Zigzag aims to break the cycle and prevent this from happening by acting as a digital coach which guides puppy guardians through the ups and downs of early puppyhood. A personalized plan based on modern, scientific, and positive only training methods is provided, while ensuring the training is fun and stressfree for both puppy and owner. Zigzag is currently the only digital coaching app that focuses purely on this early puppyhood phase.
Teaching Life Skills
The actual life skills are taught via stepbystep video tutorials and exercises over the course of eight12 weeks. Users are given three to five daily tasks, seven days a week, that are adapted to their puppy’s breed –from preparing for puppy’s arrival, to learning potty training, name recognition, mouthing, manners, recall, fetching, and more. “I’ve been a qualified behaviorist and trainer since 2009 and, yearonyear, through all the behavior and training networks I’m a part of, we see more and more issues with dogs being unable to cope in our world,” said Zigzag’s Lorna Winter. "These often require serious – and often long – behavior modification programs, or even euthanasia in some cases. Yet many of the issues being presented could easily have been prevented with fairly minimal training and education during those early months of development when the dogs were still puppies. With physical puppy classes, we only ever manage to reach a tiny percentage of the puppies being born each year around the world, so it was our vision to find a way to bring all the amazing expertise we have in this industry – and get that out to millions of puppies and guardians, rather than the few hundred we usually may be able to influence.
Improved Welfare
“Just hearing some of the feedback from those guardians who feel immensely overwhelmed, unsure and stressed at the start, to then seeing them flourish and have wonderful little puppies who are coping well in the world, drives me to continue to be the best we can possibly be for them all. We are very excited about the future and strongly believe that by working together collaboratively, we can all help reach millions of new guardians and promote the highest level of education and support, that ultimately leads to improved welfare and hopefully reduces abandonment and euthanasia.” “We are thrilled to partner with Zigzag as part of our ongoing mission to broaden our reach among dog owners to ensure they get uptodate, sciencebased information and education to help them make the right choices for their pets’ training needs,” added PPG’s Niki Tudge. “Importantly, Zigzag’s Guiding Principles, with their focus on positive reinforcement training methods and their understanding that dogs are sentient beings who have individual personalities and preferences, align with those of PPG, whereby members commit to do no harm and always hold the pet’s welfare as the top priority.
Business Tool
“Zigzag will be a valuable tool for our members to use in their businesses, so they can reach more puppy owners as well as provide the potential to bring them more clients. If I were newly launching my dog training business today, I would fully integrate it into all my curriculums. The content is professional and easy to use, and it’s a great resource for professional dog trainers as they strive to provide good quality education and support tools for puppy owners. The app has untold benefits for all parties, while also allowing for dog training professionals to inject their own creativity and ideas into how they implement it into their businesses.”
Congratulations to Diane Podolsky and Schel Harris for winning the ShockFree Coalition ‘Tag It’ competition. The winners have each been awarded a FREE ticket to Geek Week 2021.
The new tagline is a combination of the top two entries, as submitted by Podolsky and Harris:
PPG Welcomes UnChase!® as New Corporate Partner
PPG Calls for Volunteers for Service Dogs and ESA Committee
Informed by Science, Guided by Empathy, Governed by Ethics™
PPG has welcomed UnChase!® as a new corporate partner. The UnChase!® program utilizes only positive reinforcement training guided by the latest scientific understanding of dog behavior and training. The goal of the program is to stop chase behavior by effectively motivating dogs to prefer not to chase. This approach removes stress from the training process for both animal and trainer and achieves more reliable results.
UnChase!® offers a series of online courses for dog lovers to learn how to stop their dogs from chasing. The courses are fun, selfpaced classes that can be taken anytime from anywhere. Professional trainers can undertake the Pro Trainer Course to gain additional skills in addressing chase behaviors and become licensed UnChase!® instructors.
PPG is working to develop a new committee to focus on Service Dogs and Emotional Support Animals (ESA). The move has been initiated by PPG member Peggy Moran. If you have experience in this sector of the industry and are interested in helping create resources to advocate for scientific and humane approaches to training and care, then please complete our volunteer form.
Geek Week 2021 Awards Second Set of Scholarship Tickets
Congratulations to Geek Week 2021 scholarship ticket recipients Desiree LomerClarke, Elizabeth Ashley, Kitty Lee, and Monica Hanna! Scholarship tickets are awarded by PPG’s Inclusivity Committee to the BIPOC community. Apply for your Geek Week Scholarship
- Listen on the Anchor Platform
BARKS Podcasts are available on the Anchor platform, from where you can select your preferred app to listen any time or download. Make sure you follow BARKS Podcasts on whichever app you choose so you can stay updated with new releases. In the most recent podcasts, join PPG president Niki Tudge as she chats to:
Dr. Laura Donaldson, Simone Mueller and Dr. Holly Tett about their scheduled presentations at Geek Week 2021 (August 17, 2021). Listen here.
Zazie Todd, animal behavior expert and awardwinning author of Wag: The Science of Making Your Dog Happy, and creator of the Companion Animal Psychology about dog training, blogging, and running a business (July 16, 2021). Listen here.
Helen Philips and Jules Morgan of The Gun Dog Trainers Academy about positive gundog training and the increasing demand for ethical gundog training, as well as all the great work they are doing in the UK (July 9, 2021). Listen here. PPG’s monthly news update BARKS News is now available as a Podcast. Catch up on all your latest PPG news here:
BARKS News August 2021 edition
BARKS News July 2021 edition
Join a BARKS Podcast: You too can share your knowledge and experience with PPG members and supporters! Apply to be a podcast guest here.
You can find older podcasts in the BARKS Podcasts Library and on PPG’s YouTube and Vimeo channels.
Earn Your CEUs via PPG’s Webinars, Workshops and Educational Summits!
Webinars
Imagination and Creativity Presented by Dr. Robert Hewings
Monday, September 13, 2021 / 2 p.m. (EDT)
Panel Discussions
How To Reach and Work With Your Local Veterinarians
Presented by PPG Advocacy Panel Friday September 24, 2021 at 3 p.m. (EDT)
Who Controls the Training Session You or the Animal? Presented by Dr. Karolina Westlund
Wednesday, October 6, 2021 / 2 p.m. (EDT)
Inside the Matrix Presented by Dr. Lisa Radosta
Monday, October 11, 2021 / 4 p.m. (EDT)
PPG Webinars On Demand
Listen or watch any time!
Workshops
Your PORTL to Shaping Presented by Mary Hunter
Saturday, April 9, 2022 Sunday, April 10, 2022
How Cognitive Biases Interfere with How We Acquire Knowledge Presented by Dr. Karolina Westlund
Wednesday, October 20, 2021 / 2 p.m. (EDT)
The Power of Pavlov Presented by Dr. Karolina Westlund
Wednesday, October 27, 2021 / 2 p.m. (EDT)
Shaping Up Shaping Presented by Dr. Karolina Westlund
Wednesday, November 3, 2021 / 2 p.m. (EDT)
Scent and the Assistance Dog Presented by Dr. Robert Hewings
Monday, November 15, 2021 / 2 p.m. (EDT)
Educational Summits
PPG Geek Week 2021 (Virtual)
Saturday, November 13 Wednesday, November 17, 2021 Note: All dates and times are correct at time of going to press but are subject to change. Please check the PPG website for an up‐dated list of all events, workshops and webinars, as well as dis‐counted and on‐demand webinars.
