Muttville is excited to announce our very first summer training seminar series, led by our volunteer staff of trainers in the Bay Area. Each month, we’ll hold a seminar focusing on a relevant topic for dog owners, adopters and fosters. This month’s topic is dog training basics, and learning how to effectively communicate with our canine companions.
Plan on attending? Please RSVP here
Topic summary:
When owning or fostering a dog, it almost goes without saying that he or she becomes part of the family unit. Dogs sleep in our beds, join us at the dining table (whether they’re supposed to or not!), and accompany us on all variety of errands and outings. Sometimes this assimilation into our lives becomes so seamless that we forget we are sharing our home with an entirely different species from our own. The fact is, dogs don’t know what we’re thinking and they certainly don’t inherently know all the rules and regulations that come with living in our homes. What we perceive as the meaning of dog behavior, and what dogs are really communicating to us, are two very different things. Fortunately, we do have a way to effectively communicate with our furry family members: training! More specifically, we can facilitate behavior change, assuage fears and anxieties, and strengthen the bond we share with our dogs through force-free, humane training techniques.
In the first of Muttville’s training seminars, we’ll discuss how to effectively train dogs, covering topics from housetraining, to basic obedience, to addressing common behavior problems like barking and resource guarding. We’ll also show how to navigate common training trouble spots.
About the Seminar Instructor
Maureen Backman, MS, owns Mutt About Town (http://muttabouttown.com), a dog training business that serving San Francisco and the Bay Area, and is affiliated with Jean Donaldson’s prestigious Academy for Dog Trainers. She is also a member of the Pet Professional Guild and the Association for Pet Dog Trainers. Maureen is grateful to Muttville for rescuing her recent adoption, a chihuahua basenji mix named Earl.
