Positive reinforcement dog training should be fear-free and force-free. Your dog should enjoy learning and you should enjoy teaching. I have been teaching fun and successful dog training for twenty-five years. Join us!
Lisa Davis brings her twenty-five years of health experience and her love of dogs together in her PodCast “Dog-Eared” to interview authors of dog related books, memoirs like A Dog Named Boo and other advice and inspirational dog-related titles.
My next set of Pet Partner evaluations is scheduled for April 22nd.
To enroll, you will need to go to the PetPartners.org website and go through your account to your registrations. You will be able to search for evaluations in Mahopac, NY.
There are four spaces available, so enroll early.
If you have questions, contact PetPartners directly.
Here’s a peek into a portion of Boo’s last evaluation – 2012.
If you would like to be a volunteer for the evaluations (humans only), it is a great way to get a sense of what is involved in the process. Contact me to be a volunteer.
The Animal Assisted Intervention and the Advanced classes have been merged because there is so much overlap.
All the skills that would normally be considered only for the Animal Assisted Interventions class should be in everyone’s toolbox as they take their dogs out into public for walks, recreation, pick up kids at the school bus, vacations, sports, etc.
Every interaction your dog has with a stranger is a moment to affect that person’s life.
If you have wanted to do the Advanced class to hone skills or prepare for the CGC – this is the class.
If you want to volunteer with your dog to do Animal Assisted Interventions – this is the class for you.
If you are already working your dog on Animal Assisted Intervention visits, this class will help you develop more broad handling and supporting skills.
If you are training your dog to do service work for you, this class will give you the tools so you can work your dog appropriately in public.
If you have questions, or are not sure if your dog is ready for this class, please email me.
The Three Dogs Training Animal Assisted Therapy, Education, and Activities class returns October 30, 2021.
In the last twenty-two years I have taught at least one AATEA class each year except for 2020. I think we all know what happened in 2020…
When we visit people with our dogs we get to experience:
Seeing someone light up with joy when your dog comes to visit them
Seeing your dog bring – voice to the voiceless, awareness to those who sometimes lose their focus in this world, or give someone a moment not thinking about their pain
Watching a child relax as they read out loud to the dog who won’t judge them.
And finding that years later that the now-college-student still cherishes the bookmark she made of her picture reading with your dog.
Boo made them all smile at Maryknoll
Many years ago I wrote this and it stands the test of time:
It is a rare thing in humans to be able to look at the face of a person whose life has so obviously been harsh or has taken a turn in that direction without visible pity and anguish. And it is a rare thing for the person being looked upon to not see the discomfort in the face of the onlooker.
However, it is the dog, the cat, and the rest of our companion animals who do not see what has been, but who look only at the possibility of and need for joy that exists in all of us. For the animals, it’s not about pity, anguish, or guilt. It is about their exceptional and majestic gift of being able to tease out the joy in all things even where there seems to be none left. And it is this that allows them to often go where no person can go to do therapeutic work.
ljedwards 2001
Boo visiting another sister at Maryknoll
If you feel it is time to share the joy of your dog with others, the Three Dogs Training AATEA class will teach you the following:
Skills you will need to navigate your visits
Skills to support and advocate for the safety of your dog
And some little tricks to make the most of the visits for everyone
Since 2000, Animal Assisted Intervention has been a huge part of my life. I have done thousands of visits with three of my own therapy dogs, taught hundreds of teams (maybe more) to go out into the world and bring joy, learning, and therapy with their dogs. I have consulted on campus therapy dog programs for two residential special needs schools. And even my best-selling book “A Dog Named Boo” was re-released this July to get us all back in the animal assisted intervention frame of mind.
