Local dog trainer and certified Family Dog Mediator Oliver Ringrose of Dog Smart Training & Behaviour based in Sevenoaks Kent is urging all dog loving members of the local community to take advantage of this newly released one-hour public-friendly version of the extensive professional course that has so powerfully transformed his own life & work with dogs.
I`m honoured and delighted to be a part of this movement and to be able to offer this fantastic resource to our existing and future Dog Smart Clients in the UK
I strongly believe this model will help owners and other professionals understand more about what is going on within that complex relationship they have with their dogs, we are often guilty of focusing on a single point when we should be looking at the whole picture all of the time.
Kim has provided us with a great opportunity to be able to further educate of past and future clients with this course material and united a group of highly dedicated and knowledgeable individuals from across the world who are now helping each other in a community effort to create change..
Behavioural issues are a phenomenon of animals in captive environments, they do not exist to any extent in the natural world and although we hold great power with scientifically proven training methods, we do not have all the answers to life, this is often because we fail to realise the right questions to ask, we attack symptoms with highly skilled band aids risking playing "wackamole" with behavioural symptoms, rather than getting to the roots of the cause.
The more we know our dog(s) the more we can harness their strengths and begin to understand the lens they use to navigate our complicated world, in turn we can be better traveling companions and support them more appropriately.
Our choices have already set a roadmap for us, the breeds we choose to share our lives with we have chosen for some innate reason in our own Learning Self, maybe because we have a need of a companion in our Environment to make it conducive to our own needs, we may even have a Genetic bias to the breeds we choose to live with, but some of these breeds have been selected for very specific purposes for many generations and understanding why will help us understand some of the behaviour patterns we see that might cause us issues in our domestic world.
As a trainer and behaviour consultant its important for me to be able to provide the education you need about the dog you have in front of you, we could talk all day about dogs but its the dog that is important, it needs to be removed from the statistical world of dogs. (thank you Suzanne Clothier!).
Even inside a single litter of the same breed group individuals can vary dramatically, much like human brothers and sisters can be, nature doesn't create carbon copies of dogs and despite us trying nature won`t let that happen.
Our puppies are not blank canvasses their learning is routed in thousands of years that came before now, we have shaped dogs to
be extremely useful companions but sometimes in in extremely niche roles
Video: Puppy Teak, Hungarian Wirehaired Vizsla, Hunt point retriever, gundog group. Activated by the releasing stimulus of flying birds
They can be "fit for purpose" but in our modern times that purpose may no longer exist for them to fulfil appropriately, but those action patterns still exist awaiting an opportunity to release, that longing, that need, that sense of purpose still exists inside many of these individuals and when we can find the right key for that lock we can unlock a whole new way of thinking and communicating with them, but its up to us to listen and to understand what we are listening for. We will never get the right answers if we keep asking the wrong questions.
Below we show a couple of modal action patterns (MAP) from a couple of breeds present at a very young age.
Video Below: Teak showing his breed specific behaviours at just 9 weeks old
Video Below: Puppy collie playing sheep balls herding game for the first time. Courtesy of Dog Be Praised
Activities Such as scent work and man trailing are great for getting to know your dogs and how they move through the world, sometimes with some serious precision and its a great and safe outlet for most dogs Genetics, this is L.E.G.S all in one activity and can be hugely beneficial for welfare.
Pictures Below: Various dogs carrying out scent work and tracking activities. Courtesy of CloudnineK9s Scentwork & Search Dogs
Certainly for me, the individual ethology of each dog is of great importance to understand, taking into account not just observable behaviour, but how previous Learning and experience has shaped the dog and the handler and what is needed to move forward, how the Environment is effecting the animal and even the handler, understanding how the Genetics of the dog maybe put under pressure or set free and can be acting as a reinforcing agent in learning and how that dogs personal Self, its physical and mental health and nutritional status, how this influences its decision making and risk assessment processes is imperative as a dog training professional to understand.
What's all the fuss about then?
The Dogs Truth Kim Brophey CDBC, CPDT-KA
Applied ethologist, professional dog trainer, and owner of The Dog Door Behavior Center in downtown Asheville, NC. Kim’s 20-year commitment to Family Dog Mediation® has been recognized both nationally and locally, awarded the Association of Professional Dog Trainers (APDT) Outstanding Trainer of the Year in 2009 and the Best Dog Trainer of WNC six years in a row.
She has lectured and taught courses at colleges, universities, and conferences on canine behaviour, ethology, and welfare.
Kim is a member of the International Society for Applied Ethology and the Association of Professional Dog Trainers, and is a past board member of the International Association and Animal Behaviour Consultants and the Asheville Humane Society and industry disruptor Kim Brophey has just released a compelling new video trailer for her new course that busts long-standing but incorrect myths about our dogs.
“We’ve been told that ‘dogs are pets.’ We’ve been told that ‘it’s all how you raise them.’ We’ve been told that ‘a dog’s natural behaviour is “wrong” and that the dog just needs training.’ All of these myths about ‘the perfect pet’ are an illusion – it is fantasy and it is not true,”
Brophey says.
The poignant, three-minute trailer announces this new course on the truth about dogs made especially for dog owners. For Cath, this is incredibly good news for her clients and their dogs; this powerful one-hour distilled nutshell of the critical information contained in the full L.E.G.S.® course will profoundly improve any family’s understanding of their dog’s behaviour and shed meaningful light on the nature of their specific obstacles and goals.
With pet dog behaviour problems increasing rapidly worldwide, this is welcome news for struggling families concerned that their dog is broken or that they themselves have somehow failed.
“To love them, we must know them,”
Brophey says.
“To know them, we must see them for ALL that they are. Dogs are so much more than a pet.”
She shares with owners the true complexity of dogs in her new documentary-style course: The Dog’s Truth – The Science of L.E.G.S.® for Families (“The One Hour Experience That Will Change Your Life With Dogs Forever”).
“My passion for owners has been to connect the dots into a picture that is clear, recognizable, and full of the important details we so often miss when looking at our dogs. We owe it to them – and to every single dog owner on earth – to see the truth, to talk about the truth and to give them the meaningful help that they need.”
Brophey states that when a dog’s truth is understood by owners, many communication problems can be eliminated and life for both species improves. Current popular attitudes about dogs, however, often do more harm than good.
Kim asserts that the service model of “dog training” is simplistic, antiquated and desperately needing to evolve - and that the applied ethology science of L.E.G.S. & the Family Dog Mediation service model are the future of the industry. And thousands of dog professionals and families already agree -
“This is just what the dog training industry needed – a reboot”,
says Jon Davison in his review of the complete course. Indeed, the recognition that dogs are in fact much more than “how we raise” them is a strangely profound assertion in a culture that has continued to falsely promote such “blank slate” thinking about dog behaviour. In light of the recent headlines reporting the results of a Broad Institute study on dog genetics & behaviour, the questions about what really influences a dog’s behaviour are on the minds of dog lovers worldwide.
If you want to know more about how Dog Smart can help you with L.E.G.S and your dogs training journey, don't hesitate to drop us an email and get in touch or head over to our services page