About Us
Positive Reinforcement Dog Training
Trainer Tricia Kennedy is a Karen Pryor Certified Training Parter (KPA-CTP) who is experienced addressing both minor and more serious canine behavioral problems including reactivity and aggression. Tricia also has extensive experience in helping dogs who suffer from fear and anxiety, which are unfortunately on the rise today. In addition, Tricia helps families start right with new their new puppy and teaches polite manners to adolescent and adult dogs. Her goal is to share with people how to communicate with their pup, building a strong relationship through mutual understanding and positive reinforcement.
What We Do - Behavioral Solutions
Basic Obedience & Polite Manners
New Puppy & Socialization
Problem Behavior
Impulse Control / High Arousal Behavior
Shy, Anxious or Fearful Dog
Reactivity
Resource Guarding
Aggression
AKC S.T.A.R. Puppy Certified Trainer & Evaluator
AKC Canine Good Citizen Certified Trainer and Evaluator
How Can We Help?
Taking your relationship with you dog to a new level starts with a phone call or email. Initial phone consultations are complimentary. Together we'll come up with a behavioral training solution; every new client receives a full plan outlining the strategies that are most appropriate for your dog and your family. It's never too early to invest in your puppy or too late to help your adult dog.
A Smarter Way to Teach Your Dog
What I Think, an Intro to Learning Theory
As a positive trainer I focus on teaching behaviors that I want the dog to do, rather than focusing on punishing behaviors pet parents don’t like. I also put great emphasis on giving dogs an element of choice, using natural motivators to encourage problem solving and on techniques to increase confidence and promote emotional stability. The alternative is something I never recommend, which is exacerbating emotional anxiety and instability with techniques that use force, punishment and aversives. These negative techniques are often based on (debunked) domination theory and use devices such as shock/e-collars.
These punishing and aversive methods are intended to suppress negative behavior without understanding why the behavior is occurring in the first place and with little emphasis on teaching the dog what to do differently in a similar situation. From the dogs perspective, "okay you don't want me to jump, but what do you want me to do?".
A good Dog Trainer understands and utilizes Canine Learning Theory.
In summary, positive reinforcement training has 4 components:
- Use of positive reinforcement and negative punishment*.
- Never using intimidation, physical or emotional punishment or fear.
- Truly understanding the common misconceptions about the word ‘dominance’.
- Appreciating the dog’s point of view when training, what are they thinking and feeling?
* Negative Punishment - I know it sounds scary but it's not. In Applied Behavioral Science all that means is to remove things that dogs want in order to reduce unwanted behaviors. We take away attention, a treat or a toy and then utilize other positive alternatives to get the behavior we want. That includes ignoring, interrupting or redirecting behaviors we don’t like onto other behaviors that encourage the dog’s success. An example. My dog jumps up to lick my face. What does he want? Attention. What do I do? He jumps, I turn away and ignore the behavior and wait for him to get down. I wait a few moments and then I ask him for a sit, which I reinforce with food. I'm removing attention (Negative Punishment) and asking him for a sit, which I then reinforce (Positive Reinforcement).
