The importance of kindness in dog training with Jane Wolff

The Pawsitive Post in Conversation by Companion Animal Psychology

Kindness in dog training

We talk with Jane about the importance of kindness in dog training, both kindness to dogs and kindness to people. We begin by talking about the most important ways to be kind to dogs. Jane specializes in working with clients whose dogs have separation anxiety, and we also talk about how to help people deal with this tricky issue without leaving their dog alone for any longer than they are okay with.

We also chat about Jane’s social justice work, and how that informs her dog training too.

And in the final section we talk about the books we are reading right now.

About Jane Wolff:

Jane Wolff is the co-owner of Good Wolff Dog Training in Ann Arbor, Michigan. She specializes in treating separation anxiety and is a Certified Separation Anxiety Trainer (CSAT). She also graduated with honours from the Academy for Dog Trainers (CTC) and is certified through the Certification Council for Professional Dog Trainers as a CPDT-KA. She has been working with dogs professionally since 2014 and loves working with dogs and their people.

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Fresh and Fearless: Basic Grooming Made Easy, the course by Jane available on Kristi's website.

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Books

Wonderdog: The Science of Dogs and Their Unique Friendship with Humans by Jules Howard is the Animal Book Club’s choice for November.

Pit Bull: The Battle over an American Icon by Bronwen Dickey.

Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic by Alison Bechdel.

Invisible Boy: A Memoir of Self-Discovery by Harrison Mooney.

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About the co-hosts:

Kristi Benson is an honours graduate of the prestigious Academy for Dog Trainers and has her PCBC-A from the Pet Professional Accreditation Board. She lives in beautiful northern British Columbia, where she helps dog guardians through online teaching and consultations. Kristi is on staff at the Academy for Dog Trainers, helping to shape the next generation of canine professionals. Kristi’s dogs are rescue sled dogs, mostly retired and thoroughly enjoying a good snooze in front of the woodstove.

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Zazie Todd, PhD, is the award-winning author of Wag: The Science of Making Your Dog Happy and Purr: The Science of Making Your Cat Happy. She is the creator of the popular blog, Companion Animal Psychology, and also has a column at Psychology Today. Todd lives in Maple Ridge, BC, with her husband, one dog, and one cat.

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Chapters

1. The importance of kindness in dog training with Jane Wolff (00:00:00)

2. How Jane got into dog training (00:01:38)

3. Kindness to dogs (00:05:09)

4. Talking about changing human behavior (00:12:08)

5. Kindness as a practice (00:19:56)

6. Being kind and convincing in sepanx cases (00:21:44)

7. Social justice (00:26:16)

8. Books (00:35:46)