VETERINARY OUTREACH: Training Philosophies

Working with animals is much like working with children.  In fact, I have often compared veterinary medicine to pediactrics--- both practices must consider what is unsaid by the patients to figure out what is going on with their health.

There are many different ways to  train animals and modify their behavior.  Every animal and every trainer comes to the table with different experiences.  It is important to understand the innate behavior of a species and how they communicate and think.  It is equally important to understand how your own body language is just as important as what you say verbally and how to get your message across.   This takes years of practice. The best trainers can adapt their techniques to fit the animal in front of them because they understand the subtle clues.  They also know how to get the animals to WANT to do what is asked of them.  Anyone who has worked with horses knows that you can't MAKE a 1000 lb animal pick up its feet or stop if it doesn't want to.

Trust is crucial to the learning process, fear shuts it down.  As Barbara Woodhouse said, there are "No Bad Dogs"  and misbehaviors are just signs that something is amiss with your training technique or an animal's ( or child's) mental outlook.

    The methods of the people listed below were developed by close observation of animal behavior and maximizing the "human-animal bond" to modify behavior.  We use their techniques in working with the animals at Phoenix Ranch and highly recommend their books and websites.