Update: Portfolio Pathway Project

This article is cross-posted to PACTA BC News

In July, 2021 PACTA BC announced two important projects aimed at protecting animals in our care, beginning with the dog training industry:

  1. The Portfolio Pathway (Portfolio Pathway: An Education Model to License Dog Trainers)
  2. Provincial Regulation.

While we are the first province in Canada to embark on this type of initiative, it is nonetheless long overdue. Currently, in British Columbia, the responsibility for assessing the knowledge, skills, and ethics of animal care and training professionals falls directly on the consumer. The two related initiatives, Portfolio Pathway and Provincial Regulation, aim to shift that responsibility to qualified individuals. We are using a portfolio assessment approach because it will provide a flexible, inclusive, accessible, and robust way for individuals to achieve a recognized standard in the dog training industry. 

Over the past four months the PACTA BC Education Committee has been focusing on the research phase of these projects. This includes reviewing educational models for competency based programs and portfolio development, as well as profiling similar organizations and initiatives.

We are on target to complete this phase by January, 2022. However, research will always be an ongoing process. Of course we are watching, with interest, the newly formed Alliance for Professionalism in Dog Training in the United States. While the motivation for forming the alliance to pursue licensing legislation is completely in line with that of PACTA BC’s, there are few parallels in the details of what they are proposing.

Similarly, we were encouraged by the formation of the UK Behaviour and Training Charter in 2020. This organization brings together several membership organizations that accredit, support, and monitor their members in a collaborative solution to improve welfare in the dog training industry. Each participating organization self-regulates its own membership according to the ethical, welfare and conduct obligations stated in the Charter. Again, the UK Behaviour and Training Charter’s intent is completely in line with PACTA BC’s but with a different approach.

Another new initiative of interest is the work by the Canadian Association of Professional Dog Trainers to develop a national curriculum that educational institutions in Canada can license. More opportunities for aspiring dog trainers to gain knowledge and skills would be a welcome addition to our efforts. The development of a standardized curriculum is not on PACTA BC’s agenda, so these complementary initiatives can directly support our work.

The essence of the Portfolio Pathway Project is a direct response to the limited opportunities to gain a recognized and Canadian dog training credential. As emphasized from the beginning, the Portfolio Pathway project builds on, rather than competes with, existing quality educational programs. 

The committee has also made excellent progress on drafting competencies and accompanying documentation to describe the model and guide prospective licensing incumbents. To accelerate the process we organized a fall “sprint” – a process inspired by code sprints from the software development world to create specific portions of our work from scratch in a very short time frame. We hammered out a lot of text and arrived at some important design decisions! It also enabled us to identify gaps in our project planning, such as articulating the role of mentors throughout the portfolio development process, and a review of the PACTA BC Code of Ethics.

We are recognizing the value of both sprinting along and slowly working through the details. It’s a very large and important endeavor, and completely doable thanks to our enthusiastic committee members.

“Regulation is desperately needed in order to protect not only the animals, but the consumers of pet services, and the professionals themselves.”
Lisbeth Plant

Portfolio Pathway: An Education Model to License Dog Trainers

This article is cross-posted to PACTA BC News

Background

The PACTA Education Committee set as a priority a new project to design and implement a process for practicing dog trainers and apprentices to gain provincial recognition for their knowledge and skills. This “pathway” to licensing relies on collaboration and peer support and is a unique and flexible alternative to what currently exists in the dog training industry, namely examinations outside of Canada, and educational programmes that are sometimes financially and geographically prohibitive.

What is a portfolio?

Most are familiar with the term portfolio. It can be a showcase of your finest work (common for artists), a tool for a job application or promotion, or a personal approach to tracking your own progress and accomplishments. 

However, in an educational context, a portfolio is a more robust learning and assessment tool. This is how we envision the use of portfolios in our licensing model. Here are some key elements:

  • Purposeful collection of artefacts that evidences skills, abilities, and knowledge, and  demonstrates development.
  • Documents what you learned and how you learned it.
  • Has a continuous reflective component.
  • Evidences a thoughtful process, usually through a synthesis of ideas, reflection on achievements, and self-awareness.
  • Contains both direct evidence (products the individual has produced, e.g. work samples) and indirect evidence (details of achievements prepared by another person e.g. awards, certificates of completion, performance appraisals) 
  • Includes future plans by identifying gaps in learning and ambitions.
  • Designed for the purpose of both self and external assessment.

In a nutshell, a portfolio is an undertaking that all professionals should consider. It’s important to be aware of what you need to learn! 

What does this Pathway look like? 

Let’s look at what this process is like for Stewart.

We are excited about the Portfolio Pathway Project!

 The PACTA Education Committee aims to have a comprehensive series of documents ready to share with PACTA members in the first quarter of 2022. We extend an invitation to PACTA members who wish to be involved in this project, keeping in mind that this same model can ultimately be applied to other areas of animal care such as groomers, dog walkers, daycare operators, pet sitters, other animal trainers, and so on.

Campfire Chat with Zazie Todd

Cross-posted to PACTA BC

Sit around the virtual campfire with our special guest, Zazie Todd, to learn what compelled her to write the award-winning book Wag: The Science of Making Your Dog Happy, listen to her read excerpts, and chat about dogs and writing. 

When: October 24, 2021 at 4:30pm


Zazie Todd

Zazie Todd, PhD, is the award-winning author of Wag: The Science of Making Your Dog Happy, and the creator of Companion Animal Psychology blog and The Pawsitive Post newsletter. Her next book, Purr: The Science of Making Your Cat Happy, will be published in Spring 2022. Originally from the UK, she lives in Maple Ridge, BC, with her husband, one dog, and two cats.

We’ll be drawing names during the session for PACTA BC members who attend the AGM to win a signed copy of Zazie’s book. If you have already purchased the book be sure to participate in the virtual book signing!

RSVP for this event. It’s open to the public and free!

Wag: The Science of Making Your Dog Happy

Author and dog trainer Zazie Todd has a unique gift. She can condense heaps of very important research into understandable and practical language. Each chapter weaves science with interesting stories that readers of all levels of expertise can relate to.

Do you think you fully understand play? sleep? motivation? If yes, then read this book! If no, then read this book! I view Wag: The Science of Making Your Dog Happy as a valuable support system — both validating and aiding efforts to train well and care for your dog. 

This is cross posted to the PACTA BC website.

5 things to focus on when growing your business

This article is co-authored with Julia Morton and cross-posted to PACTA BC.

Photo by Viktor Nikolaienko on Unsplash

We have a confession. We’ve spent less than $1000 on marketing in the 24+ years of running our businesses, and we’ve always had enough clients and income. This approach probably comes from our small town roots where successful business meant being so good at your work that people take notice and tell their friends and neighbours. 

We mention this because we’ve noticed a trend in recent years. There is way too much emphasis on marketing. Municipalities have popularity contests, number of instagram followers has become a measure of success, annual income outweighs client satisfaction, formulas for hooking people into email lists are easily recognizable, and referral services are becoming tiresome.

Our advice? Focus on improving your business, not your presence. Here are our top 5 things to focus on:

  1. Invest in becoming exceptional at what you do.  
  2. Rely on clients who see the successful outcomes of working with you to do the marketing for you.
  3. Think networks, not clubs. Get to know the person you are referring clients to. Even “experts” neglect point #1! And remember, referrals tend to be a two-way street.
  4. Be resourceful. Don’t wait for anything to be handed to you. Figure things out for yourself!
  5. Make a good impression. Show up to be useful and supportive, not to be nosy and noisy 😉  

Authors Julia Morton and Sylvia Currie are sisters, dog trainers, creative partners, and proud PACTA members.

New Regulation and Education Models for Animal Care and Training in BC

Photo by Ian Schneider on Unsplash

Cross posted – PACTABC.CA

NEWS RELEASE

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

JULY 13, 2021

Contact: hello@pactabc.ca

New Regulation and Education Models for Animal Care and Training in BC

In British Columbia the responsibility for assessing the knowledge, skills, and ethics of animal care and training professional falls directly on the consumer. PACTA Professional Animal Care and Training Association of BC (PACTA BC) is changing this. Our starting point is the launch of two very important and related projects. 

  1. A model for education in BC
    We are creating a competency-based certification model that acknowledges and builds on each individual’s experience and knowledge. This model recognizes rather than competes with existing quality educational programs. It is inclusive and flexible. 
  2. Regulating the dog training industry 
    A focus on dog training is a starting point in a larger provincial initiative to develop models for regulation that can be adopted by all animal care industries.

Regulation, combined with robust education, is our only way forward in the animal care and training industries. The range of practices among dog trainers in BC, and indeed all of Canada, do not represent current animal welfare and learning sciences. As with any profession, questionable quality of services is a direct result of inadequate education and standards of practice.

This provincial initiative will create unique and innovative models and programs that rely on collaboration and peer support across animal care professionals throughout the province. Our goal is to ensure regulation brings out the best of us, and education continues to push us toward excellence. 

PACTA BC membership is open to all British Columbia residents. Sign up to offer support, become a partner, and collaborate with like-minded people to create a better future for animals in our care.

“I want to see an elevated standard of science-based, positive training in my industry.”

Valerie Barry, North Vancouver, BC

Nelly’s success

Nelly

Have been thinking of how much we have benefited from your advice, about the importance of ‘high value’ treats (we give her small pieces of cooked chicken). Nelly not only comes when she is called now, but she is also accustomed to ‘checking in’ regularly. She is a delight to walk with now, and indeed a delight in every way. So thank you for your help back in Spring.

Dave

There’s nothing more satisfying than receiving unsolicited updates from dog training clients. I wanted to share this story because it is a testament to how follow-through is the key to success.

Nelly was a recently adopted dog who was presenting with some connection issues, along with some typical settling-in challenges. During the early phase of the pandemic I met with this family online for a preliminary consultation, with plans to schedule in-person training. Those subsequent sessions never happened because of COVID-19 transmission risks. In the course of our conversation, I really only offered 3 – 4 tips to help these new dog owners with their immediate concerns. It turns out that’s all they needed. Full credit goes to Dave and family!

My role is to listen, provide the right amount of instruction, and figure out the best way to measure progress. The progress piece can be tricky. It usually requires a bit of prompting, comparing then and now, and highlighting often-missed stellar behaviour. With a series of lessons, I might point out what is obvious to me in the moment, but not necessarily to the client: Hey, have you noticed that Romeo hasn’t barked once in the past 45 minutes?

But sometimes, as with Nelly, I’m not part of the progress equation at all. This update says more about the responsible guardians than it does about my skills as a dog trainer. So the next time you read a testimonial, remember to give the person who wrote it a pat on the back!

Sausage Trees

Thanks to Katrina and Arlo for playing sausage tree with me!

Hiking with your dogs off leash can be so satisfying — fresh air, exercise, and freedom to explore. However, it also comes with risks and challenges. How do you best prepare your dog for the off-leash experience? There are obvious management and training needs. Hopefully all dog owners are well on their way to ensuring their dog has a reliable recall, and have developed some good habits, such as checking in regularly. 

What if I told you that some of the real work is actually play? There may be occasions where allowing your dog some independent exploration is the most satisfying experience for both of you. However, playing games, staying connected, and doing things *with* your dog sets the foundation for that reliable off-leash behaviour and independence.

Sausage tree is one game I play with my own dogs, and have used it with clients with great success. The idea comes from Clarissa von Reinhardt’s book Chase! Managing Your Dog’s Predatory Instincts (Dogwise Publishing 2010)

The steps for getting started are simple:

  • Cut up some tasty sausage into fairly large pieces.
  • Go out to the trail without your dog and place the sausage pieces in a tree. Sometimes you find the perfect bark to hold sausage. Who knew?
  • Now take your dog on the trail. It’s possible they will tell you where the sausage is through scent, but however you end up at the sausage tree check it out together. Be curious with your dog!

Sausage trees — the most delicious surprise!

A new path for dog training practitioners

Photo by Stephen Goldberg on Unsplash 

Where are we now?

There are quality programs for individuals aspiring to become dog trainers, or for those who have already launched their careers but wish to advance their knowledge and gain formal recognition for what they have learned. In these programs you generally follow a set curriculum from start to finish regardless of your background.

Also, there are examinations designed to assess knowledge and skills. A training hours prerequisite ensures you have the hands on experience needed to round out your career preparation. The letters after your name reflect that you have prepared yourself to achieve a certain standing, however you choose to do that. 

The familiar list

This list of North American “schools”(PDF) was prepared by the Canadian Association of Professional Dog Trainers. I’m not familiar with all of them and on a quick review some are clearly more established and comprehensive than others. As mentioned in an earlier post on what qualifies someone as a dog trainer, this is an issue. Programs from the various private academies range from extensive theory and practice over an 18 month (or longer) period to a 3-week “intensive”.

The Certification Council for Professional Dog Trainers offers 2 scheduled exams per year for each certification category. It claims to be “worldwide” yet the exams only appear to be offered in North America at testing facilities. Not surprisingly there are not many certified members elsewhere. Also, I read that the 300 hours training dogs needed prior to sitting the exam must be paid hours. In what other profession is this a requirement?

The Pet Professional Guild Accreditation Board offers an exam option that is completely online. That sounds more 21st century to me. It requires submission of videos to demonstrate training skills. That seems more rigorous for sure.

Recently, IAABC introduced the Accredited Dog Trainer (ADT), an assessment which recommends 2 years’ experience training dogs prior to application. Bonus! It is not a machine-scored exam. Combined with their educational offerings this could become the most straightforward route.

The following US-based academies are typically recommended when the question “Which program should I take?” comes up on social media:

The not so familiar list

There are appealing and often overlooked options outside of North America. I completed TAKL, a very unique and robust program designed and facilitated by Kay Laurence. I’ve also kept an eye on Institute of Modern Dog Trainers (IMDT), a UK-based career path, as they expand to other countries and offer online options. Another option for Canadians is International School for Canine Psychology & Behaviour (ISCP) which is completely online.

How do all these options compare?

It’s important to note that many of these programs provide excellent learning opportunities, but none of them are promising to fully prepare you as a practitioner. Becoming a practitioner goes far beyond formal learning and timed exams. I would say the TAKL program does a really good job of preparing dog trainers to continually advance their practice, and in this way it is perhaps not for those seeking foundational skills and knowledge. As far as an educational experience, TAKL is the flip side of knowledge “delivery” and multiple choice exams. I mention this because advancing practice is the real goal here.

a proposal

Several years ago I outlined my thoughts on what qualifies someone as a dog training professional. It’s a complex topic, and as I survey what has changed since my 2016 article I realize that we’re more or less in the same place. I think we need a new approach.

I keep coming back to the portfolio system idea and also see the appeal of microcredentialing. These two routes have similar goals — to recognize individual achievements while providing flexible learning opportunities. In my 2016 post I suggested that a self-directed option would be more suited to seasoned learners.

“What is the ideal pathway to becoming a dog training professional? What does it mean to be qualified? A clear, organized, formal, path is perfect for young adults entering the profession. A flexible approach works for those who have carved out a successful career in a more self-directed manner. Some sort of portfolio system would help everyone, but how does a consumer navigate and make sense of something like that?”

I’m now wondering if a portfolio route isn’t an ideal for everyone seeking to become a qualified dog trainer. 

What is a portfolio?

A portfolio is a purposeful collection of work that exhibits an individual’s effort, progress, and competencies gained over a period of time. It is assembled by the learner-practitioner with the needs of the assessor(s) in mind. A portfolio:

  • Clearly aligns with the competencies the learner has satisfied
  • Documents the learning process
  • Builds on existing program evaluation work done by reputable organizations

Why a portfolio?

A long list of benefits come to mind immediately. However, this is a short long list! There is no doubt more to add. 

  • The process itself is a substantial commitment 
  • It is a rigorous and authentic assessment of learning
  • It includes all preferences and modes of learning
  • It is cumulative, and relies on the individual to identify gaps in their learning
  • It is a reflective practice, which is a habit all professionals should develop 
  • Allows for flexibility in development of interests and specialties
  • It is inclusive, allowing for alternative selection of learning opportunities based on geographical location, finances, and access to mentors and other expertise
  • Fosters an ongoing learning process
  • Can be implemented collaboratively by dedicated professionals
  • Ultimately this model could become a regulatory body, which we so badly need
  • Demonstrates useful skills for the profession: organizational skills, critical thinking, dedication, and so on
  • It does not dismiss existing programs; rather it can help to improve and promote them
  • The habit of maintaining a learning portfolio is the ultimate continuing education

What would a portfolio approach look like?

This is the exciting part — a topic for a future post. There are some interesting models to learn from. And I’ll also say more about microcredentialing which has a really good fit with the portfolio model.

Why am I interested in this?

I feel compelled to take this idea further. It bothers me that we need to look outside of Canada for recognized dog training qualifications. And I have always questioned whether a timed examination, especially multiple choice, can be representative of deep knowledge.

This project is perfectly situated in my current interests and professional involvement in dog training, behaviour, and welfare. It also builds on my earlier professional work in university administration and research where I was involved in number of different roles related to student success, curriculum development, admissions and transfer, career counselling, and educational technology. With the right partnerships and collaboration, I think I can help to make this happen in Canada.