Comments on: Shelter deaths: The buck stops where?

By: Barbara Saunders

Barbara Saunders — Fri, 26 Oct 2007 17:39:54 +0000

In addition to homes available for pets, there are open spots in shelters and rescues around the country. In some regions, shelters stuffed with animals that “must be euthanized” sit fewer than 100 miles away from shelters with empty rooms where there are “not enough animals” to fulfill expressed public demand.

This is a management and professional competence problem. Shelters need to require that their people have skill sets, not just “love” of animals.

By: Paula Dalby

Paula Dalby — Fri, 05 Oct 2007 16:13:21 +0000

The website for the central organization is http://www.therapyanimals.org. It is the official website of Intermountain Therapy Animals, the organization who created the Reading Education Assistance Dogs® program (R.E.A.D.®). TDI has a similar program, but the official training is through Intermountain Therapy Animals.

By: The OTHER Pat

The OTHER Pat — Thu, 04 Oct 2007 15:34:17 +0000

Nadine - I found out the program having dogs read with kids in libraries is called R.E.A.D. for “Reading Education Assistance Dogs” (maybe you already knew that, but I thought I’d post it in case you didn’t). I didn’t find a website for a central organization (although TDI has a program) but here’s the Google search that gets you a lot of hits:

http://www.google.com/search?h.....tance+dogs

By: The OTHER Pat

The OTHER Pat — Thu, 04 Oct 2007 12:28:41 +0000

For “Don’t Shoot The Dog” (which I HIGHLY recommend), check your public library. It was first published in the 70s, and then again in the 90s. The second publishing does include some specific references to clicker which are not in the first book, but that’s not essential to “get” what she’s saying in the book, so if your library has the earlier edition, I’d say the price is right!

By: Nadine L.

Nadine L. — Thu, 04 Oct 2007 04:32:20 +0000

Pat, thank you so much for all the links from which I’ve been printing out helpful pages for hours! Am truly fascinated with the clicker training theories, needless to say.

We are so very excited about our upcoming fuzzy arrival. He looks like a giant stuffed animal and has a personality to match.

By: The OTHER Pat

The OTHER Pat — Thu, 04 Oct 2007 03:22:47 +0000

Just shoot the questions as they come to you, and I’ll do my best to help you find the answers.

And congratulations on your new family member!

By: Nadine L.

Nadine L. — Wed, 03 Oct 2007 19:58:29 +0000

Comment by The OTHER Pat — October 3, 2007 @ 6:43 am

Wow, Pat! I’ll be in detail heaven! Thank you so very much for all this information. Didn’t realize you were a clicker trainer, but it appears I asked for input in the right place. I’m sure I’ll have more questions once I read all this. Keagan will be arriving around the 18th, so I’ve got homework to do.

By: Laura Bennett

Laura Bennett — Wed, 03 Oct 2007 13:44:52 +0000

I’m relatively new to the issues shelters face so I’ve just ordered it on Amazon (hopefully you or Christie benefit from that click and buy!) I can see though from some of the other comments on other posts that it’s a contentious discussion. I’m looking forward to reading it.

By: The OTHER Pat

The OTHER Pat — Wed, 03 Oct 2007 13:43:14 +0000

Now if your preference is books and you want to learn the basic learning theory that forms the underpinning of Operant Conditioning (what clicker training - and really ALL training - is based on) the book to read is Karen Pryor’s “Don’t Shoot the Dog”. It’s not specifically a “clicker training” book, but it’s pretty much considered “required reading” for anyone who really wants to understand how clicker training works:

Don’t Shoot the Dog
http://www.dogwise.com/itemdetails.cfm?ID=DTB116

A more basic book that will essentially guide you through teaching your dog some basic behaviors without really delving into the underlying theory or principles is Peggy Tillman’s “Clicking With Your Dog: Step-By-Step In Pictures” which can be found at:

http://www.dogwise.com/itemdetails.cfm?ID=DTB695

Dogwise.com (as well as SitStay.com) are also both excellent resources for all KINDS of dog-related books. Both sites should have books on Animal-Assisted Therapy if you’d like to read more about it.

By: The OTHER Pat

The OTHER Pat — Wed, 03 Oct 2007 04:55:32 +0000

Hi again Nadine,

There is a wealth of resources out there on clicker training, so it’s a little difficult to know where to point you without knowing a bit about what you already know, the level of detail you’d prefer, whether you are interested in books, online articles, personal instruction, and so on. So I’m going to toss out a bunch of stuff, and let me know if any of this is helpful.

Since my impression of you is that you don’t mind knowing about things in a fair bit of detail, you might find this page full of articles by Stacy Braslau-Schneck to be helpful. It will certainly give you a thorough overview of what clicker training is as well as where it came from:

An Animal Trainer’s Introduction To Operant and Classical Conditioning
http://www.wagntrain.com/OC/

As far as therapy work with dogs goes, the two organizations with the highest profile in this area are Therapy Dogs International (TDI) and the Delta Society. It’s worth training and obtaining accreditation through an organization of this kind due to the liability issues that can come up when you go into institutions with your dog to do therapy work. The website for TDI is:

Therapy Dogs International
http://www.tdi-dog.org/briefhistory.html

while information on the Delta Society can be found at:

Delta Society
http://www.deltasociety.org/home.htm

The Delta Society calls their therapy program “Pet Partners”. Here’s a geographical listing of Pet Partners Affiliates. If you find one in your area, the folks there could be very useful in guiding you as you learn about training with your dog to become and accedited animal-assisted therapy team:

List of Delta Society Pet Partners Affiliate Groups
http://www.deltasociety.org/CoPartner.htm