By Lindsey Turner

The holidays are almost here and with the holidays come gift giving. Some people may find a cute, furry puppy under their tree Christmas morning but with a new dog comes lots of responsibility.  Discipline and proper training are a must with a new puppy and, at times, with an older adopted pet. Like with everything else - there is good way and a bad way to go about training your dog.  Some trainers, unfortunately aren’t certified and instead of demonstrating positive training techniques that would help you bond with your new friend they preach and practice often hurtful and fear based training technique. Finding a certified and experienced trainer or training facility is very important for the health and safety of your canine companion and also your piece of mind. If your trainer says they are certified - ask to see their paperwork they should be happy to tell you.

Ruth Goode, owner of Pawsitive Energy Agility and Training Center in Columbus and Candy McKing, owner of Sit Can Happen in North Vernon are both certified dog trainers. These two women know their stuff with years and years of training experience, education, and certification to back it up!

Ruth Goode started training dogs when she was 8 years old. In 2000 Ruth got started in agility training, Ruth is certified to teach Agility. She’s also attended Purdue University’s “Dogs” intensive program with focus on treating dog behavior problems and implementing young puppy training. Ruth’s training facility, Pawsitive Energy, has been open for five years offering a variety of training and agility classes ranging from puppy socialization to advanced agility classes as well as private training sessions. In January 2008 Ruth and her dog Zina earned the AKC “MACH” title when they competed in the National Agility Championships! “MACH” stands for Master Agility Champion and in order to acquire the title, a dog must achieve a minimum of 750 championship points and 20 double qualifying scores obtained from the Excellent B Standard Agility class and the Excellent B Jumpers With Weaves class. Ruth and Zina are currently half way to earning their MACH2 title. www.pawsitivenergy.com

Candy McKing, owner of Sit Can Happen in North Vernon started training in 1974. Candy is certified to teach basic obedience, and has a pending endorsed certification to NADOI, National Association of Dog Obedience Instructors. She has trained with Bob Self, Wendy and Jack Volhard in Illinois and Brenda Aloff in Michigan. Candy opened Sit Can Happen six years ago and offers several different types of training classes such as STAR puppy, pet manners, basic obedience, Dog Scouts, C-Wags, Rally, Canine Good Citizen, and Clicker classes. Candy specializes in aggression and offers one on one private consults. She also offers boarding and training packages. She teaches basic obedience classes at Pawsitive Energy as well.  Candy has two dogs Ted and Jauck. Both dogs have earned several titles ranging from AKC: Canine Good Citizen to American Kennel Club (AKC): Novice, Advance, and Excellent Rally titles. Quite impressive! www.sitcanhappen.com

Ruth and Candy are two perfect examples of certified trainers who are dedicated and passionate about what they do, with years of education and dog training experience.  Both have successful local training facilities and are experienced trainers.  Working with a non-certified trainer can sometimes result in an injury to a dog. If a non-certified trainer is using an improper training method it can often do more harm than good causing even more behavioral issues and even fear. There are lots of different training methods but a non-certified trainer may only know one or two methods limiting their knowledge and experience when working with dogs that have different behavioral issues.

When looking for a trainer, don’t be afraid to ask questions! Are you certified? Where did you get your certification?  What type of certification do you have? How many years have you been training? What type of training methods do you use?  It’s also a good idea to visit a few different training classes in your area. That gives you the ability to interact with the trainer and watch how they interact with the dogs in their class. Training should be a fun and positive experience for both you and your dog but in order to make sure that happens you need to do your research, ask questions and take a pro-active approach when it comes to your dog’s training!

Learn more about dog training and the benefits of using  a certified trainer with a question & answer session with Candy McKing and Ruth Goode.

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