April 5th, 2013 | 0 comments | permalink

The first quarter of 2013 is already over; Pawsitive Tails has been enjoying a happy and busy New Year!  With lots of change afoot, it’s all been very exciting, and disconcerting.  Lisa has been voted Best Trainer in Bay Woof’s Beast of the Bay awards; we were runners up in the dog walker and best class categories.  Our sad news is that Lisa has been accepted on a Phd program in Florida and is going to be leaving us.  We are going to be working with Janis Bradley and her Dog Training Internship Academy (DTIA http://dogtraininginternshipacademy.com/about/).  We will be helping new dog trainers hone their skills and become great at what they do.  Equally exciting is the School for Dog Walkers (SFDW) that Pawsitive Tails, in alliance with Top Dog (http://www.topdogsf.com/) and Dog Tales (http://www.dogtalesunleashed.com/) is starting in June.

The school is one of only two that are currently endorsed by San Francisco’s Animal Care and Control and has been designed to fulfil the criteria set out in the City’s new legislation for commercial dog walkers (http://www.sfgov2.org/index.aspx?page=3857).  Our school will concentrate on “on the job” learning, it has been designed in such a way that the majority of the student’s time will be spent out in the field shadowing and being coached by our skilled and experienced team of professional dog walkers.  They will see a variety of different types of parks and will learn techniques designed to control groups of dogs both on and off leash.  Students will also spend time learning in a group class, as well as via webinars, being taught some of the theory behind how animals learn, normal dog behaviour, how dogs communicate with each other and with us.  There is also a component focusing on how to run a business (taught by our awesome colleague, Veronica Boutelle from dogTEC).  On top of all that, there will be an opportunity to obtain a Dog centred first aid certificate.