No magic orbs required.

While I can’t offer you a crystal ball to gaze into the future. I can be a useful and vital part of your client and patient care team. Taking some of the load off you and your staff.

First by providing dog training education through free and paid resources so that your appointments can focus on the medicine rather than get bogged down by questions. You have 3 other patients to see so answering questions about muzzles or how to stop a puppy from biting for the 5th time today isn’t ideal.

Second, I can be your resource for heading off behaviors that often have secondary medical consequences that destroy your schedule and can have devastating outcomes. The nightmare scenarios such as ingestion of foreign bodies, accidental poisonings, dog fight injuries, running into the street, etc.

Third, let me be your alarm system, bringing your client’s dogs in before it’s an emergency or they’ve endured needless suffering. As trainers working in pets’ homes and regularly taking them on outings and out into the world, we see subtle changes in behavior that can point to a physical cause. Changes from their baseline in a dog such as speed or hesitancy while loading or unloading  in the car, speed or position of normal obedience or control positions (e.g. sit, down),  being grumpy with dog friends on adventures, refusal of food during training, gait, willingness to play, etc can all be subtle signs trainers are educated to notice and document, but are often missed by owners and are absent in the vet office. Not only those subtle changes but also the bigger ones, the “suddenly out of nowhere behavior” that sends people running to me as a trainer, but also scream the need for medical screening and intervention.

Finally, let me partner with you on tough to crack cases. Whether that involves assisting in getting the observations and data you need for a fuller picture to help with diagnostics or partnering with you on the complex interplay between medical issues and behavior (Mills et al 2020) for happier clients.

Mills et al 2020 https://www.mdpi.com/2076-2615/10/2/318