Reasons to Take Ben Kersen’s Pro Dog Trainers Program -PART 2 – by Breeann Roberts

Reasons to take Ben Kersen’s Professional Dog Trainers Program – PART 2
By Breeann Roberts

Techniques are straight forward and easy to apply once learned: This not only helps you, as it’s easier to retain and use, but it will help your future clients! The easier the techniques, the easier to teach, and the easier that the dogs will learn it!

Video feedback: You’d be surprised what you might be doing without realizing it! With video feedback you can see yourself and your body language from an external point of view. This includes feedback on your technique from instructors about what you need improvement on, and how to achieve it.

Techniques work with all dogs: Regardless of breed or age!

Multiple training techniques/methods are covered: This way you will have many different approaches that you can take towards one dog’s potential problems or obstacles in order to succeed.

Course covers many subjects: From business and marketing, to trick shows and special events, you’ll get info from some of the top dog trainers in the world about their live events and how they organize and run them.

Guest speakers: During the course, you will be meeting different guest speakers from various different fields (all dog related) with in-person demonstrations and lots of time for Q & A.

Speak with past graduates: In person and via speakerphone to listen to lectures on varying topics and to ask any questions you may have. You will hear about their personal success and any obstacles they faced and how they got over them.

Program focuses on FUN and PRAISE: The whole training method revolves around engaging and motivating the dog to perform, with incredible results.

Run club: This concept, developed by Ben Kersen, is quite unique and has dramatic long lasting effects that take hold very quickly. The concept involves movement, pack, and covering distance. The dogs natural instincts to move with their pack takes hold and you will have a dog that is always looking at you for where you might want to go next. Every Saturday morning you will be welcomed to go along with Ben and some of his clients for run club to increase the bond you have with your dog.

Interactive games: Sometimes you will play interactive games including all classmates and your dogs. These games can be used in your future careers and definitely involve some laughter. Although these games are fun, they also hone the dog’s skills and boost their confidence. Whose dog can sit back down the fastest in ‘Duck, Duck, Goose!?’

Grad Facebook group: Once you have graduated you will be invited to the past graduate’s Facebook page, where you will be able to network with hundreds of past grads, now working in a variety of fields. If you ever have a training question, you can ask in this group and get advice from many extraordinary trainers about what you might try next. Sometimes there are unique training situations that are not covered in any course and this would be your opportunity to learn from those that have been working in the field for years about their personal technique or method to overcome whatever obstacle may be blocking the dog you are working with. You will feel the support of many who have been and are in your shoes!

Lots of video footage and literature: There are hundreds and hundreds of videos available to view, but not enough time to cover them all during course hours. These are always available to take home with you. There are also hundreds of books that you are welcome to borrow.

Make new friends! You will meet people with the same interest and passion for working with animals that you have. Some of these people will likely become your friends and you could form a long lasting friendship. Knowing other trainers is a huge advantage. You would have the opportunity to work together or to create a partnership of some kind as well if you decided to do that.

Bring your own dog(s) or a family member or friend’s dog: Go home with an incredibly trained dog or dogs! You dog will be your ambassador, and you will go home with a highly trained dog that you can show off to family, friends, and clients! Your dog and you will have a better, stronger relationship, and your dog will gain a lot of confidence and patience. Your dog will have the skills to potentially save its life in the future. Just going for a simple off leash walk could promote your business! When people see the fun that you are having they will want to talk to you J

Free training: Work with other people’s dogs to get you hands-on experience working with new client’s dogs. From novice puppies to old dogs learning new tricks, you’ll get to play with them all! Afterwards, you’ll get to listen to the instructors answer any questions that the clients have about that day’s training (as they will be watching). Listening to the instructors and clients talking after the training gives you valuable insight on working with people.

Increase your self-confidence:  Speaking from self-experience, this course dramatically increased my self-confidence! I have heard the same thing from classmates and past graduates. During the course I witnessed other classmate’s self-confidence go up as well. Confidence makes a big difference when it comes to dog training! It also helps with marketing yourself and speaking with clients.

All of these points are the reasons that I would recommend thinking about taking Ben Kersen’s course. There are many other positive things to take away from the course, such as community service, and going out on the town with classmates!

I very much enjoyed my time in Victoria and on the field with students, the instructors, and all of the dogs, and look forward to visiting soon!

If you have any questions about being a student in the course feel free to contact me at Breeanner@gmail.com and I would be happy to chat with you and answer any questions you may have!

Happy training!

Breeanne Roberts

 

Advertisement

Your Dog and Small Critters – By Ben Kersen

Your Dog and Small Critters
By Ben Kersen

In this video clip I talk about how to create a dog that is good with small critters whether it’s chickens, squirrels, rabbits or cats.  If your dog has already established bad habits with these animals, the approach may vary.

Until Next Time,
Ben Kersen
Ben Kersen & the Wonderdogs
Victoria, BC
http://www.wonderdogs.ca

crittering ben kersen

 

Safety and Your Dog

Safety and Your Wonderdog (or perhaps not so much of a Wonderdog!):
By Ben Kersen

“Ben, be careful.” “Ben, don’t fall dear.” “Ben, look out for the…” These were the constant reminders during my childhood from Mrs. Kersen, my dear mother. Despite her best intentions, I managed to acquire my share of scraped knees and bumped foreheads.

As doggie parents, we are responsible for our four-legged children’s safety. Speaking of children, could you imagine leaving a young toddler to play near traffic without supervision? If you love your dog, and want to enjoy its company to a ripe old age, I would encourage you to take the same precautions as you would for a baby and more—dogs are MUCH faster!! Since opening my business (Ben Kersen and the Wonderdogs) 30 years ago, I have seen some close calls… don’t let this be you!

All the good nutrition, training, and your loving care can be destroyed instantly by an accident if your dog isn’t safety trained. The next few blog posts (which were taken from my previous newsletter, Ben Kersen and the Wonderdogs News & Tips) will offer general suggestions, but should not be used instead of going for active training with a qualified trainer.  For more info on training, visit my website www.wonderdogs.ca.

Until Next Time,
Ben Kersen
Ben Kersen & the Wonderdogs
Victoria, BC

Creating a Killer?

The Tug-o-War Myth Part 1

If you own a dog you have probably heard the popular idea that playing tug-o-war with your dog will turn him into a savage, blood thirsty beast that wants to control, dominate and even hurt you.  This idea stems from the thought that because tug-o-war is fundamentally a game of muscle versus muscle if the dog “wins” he will think he is stronger than you. Ideas of being the leader in your relationship will develop and possessiveness and aggression are close behind… it will only be a matter of time before Fluffy becomes Cujo.

I’m here to tell you that is untrue.

And really quite ridiculous.

In fact in my experience tug-o-war, when played properly, is one the best games you can play with your dog.  Over the next few blogs I will explain why.

Heather

Image

Off-Leash Dog Parks: Part II – A Caution to Owners

Fall 2012 057I have found off-leash dog parks a great way to meet like minded individuals who are only more than happy to share their passion for dogs. If you are new to town or just looking to meet some new people your local dog park is a great place to do it. Not only does your dog get to meet new friends but so do you! I have met lots of people and lots of dogs, some of whom have become friends and even clients, an added bonus.

Meeting and chatting with people at the dog park is great BUT you still have to pay attention to your dog! Too often I have observed large groups of people chatting away and no one is paying attention to what their dogs are doing. This can be dangerous, and I caution all off-leash dog park users to ALWAYS watch your dog and any dog within close proximity to your own.  Now I must clarify that this is not all people at the park and I have met many responsible dog owners who do indeed pay attention to what their dog is doing, who they are playing with, and always keep an eye open for potential mishaps. Unfortunately, I have seen an awful lot of the other side too.

I think some dog owners tend to assume that every dog at the park will love each other and romp and play happily ever after. This is not so, wish it were, but no dice. We don’t expect each other to like everyone we meet and we can’t expect our dogs to either.  Like people, dogs vary when it comes to personality, likes and dislikes, quirks, triggers etc…  . Therefore, when at the park we should expect the occasional personality clash. Prevention is key and the onus falls on us as owners to do our part and pay attention. More specifically, here are a few things to consider when at the park:  your dog’s body language, the body language of all dogs in a pack, the arrival of new dogs entering an established pack, dog’s on leash (FYI – the off-leash dog park is NOT the exclusive domain of off-leash dogs), small furry creatures our dog’s may decide to bolt after, parking lots (NOT a play area), foreign objects on the field that our dogs may ingest. I could go on and on and on and on and on, and on…  but I won’t, lol. There are many unfortunate situations that can arise due to negligence, but I trust that most of us can probably ascertain the consequences without me going into detail.

This is probably the only situation where I think that people SHOULD treat their dogs like they are children. You would never take a small child to a park and turn your back on them, and as parents we are always watching to ensure that are children are behaving appropriately towards their playmates and are quick to intervene if we see are child being bullied or being the bully. We don’t let our children run into parking lots and heaven forbid they try and eat something they found on the ground, yikes!!  And, yes, I have even seen children on leash (bolters I assume ;)). The point is that as parents we are always diligent, and the goal is to give our children the confidence to explore the world and make new friends while learning to behave in a safe and appropriate manner. Why not afford the same care and attention to our dogs?

In any case, what I am getting at is very simple and easy to do. So I encourage all dog owners who choose to frequent off-leash parks to keep at it, have fun and mingle away, but PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE, KEEP YOUR EYES ON YOUR DOG!

Just a thought,

Anthea

Country Living – Oh Deer!

Trying to keep the deer out? Proper fencing will be your #1 defense against the deer in rural Victoria.  Check out what we have been working on to keep the deer off the property and out of the garden.

Until Next Time, 

Ben

Creating a Safe and Effective Outdoor Environment for your Business

A few things you might want to think about when creating a secure outdoor environment for your dog boarding business.

Until Next Time,

Ben