As we come upon the holidays, people often add a pet to their home. The arrival of a little puppy can be a wonderful gift to a home, but it can also come bundled with a lot of work and difficulties if the first few weeks are not set up to have that puppy learn about good manners and training. Dr. Yin understood the impact of getting a puppy off to a good start right from the very beginning. As a veterinarian and behaviorist, she understood well the impact of routine, socialization, and clear rewards for appropriate behaviors in the

Before dogs became pets, they were wild and lived by preying on animals big and small. Dogs would gather together to chase down an older, younger, or injured animal, grabbing the jugular vein or abdomen, resulting in a kill. So despite domestication, dogs still have an instinctive desire to chase, grab, bite and kill things that look like prey.

Every year hundreds of veterinarians, veterinary technicians, animal behaviorists, and others search for new and better ways to treat and train animals both in the veterinary practice and in the home. A few years ago pioneering animal behaviorist and veterinarian, Dr. Sophia Yin, developed a system for recognizing brewing fear and aggression, while reducing this through specific handling techniques that decrease stress by improving patient comfort and safety. The program: the Low Stress Handling™ Silver Certification. As of October 2016 the program has certified hundreds of individuals, clinics, hospitals, and other agencies. In trying to gauge the success of the Low Stress Handling™ Silver Certification program,

Halloween is a fun holiday – for you humans. But from a dog’s perspective, however, it can be a little scary for us. Not only are our humans dressing strangely, but there are strangers at the door or in the house, and according to dog logic, that’s a good reason to start barking. It’s a natural reaction to stimuli, but not one the humans want, especially if they’re having visitors in the home. Here’s a step by step method our humans can use to train us on how to be calm when visitors are at the door.

Even before I learned less stressful handling techniques and created a more animal friendly clinic environment, I was always aware of what my technician needed to do to hold an animal, what equipment to gather for a procedure, and I tried not to interfere with them delivering care. The Low Stress Handling™ Certification program solidified this knowledge of communicating with the technician about what tests, exams, or procedures I needed to do before jumping into it. A plan for handling based on reducing stress and pain was determined by both of us, with either the technician or myself leading the process.

I can assure you that we here at CattleDog Publishing are following Dr. Yin’s mission and wishes for taking her legacy forward into the future of animal behavior training.