Understanding behaviour
Dog trainer with Stellarton business travelling to Indiana for course dealing with wolves, foxes, bison
Alex Keir has been working with animals much of her life and as a trainer for about 20 years, but she’s about to stretch herself and her skills further than she has before this coming week.
Keir, who owns Good Dog Works in Stellarton, has been accepted into the Advanced Professional Trainers workshop Sept. 5-8 at Wolf Park in Battle Ground, Indiana.
During the course, Keir will work with internationally renowned animal behaviour consultant Ken McCort and other highly trained and experienced colleagues to create and implement training programs as well as solve training problems as they occur.
But they won’t be working with dogs. Instead it will be wolves, foxes and bison.
While the wolves they will be training with aren’t exactly wild, Keir said they aren’t pets and it should create an interesting learning environment that tests her talents as an already experienced trainer.
Keir said she first heard about McCort through another trainer, Simon Gadbios, who works at Dalhousie University. She said there were a lot of forms to fill out as part of the application process to get into the program.
“It’s the opportunity of a lifetime to work with Ken and to apply all my assessment and reward-based dog training skills to other species,” Keir said. “Most of these animals have lived at Wolf Park their whole lives and have contributed to our understanding of the behavioural differences between wolves and dogs. In this workshop, my training plan has to be really tight because the wolves may not be as generous as our pet dogs. We may even have the opportunity to work with a litter of wolf pups.”
McCort has developed numerous animal assisted activity and therapy programs as well as canine evaluations with different organizations.
Keir said their approach to training animals is similar. At her business Good Dog Works, located in the Stellarton Industrial Park, she has offered reward based dog training in Pictou County for 18 years.
She said the reward-based learning is good for building relationships between owners and their pets. It engages the pet because it makes it fun for them.
Keir said there are several reasons why she likes having the chance to work with these other animals.
For one she said she has a general interest in animals and nature and this will give her a chance to practise her observation skills. Plus it’s the chance to learn something new.
“I don’t know very much about bison. How will I know if they are content or interested in the reinforcement I have to offer?”
She looks forward to figuring that out.
Getting to work with a trainer in person is much better than trying to learn over a video. She hopes that what she learns will benefit her as she comes back to her training.
“My skills will be challenged. That’s always a good thing. I don’t want to become comfortable.”
At her business, she said they are firm believers in continuous education and each year they offer staff the chance to broaden their skills and knowledge in order to keep up with what science has to offer in dog behaviour, training, care and management.
Most recently, she said, three staff took part in a puppy culture program with Jane Kellion in August.