Part Two! Let’s talk about how a trainer can help any dog feel better about itself and the world around it! 

This interview with Emily Fisher, owner of Scratch & Sniff Canine Services is SO FULL of information that we had to split it into two parts!  Emily shares so much incredible information about dog training and how to best relate to your best (furry) friend.

Find her here –

Web: https://scratchandsniff.ca

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ScratchAndSniffCanineServices

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/scratchandsniffguelph/

Now, let’s get to Part Two of the interview!

Transcription:

Laura Wombwell: 
So would you suggest that for really anyone who has brought a new pet into their environment? Or is you know, finding challenges with being home all the time, and maybe the pet who’s lived in the house is having some new behaviours? Because they’re adapting to the human being there all the time? Is it a good idea to seek out some some help from a trainer?

Emily Fisher: 
Yeah, I think you can’t go wrong doing that. I think there’s a, you know, I think owners know more about their own dog having lived with them. This is why, you know, in my intake, I have a fairly lengthy behaviour questionnaire. Because I think owners do know more about their dogs, because quite frankly, I’ve never met them until we’ve, you know, gotten into session together. But I have a much broader knowledge base to be able to have a better idea of, yes, this is normal. No, that’s not quite normal. Yes, this is normal, but boy, we need to do something about it. That an owner with with only kind of one dog or maybe you know, the past three dogs that they’ve owned, have a little bit less to be able to compare it to. And there’s some things that I can see in, you know, whether it’s new rescues or puppies that I see and go well, really big red flags. I do not like this, where an owner might go, What are you talking about? Like, he looks fine, because my last dog never did anything bad after you know, staring at the other dog. And I go I see something very, very different because I have a little bit of a broader contextual vision ability to see observational skills.

Laura Wombwell: 
And what should owners look for when they’re seeking out a trainer?

Emily Fisher: 
Hmm. So big thing I think is going to be educational history of some sort. So I think when when there’s a there’s a lot of tendency for trainers to go You know, my my dogs taught me all I needed to know or I did such and such living in this community and there was feral dog. That’s all I needed to know. And I think that, you know, you can do something for a long time and do it wrong for a long time, quite frankly. So, and yeah, I think that the hands on element of working with dogs is really important. I think if you’re training entirely from theoretical knowledge, you’re going to miss a lot. And it’s really important to have that combination. But there is a tendency in dog training, which I think is honestly not true of most other professions, that somebody goes, I haven’t learned a thing from anybody, therefore, you should hire me. And, you know, you wouldn’t accept that I’m sure from your bet. And you wouldn’t accept that from your electrician. And you wouldn’t accept that, hopefully, from a, you know, a teacher or an X ray technician, right. Like it. I don’t think it makes sense. But that is something that tends to be really pushed, I think and it’s almost as mythology around dogs. It’s like magical connection that people talk about. And even if you have that, how would you teach an owner that that those aren’t hard skills that you can pass along? So I think that is something to really watch out for, if you’re reading through their about us, and they say they’re certified, but there’s no information on who that certification is through. If they say they’re third of certified and they list them, go to those websites and find out what that means. Because honestly, I could certify you right now, there’s no regulation in this industry at all. It is, it’s um, it’s getting better, there’s been changes in the last, you know, five or six years, even which has been great. But there, it doesn’t mean that anybody can hang your shingle and call themselves adopt trainer. You know, if you look at somebody and they call themselves a behaviourist find out what that means, because that’s not a term that’s regulated either, unlike, you know, a veterinarian, if somebody called themselves a veterinarian, the college would be all over that. So I think looking at kind of educating yourself around, what are the organizations that are out there? Is it a school doing the certification? Because if it is, you can find out how does the school teach? What sort of training does the school teach? And how much does this certification actually lend them credibility versus going, Wow, I know who, like I know, what comes out of this school, you know, that the training school and I don’t think I want that person to be working with my dog, because of what it is that’s taught in that context. So that’s something that’s still not regulated as far as like what sort of method or approach can be used, and a lot of schools sort of like pass out certifications, just based on going through the program versus what the person has learned or how they can apply it. So I think that is really important. It doesn’t mean that, you know, there’s a lot of I will qualify this by saying there’s a lot of fantastic trainers out there that don’t have third party certifications, I don’t think it’s strictly required, you need to have the skills before you get the certifications. So you can have the skills and not have the certifications. But it is something that I think you need to to look into and find out, do they actually have the skills? Or are they are they kind of just flying by the seat of their pants.

Laura Wombwell: 
So let’s say an owner has found a trainer that they love, they’ve gone through some sessions with that trainer, how can owners get the best results possible from their training?

Emily Fisher: 
Definitely do your homework. And hopefully, that should come as no surprise. But dog training is, they’re, you know, most services when we’re working with owners. This is an educational service for an owner to apply these skills with their dog. So I think one is actually doing the work. And that’s something that I think for for a lot of people, you can get mixed up between them stressing about it versus I’m doing it. And I think that’s really common to go, I’m so worried about this, I’m so stressed out, it feels like you’re doing it but not getting the results when you’re actually just worried and not doing it. So obviously, stress reduction is a big part of that. But I think that’s something just to be really mindful of if you are really stressed out because living with her dogs is really hard. And make sure that you can kind of tell the difference between Are you actually doing the work and it’s not working? It’s Is there something you need to change there? Or do you actually need to figure out how to actually apply to doing the work. Um, something that I really appreciate in like, my very, very astute clients is that they ask a lot of questions while we’re going through it. So if we go through a lesson, and it looks like they’re doing it, right, I don’t see any indication that there’s issues or kind of like, Okay, great, see you next week or the week after or whatever. And then they go home and go, I don’t understand what I’m doing but they don’t tell me. I can’t help them with that because I don’t know that they’re having trouble. And I’ve definitely seen people do something right but still not understand it. Same thing with dogs quite frankly. So What I really value is when somebody is a really good communicator, and they can let me know, if they don’t understand something, you know, I love when somebody talks to me after I do a demo, explain it, and they go, Okay, so I need to do XYZ, and I’m looking for this result, right? Like, that gives me a really good idea of like, yes, this is making sense to you. So yes, you’re going to get much better results when you’re applying that it’s one of those practice makes perfect, perfect practice that actually makes perfect.

Laura Wombwell: 
So the education is just as much for the humans as it is for the dogs.

Emily Fisher: 
Exactly. When we’re talking about behaviour consulting, where the dog has like big, big feelings about stuff. It’s almost like you’re learning to be a therapist for your dog. It’s, you know, a much bigger task. But it’s also necessary because the owners are the ones living with their dogs, the owners are the ones that are putting them in situations that they could be reactive. So it can be a very big task, but it’s also something that I think has a whole kind of payoff. And quite frankly, I think I bonded most strongly with my dogs who have been really hard to live with. There’s a whole other level of understanding and communication that happens with dogs that have big feelings.

Laura Wombwell: 
So speaking of the dogs that live with you, I would love to learn a little bit about your pet. So who is currently living with you and how did they come to be there?

Emily Fisher:
So I have my oldest who is Sage, and she is an eight year old Golden Retriever. And I got her looking very, very explicitly for a dog who can help me with reactive dog consoled a dog that is very socially tolerant, so can come into the puppy groups. And she’s fantastic with puppies, you know, she Oh, she needs a break sometimes, as we all do from our puppies, but she she is great with pups, she is very appropriate with them. She’s quite tolerant with them, she plays really nicely with them. And so she’s a really good puppy raiser and has been very, very valuable in in helping nervous puppies kind of come out of their shell is their first contact. So my second oldest is Rowan and he is turning six on April 1, April Fool’s puppy. And he is an Australian Koolie. And he’s, he’s my dog with big feelings. He’s my challenging boy, I always say so he’s a lifelong work in progress, you know, huge progressions through his life, but he’s still needs some careful handling, he’s very sensitive dog like wickedly smart. And that leads him to let’s just say overthink things a little bit. Um, so I’m he doesn’t show up a lot for you know, he hasn’t come to the puppy groups or anything like that his feelings are a little too big for that he wouldn’t be great in that environment. But I do a lot of training with him. A lot of obedience work through an online program that is kind of continuously running with him. And he’s a lot of fun to train, but sometimes a little harder to live with. In my newest one is Briar, and she is an 18 week old Nova Scotia Duck Tolling Retriever. So she’s been featured quite a bit on social media, almost make her own page. And she is in the raising a pandemic puppy series that I’ve been putting up. Basically, since I first got her a couple of posts a week about how to get your puppy out and about, like what is good socialization, I kind of broaden the focus into a little bit more kind of like puppy raising stuff, which might not be specific to pandemic socialization. But I know a lot of people are in the same boat. A lot of people are kind of, you know, they want to wait until lockdown is over. But when your puppies a month older than it is now, it’s almost like they’re different animal, you really need to be doing stuff every single day with them. So just as a way to both give people ideas, as well as just kind of encourage them to go like you know, we can’t just sit around the house for a week waiting for the next thing to happen. You really do need to put a concerted effort into it, especially if everybody’s working at home and the weather is bad, or to get out. But there are a lot of options. You know, her whole primary period of socialization happened during the lockdown that we had after Christmas. I got her January 1. And there was still a ton that I could do with her. Even though you know her classes were delayed, even though none of the stores were open. There was still so much that was available.

Laura Wombwell: 
So what are some of your favourite things to do in southwestern Ontario with your pups?

Emily Fisher: 
I have to say going up to my family cottage. So it is it’s a bit of a drive. It’s about five hours or so and if you take the four One probably more like seven or so, you know, we try to get up there, it doesn’t happen as frequently as I’d like. And of course, you know, pandemic stuff makes that complicated. But my family has had a property, you know, in the family since 1930. And there is just, you know, hundreds of acres of backwoods bog and cliff and just like really, really rough, you know, Canadian Shield terrain sort of thing. And I love getting up there because I don’t have to worry about anything but wildlife, you know, you don’t have to worry about, you know, leashing the dogs as a bike goes past or anything like that, it can just let them out the door off leash and just walk straight back into the woods for an hour. I would say that is definitely my favorite thing to do with my dogs is just hiking where we can just kind of all exist in the woods and to not have to be vigilant about not infringing on anybody else’s rights to be there.

Laura Wombwell: 
Wonderful. So I have a few quickfire questions to end off right for you. Alright. Cat or dog?

Emily Fisher: 
I don’t want to diminish cats, but I’ve always been more of a dog person. I don’t totally understand cats that well, but I certainly appreciate it. Look up cat school. It’s a cat training program that a friend in Toronto runs that has definitely made me appreciate them more. But yeah, I don’t have any desire to have one in my house.

Laura Wombwell: 
What is your favourite breed?

Emily Fisher:
Um, I have to say my heart is with Koolies. Like I was saying earlier that sometimes it’s the hardest dogs that you bond hardest with. I mean, I love all of my dogs and all of my past dogs. But there is something about Rowan that even though he I can’t use him for a lot of business related things. He doesn’t come to the puppy groups. But I would love to be able to have another coolie at some point just maybe, like tone down some of the big feelings but I have like all of the all the rest of it intact.

Laura Wombwell: 
What are your dog’s favorite treats?

Emily Fisher: 
Um, honestly, anything made of meat or cheese to say, for routine training, I mostly use rollover, it’s you know, very affordable for a commercial treat it like a to AFCS guidelines is a complete food I probably wouldn’t feed it as a meal. But the nice thing especially with a dog like Sage who gains weight by looking at food, or a dog like Briar, who is still growing I do like to use kind of balanced food wherever I can in routine training. And then for higher value stuff. I tend to get you know pre cooked sausages just from the grocery store pre cooked meatballs and just chop that up and have them in my pouch for situations that require a little bit more powerful treats.

Laura Wombwell: 
Would you say your dogs are full of dreams full of beans or full of something entirely different?

Emily Fisher: 
Um, I would say Briar’s definitely the beans because she’s a puppy and let’s just kind of how they exist in the world. She likes to ricochet off things quite a lot. Sage I would say is more of the the dreamer of the bunch. She if she could just like like literal dreams. If she could get you to lie in bed with her all day, she would be happy with that if there’s a hand touching her at all times. She is just totally blissed out. It would move the camera down but you’d get like a very might make everyone nauseous. But she’s lying down as close as possible to me right now directly under the chair. I’ve learned not to move my chair too much. And Rowan is full of, I think, sometimes something unidentifiable. He’s full of, He’s full of brains and feelings. There’s just there’s so many feelings in that dog. So, yeah, well, we’ll say that for him.

Laura Wombwell: 
Perfect. All right, so last one. If money were no object, what incredible thing would you do to spoil your dogs?

Emily Fisher: 
I would buy just like 1000 acres of untouched land and have that available like directly at my back door. And I would I mean that’s partly for me because you know right now we need to load everybody in the car we got to drive for a while before letting them out anywhere but that that might be a little bit for me but also for them just kind of having access to that. Like I described with my family cottage and having access to that just basically all the time. And also a really nice big training building on property with With robotic machine things that will just clean and sterilize everything for me so that I don’t have to do it myself. And then that’ll just give them more training time rather than a cleaning time. This might be for me and not my dogs. But you know..

Laura Wombwell: 
It has been such a pleasure chatting with you, Emily. My last question is, how can this Southwestern Ontario pet community best support you and your business as well as trainers in general?

Emily Fisher: 
Yeah, so for the me and my business side of it, I think, letting me know what you want. So when it comes to running specialty classes, what I love is when I get emails from people going, Hey, I saw this class, this looks like a lot of fun. When is this going to be on the schedule next? because it lets me know what people want, it lets me know what is the best thing to offer next, and just kind of meet people’s needs, or somebody has an idea for a class that I don’t offer? letting me know, and if it’s something that I can accommodate that I have, you know, the expertise to teach, I’m more than happy to offer something new like that. I think kind of more broadly and a little bit more, a little bit more serious is supporting trainers in general and more specifically, clients who have aggressive reactive dogs with big feelings is not infringing on their space. And I think that is a really, really big thing with dogs off leash, dogs off leash in places that they shouldn’t be, I’m not talking about, you know, the back 40 where you don’t find anyone and if you hear someone coming your leash up sort of thing. I’m talking like urban parks, down the street, there’s, you know, I can think of probably five or six houses in my neighbourhood that almost always have dogs loose on the front lawn that will follow people down the street, that even though their dogs aren’t aggressive, it really doesn’t matter if that other dog walking by does have an issue with with reactivity, fear or aggression. It’s just so profoundly unfair for that dog to have a dog coming into their space. Whether that is over on the street or just not being able to go into parks period, because there’s so many dogs, off leash and so many dogs that people just kind of like approach everyone the calling your dog is friendly, it really doesn’t do it.

Laura Wombwell: 
That is excellent advice. I have a reactive little guy. So I feel that right here.

Emily Fisher: 
Yes, yes, so much. I can say that the number of panic attacks that people have walking down the street with their reactive or aggressive dog and seeing that dog can book in it out of the you know, out of the front door or out of the garage or off their front lawn and chasing them down like it’s it’s just It’s horrifying not just for people’s dogs, but for for people as well and ends up making their worlds much smaller than it needs to be. If even those dogs were just, you know, even if they were tethered to standing there barking at least if they’re tethered, they’re not able to have an approach which is obviously tethered and barking is not good for that dog, but least they don’t reach these other dogs who are just trying to walk down the street.

Laura Wombwell: 
Thank you so much for sharing your time with us today. Emily, I really thank you.

Emily Fisher: 
Thank you as well.

Laura Wombwell: 
And thank you to everyone listening. This is Laura with Laura Wombwell Photography. I’m here with Emily Fisher of Scratch and Sniff Canine Services. And we both hope that you and your pets have an awesome day. Bye!

Emily Fisher: 
Bye!

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