s u m m i t
#PPGSummit 2019: Sound Bites Susan Nilson presents highlights and quotable quotes from PPG’s 2019 Annual Educational Event in Portland, Oregon "We need to be careful when using genetics as an easy 'expla‐ nation' for behavior...Genetics has an important and undeniable contribution to behavior, includ‐ ing aggression. However, how and to what degree genetics in‐ teracts with environmental vari‐ ables is far from known. Understanding how environmen‐ tal risk factors mixed with more susceptible genotypes may help contextualize risk and our understand‐ ing of behavior." ‐ Dr. Nathan Hall
"Developing a secure attachment with your dog includes allowing him to control his behavior as much as possible rather than cuing his every move. Giving dogs choices makes them feel like they have control over what they do. Taking away choices or overdi‐ recting behavior can diminish re‐ lationships. If dogs don't have choices, they may feel helpless or anxious and that they do not have control over their own lives." ‐ Judy Luther
"Resource guarding is a natural, normal behavior in many species. How many of you lock your house before you leave home? We all do it. We have to protect our re‐ sources to survive. However, ca‐ nine resource guarding often causes significant inappropriate overreaction by humans." – Pat Miller
"Behavior has different proper‐ ties ‐ we can measure frequency, duration, rate, latency, and inter‐ response time (IRT) and these are really useful to help us know if we're making any significant changes in our behavior change plan. Getting a measure on what we see allows us to put numbers to what we have observed, rather than create a story about what's happening." ‐ Chirag Patel
"It is a fantastically rare occur‐ rence to die of dog bite related in‐ juries, less than one in 10 million in a given year...More than 90% of dogs will never put their teeth on a person in anger ‐ half of dogs will express irritation with people to the 'cut that out' level. Does this sound like a public health crisis?" ‐ Janis Bradley
"Prices are a part of your market‐ ing message. A lower rate sug‐ gests that you're not as good as fellow trainers with higher rates. Low rates draw bargain hunters, not serious clients. It’s not retail. You either need the service or you don’t. One of the tricks to selling successfully is selling to the right people." ‐ Veronica Boutelle
"Primary exposures for pet care professionals are injuries to peo‐ ple, pets or property; injuries to clients' pets; damage to clients' property, or injury to the pet care professional, their employees or independent contractors." ‐ David Pearsall
All sessions at the Portland Aggression and Bite Prevention Educational Summit were recorded! Get 25 hours of audio plus PowerPoint presentation PDFs = education starting at $6.50 per hour. Discounts available for PPG members! See petprofessionalguild.com/2019‐Summit‐Audio‐Files
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BARKS from the Guild/July 2019
"Aggression is a natural, normal behavior but it is demonized in our culture to the detriment of dogs...Stress is the root cause of aggression, it compares to human road rage. When working with aggression cases, list the stressors and eliminate as many of them as possible, then identify the top 2‐4 for behavior modifica‐ tion protocols...Predatory ag‐ gression is not really aggression, it’s ‘grocery shopping.’ It’s getting food. It’s not about anger or fear. It’s about convincing the dog that there’s a better behavior" ‐ Pat Miller