UDT
About Us
Unleashed Dog Training is a small company with tons of experience! Our lead trainer alone has over 20 years of experience and has been created a training course that teaches YOU how to train your own dog. We are not a one size fits all style of training and we understand that all dogs learn differently. It is because of this that our training courses cover EVERY method of training! Not just one like most companies out there. We teach the gentlest puppy to the most aggressive older dog that other trainers are scared of. Our success is in that we have the experience to be able to swap from method to method instantly to maximize the dogs ability to learn. We teach ALL of our commands on a conditioned level, one command... one action... every time! We focus on precision based commands, which includes timing and position. We are your one stop shop for ALL your dog training needs!!!
Service Dog Mission
By the gifts and talents given to us by God, we provide quality training at a cost just at our operating expenses to enable everyone to benefit from our God given abilities to train dogs to help individuals with disabilities. Our mission is to show God's grace through our generosity and dedication to our brothers and sisters in Christ. We provide the best quality training to anyone disabled and in need of a service dog. We offer training packages at a fraction of the price of what other training companies would cost without the wait of a non-profit. When all feels hopeless, we are here to help you through. We have donated over half a million dollars worth of service dogs to wounded veterans since we came to Onslow County in 2009.
APDT
What Do You Want the Animal TO Do?
The Association of Professional Dog Trainers (APDT) supports a Least Intrusive,
Minimally Aversive (LIMA) approach to behavior modification and training.
What Is LIMA?
LIMA requires that trainers and behavior consultants use the “least intrusive, minimally aversive technique likely to succeed in achieving a training [or behavior change] objective with minimal risk of producing adverse side effects.” It is also a competence criterion, requiring that trainers and behavior consultants be adequately trained and skilled in order to ensure that the least intrusive and aversive procedure is in fact used.
LIMA Is Competence-Based
LIMA requires that trainers/behavior consultants work to increase the use of positive reinforcement and lessen the use of punishment in work with companion animals and the humans who care for them. LIMA protocols are designed to be maximally humane to learners of all species. In order to ensure best practices, consultants/trainers should pursue and maintain competence in animal behavior consulting through education, training, or supervised experience, and should not advise on problems outside the recognized boundaries of their competencies and experience.
Positive Reinforcement and Understanding the Learner
Positive reinforcement should be the first line of teaching, training and behavior change program considered, and should be applied consistently. Positive reinforcement is associated with the lowest incidence of aggression, attention seeking, and avoidance/fear in learners.
Only the learner determines what is reinforcing. It is crucial that the consultant/trainer understands and has the ability to appropriately apply this principle. This may mean that handling, petting, various tools and environments are assessed by the handler each time the learner experiences them, and that trainer bias not determine the learner’s experience. The measure of each stimulus is whether the learner’s target behavior is strengthening or weakening, and not the consultant/trainer’s intentor preference.
Clarity and Consistency in Problem Solving
It is the handler’s responsibility to make training and modification of behavior clear, consistent and possible for the learner. We recognize that a variation of learning and behavior change strategies may come into play during a learning/teaching relationship, and can be humane and a least intrusive, effective choice in application. 4 However, ethical use of this variation is always dependent on the consultant/trainer’s ability to adequately problem solve, to understand his or her actions on the learner, and requires sensitivity toward the learner’s experience.
Preventing Abuse
We seek to prevent the abuses and potential repercussions of unnecessary, inappropriate, poorly applied or inhumane uses of punishment. The potential effects of punishment can include aggression or counter-aggression; suppressed behavior (preventing the consultant/trainer from adequately reading the animal); increased anxiety and fear; physical harm; a negative association with the owner or handlers; and increased unwanted behavior, or new unwanted behaviors.
Choice and Control for the Learner
LIMA guidelines require that consultants always offer the learner as much control and choice as possible during the learning process, and treat each individual of any species with respect and awareness of the learner’s individual nature and needs.
What Do You Want the Animal TO do?
We focus on reinforcing desired behaviors, and always ask the question, “What do you want the animal TO do?” when working through a training or behavior problem. Relying on punishment in training does not answer this question, and therefore offers no acceptable behavior for the animal to learn in place of the unwanted behavior.
Punishment should never be the first line of treatment in an intervention, nor should it make up the majority of a behavior modification program. Further, it should be discontinued as quickly as possible once the desired behavior change has taken place. In cases where the application of punishment is considered, best practices of application and next steps can best be determined by understanding and following the Humane Hierarchy of Behavior Change – Procedures for Humane and Effective Practices, outlined in the diagram attached.
For these reasons, we strongly support the humane and thoughtful application of LIMA protocols, and applaud those working with animals and humans in a humane and thoughtful manner.