Meet Sheri Gintner | Owner and Lead Trainer, Good Dog! Behavior Training

We had the good fortune of connecting with Sheri Gintner and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Sheri, what habits do you feel play an important role in your life?
Listening carefully to the client about the issues they have with their pets behavior. This includes getting details of what happens immediately before the behavior and then what the dog experiences as a result of the behavior.

Planning each lesson with consideration of the work that the client has already done with their dog. By the time the client reaches out for professional help they have tried at least one approach to changing the dog’s behavior. The approach may have helped a little, not at all, or worsened the problem.
I enter each appointment with a plan to show the client how to make change by building on their previous work or I explain an approach that will have more of an impact and why.

Being creative! My work is science-based and customized for each client and dog. Dogs are always making associations between events and outcomes. The events can be their behavior or some occurrence that is out of their control. By carefully managing the dog so there is a pairing of a desirable behavior or event with something good for the dog I get a happy dog and a happy owner. For example, a client’s new dog was afraid of his best friend. I asked what the dog really loves and the client said sniffing. I recommended that they take the dog out on a long line for adventure walks in wide open parks or ball fields. They paired the walks with a speaker phone conversation with the friend. Next, they talked on speaker phone while the friend walked parallel to them at a great distance. The space between them was closed over time. Until the dog was walking next to and asking for attention from the friend.

What should our readers know about your business?
I want the world to know that my work is not about controlling dogs. My work involves understanding a dog’s needs then meeting those needs so that we can move on from there and teach the dog to fit what the dog owner needs. Unless the dog’s needs are met first, very often it will be impossible to modify the dog’s behavior enough to satisfy the client.

For my current clients, this approach is not a hard sell. People want their dogs to be happy. They know that dogs are social creatures and they need the company of other dogs and animals, including people. Everyone realizes that exercise and play are essential. Sometimes my clients do not realize how powerful some simple changes to their normal routines can be in changing their dog’s energy level and their relationship with the dog. Adding an activity to the dogs feeding protocol that includes one or more activities from the canine hunting sequence, for example, can use lots of energy and can reduce the dogs heart rate. These changes require just a few extra minutes and elimination of the food dish and result in a more contented dog.

Right now, I am coming to terms with the fact that I can not be office manager, the marketing department and chief scientist. I can not do it all! I want to dwell in creating a relationship with my clients and their dogs, and in creating a healthy relationship between them. I struggle to manage the business and promote my work effectively.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
My friends love hiking, especially hiking with dogs. Before we head out we grab the best natural food rewards from Xander at Front Range Natural Pet in South-West FOCO. After we hike at Pinewood Reservoir or Devil’s Backbone in Loveland we dine outside at Berthoud Brewing or drink a “Killer Boots” and hit a food truck at Verboten Brewing and Barrel Project

We love short hikes in Red Feather Lakes or at Eagles Nest Open Space followed by a beer and food on the patio at Me-Oh-My Pie or Vern’s LaPorte or Howling Cow Cafe in Bellvue.

When we are in Old Town we go to Wags and let our dogs shop the bulk dog treats. While there we visit with Jen Holmes of K9 Fitness Works and hear about upcoming fitness projects. We might have lunch at Otto Pint after training our dogs while we hit some golf balls at Old Town Putt.

We like to shop and we take our dogs, too. Murdock’s and Jax Outdoor and Jax Farm and Ranch are great places to shop with dogs. Jax Farm and Ranch has incredible barista’s that make the best half-sweet mocha in town. When you take your own mug you get ten cents off, too!

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
I dedicate this shoutout to the staff and volunteers at the animal shelters I have worked at and volunteered at especially Barb Golden and Marge Garvin from the former Western Pennsylvania Humane Society (now Humane Animal Rescue) in Pittsburgh, and, most recently, NOCO Humane in Loveland, Colorado.

Nothing can compare to the education one gets when working with animals in a shelter. It is when the animals are most vulnerable. Most animals are traumatized from being removed from their former homes and they require exercise and enrichment but most of all they need a sense of agency. According to Patricia McConnell,
“victims of trauma were subjected to experiences that stripped any feelings they had of autonomy.” Animals need a sense that they can choose who they interact with and how the interact with them. In shelters I have learned to watch for a dogs consent and how to build on that to improve the dogs adoptability.

The shelters I have worked at/volunteered at have been very interested in providing the absolute best care for the animals entrusted to them. I have been welcomed to engage the volunteers in working with the dogs using reward-based techniques based on new understanding of the stress response cycle, cooperative care and fear free handling. I have really enjoyed teaching folks how they can do small things to help the dogs and we all know that you can get a very powerful understanding of concepts and techniques after teaching others. I am a very lucky to have this opportunity right now at NOCO Humane.

Website: www.gooddogbehavior.org

Linkedin: www.linkedin.com/in/sheri-gintner-25814b5b

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