The Successful Mix, LLC

Gain additional experience by spending many hours at local SPCAs in a volunteer capacity performing temperament evaluations and working with the animals there.

I took the initiative to start up a program to further train shelter volunteers to better understand animal behavior and to improve pets for adoptability. I have encouraged shelter staff and volunteers to consider the quality of the pet's life while housed at the shelter.

I can assist you with the selection of your next pet from a shelter or rescue organization. It can be overwhelming to select a pet from a shelter kennel, contact me for assessment advice.

March, 2004: Earned Level 1 certification of the Certification Council for Professional Dog Trainers(CPDT-KA or Knowledge-Assessed Certification)

The CCPDT is an independent certification organization. Certification requires:

• A minimum number of hours of teaching experience
• A minimum education requirement (Karen has a BS Degree from Robert Morris College in Pittsburgh, PA, plus post-graduate certification in Systems Engineering from James Madison University, Harrisonburg, VA),
• References from a veterinarian, a client, and a colleague
• A minimum score upon completion of a 250 question examination (I was in the 90 percentile)

Karen advocates positive reinforcement, operant and classical conditioning training techniques.

    Methods that build up your pet's self-confidence.
    Methods that develop a sense of teamwork between the pet and pet owner.
    NO pushing and pulling. NO collar jerking.
    Errorless-Learning training exercises
    Exercises designed to eliminate the use of no reward markers.

A member of the APDT, I've attended three of their annual conferences over the years. (Philadelphia, PA, Orlando, FL and Richmond, VA)

Attended a full day Clicker training workshop with Karen Pryor in 1998 at the APDT Conference (Philadelphia, PA) and had a refresher Clicker class with Karen P again at Ayrshire Farm (Upperville, VA).

Attended 3-day Clicker Expo conferences in-person. These events are highly educational, cutting edge and inspiring. (Lexington, KY, Nashville, TN, Stamford, CT and Herndon, VA)
Attended my fifth Clicker Expo event in Herndon, VA in March, 2019 and again in March, 2023. So many Wow! moments. So many new techniques to minimize frustration in our pets during training and to get the results we want.

Attended 3-day Clicker Expo on-line conference. Really appreciate the ability to view repeatedly the recordings of the information and videos shared from this presentation format. While more than one session was presented at the same time, by viewing the recordings of the sessions I couldn't attend live, I was able to continue my education throughout the entire year! How wonderful is that?!?!

Attended the first and second 1-day Mid-Atlantic Animal Behavior conferences in Leesburg.   A day of an amazing series of presentations by both VA/MD/PA area trainers and Veterinary Behaviorists as well as several Veterinarians who attended from out of area.   Looking forward to next year's conference!

Attended workshops and seminars given by well-known and respected behaviorists such as Jean Donaldson, behaviorist of the San Francisco SPCA, Donna Duford, respected trainer now with San Francisco Animal Control, Dr. Karen Overall, clinical behaviorist associated with the University of Penna., and Sue Sternberg, behavior counselor and owner of a private shelter in New York, to mention a few.

4-day training program for Instructor Certification with Julie Daniels.(Sanford, NC)

Attended a 3-day Instructor Training Course with Dr. Ian Dunbar, veterinarian, behaviorist and founder of the APDT.(Pittsburgh, PA)

Attended a 5-day intensive Advanced Instructor Training Course organized by Dana Crevling, Director, Dogs of Course. (Accord, NY)
Instructors:

• Kathy Sdao, Executive Director of It's a Dog's World in Seattle, WA;
• Pia Silvani, Director of Pet Training and Behavior Counseling at St. Hubert's Animal Welfare Center in Madison, NJ
• Sue Sternberg, Director of Rondout Valley Animals for Adoption in Accord, NY.

Blue Ridge Community College Veterinary Assistant Certification program. This class helped me to learn to recognize physical problems that might be the underlying cause for behavioral issues in family pets. I earned the Career Studies Certificate of Veterinary Assisting.

Learning more about the effects of kennelling combined with training on the chemistry and behavior of sheltered dogs and cats and re-homed pets at this 3-day Open Paw National Humane Education conference. (West Chester, PA)
Presenters included: Ian Dunbar, Kelly Gorman, Myrna Milani,DVM, Jennifer Messer,DVM, Pam Reid,PhD, and Sue Sternberg

Seminar presented by Trish King, Director of Behavior and Training at The Marin (California) Humane Society. Trish has a wealth of knowledge about shelter adoption counseling, matching available pets to owners, raising puppies and puppy classes, as well as, behavior modification in adolescent and adult dogs.

Trish King presentation on adolescent dogs and aggressive behavior.

Participated in a FULL (Mr. Rogerson doesn't believe in breaks!) 3-day seminar presented by John Rogerson of England. Gaining a perspective of dog training in the UK and learning some novel techniques used by Mr. Rogerson in his respected work with aggressive dogs overseas. Mr. Rogerson had some great ideas on raising puppies to reduce or eliminate the potential for aggressive behavior as they mature. (Accord, NY)

Seminar presented by Sue Sternberg. Topic: Temperament Assessment. Sue is always revising her ways of evaluating dog behavior in a shelter environment for appropriate placement and a successful behavior modificaiton in a home. A big part of helping our canine companions to successfully become a well-mannered member of our family is understanding the dynamics of the family and the dog's personality. Karen is always striving to learn more to help out her clients.

Attending this seminar also gave me the opportunity to catch up with some trainer friends in the DC/Woodbridge area. One of whom has written a book to help parents better manage living with a mix of Kids and Dogs! (check this out from my Links page) (Woodbridge, VA)

One-day seminar concentrating on reading dogs' body language and working with reactive dogs presented by Pat Miller, author of several great positive dog training books (Leesburg, VA)

Attended a weekend seminar presented by Patricia McConnell, PHD, author of "The Other End of the Leash" and "For the Love of a Dog". Patricia McConnell is a leader in relaying the research to the pet community why humans behave as they do, and why and how canines attempt to communicate to us. (Woodbridge, VA)

Attended a weekend seminar presented by Pia Silvani, CPDT-KA,CABC titled: Working with Complex Families with an evening presentation by Parvene Farhoody, CPDT-KA titled: Complex Problems Made Easy. Lots of real-world case studies and experiences were shared during this weekend, and Karen was able to network with other caring reward-based trainers during the time spent at a beautiful location in Cornwall-on-the-Hudson, NY.

Attended a one-day seminar presented by Dr. Karen Overall titled: "Pharmacological Treatment for Troubled Canines". She is author of "Clinical Behavioral Medicine for Small Animals". Dr. Overall gave a presentation discussing scientific research, and her own treatment experiences and newer revelations about the use of pharmacological treatments to help our companion animals. (DC)

2-day seminar/workshop at The Coventry School led by Kathy Sdao called "So Many Choices".    Kathy is a dynamic speaker who always enlightens.    She has a wealth of experience on a variety of species and has trained dolphins for the Navy.    Kathy is my favorite speaker! (Columbia, MD)

One-day workshop presented by Sassie Joiris: "Talented Trick Training". I participated with my Border CollieX, Pebbles.
   Focus on creative training and use of props.   Techniques to lure more effectively.   Always challenge the dog to give a little bit more.
   Fun Day! (Columbia, MD)

One-day workshop presented by Pat Miller titled: "Nose Games Workshop" I participated with her Siberian Husky, Kato.    What a fun activity and great for our senior dogs, dogs that benefit from calming activities, or less athletic dogs.    Any dog with a NOSE can enjoy this! (Frederick, MD)

Presentation: "Proactive Teaching with Behavior Analysis" by the master of Clicker Training, Bob Bailey.   Bob was accompanied by Parvene Farhoody, a well-educated and dynamic speaker.   Parvene helped all trainer attendees to understand how to develop a Functional Assessment and the effectiveness of using a scientific approach to resolve the behavioral challenges of our pets.   Loved them both, and learned a lot about the history of the application of Positive Reinforcement and Clicker training in programs used by the CIA and other governmental agencies.   Who says dogs trained using only Positive Reinforcement aren't reliable??? (Exton, PA)

Acquired TAGteach Primary Level Certification during weekend Workshop directed by Theresa McKeon.   TAGteach is a revolutionary science-based system that enables educators and coaches to teach more effectively and helps students to learn more quickly and more confidently. (Arlington, VA)

Making the Impossible Possible presented by Ken Ramirez.   Ken certainly does! Ken, the Training Director at the Shedd Acquarium in Chicago, has done fantastic work with dogs and a variety of animal species to teach them to perform with precision to learned cues. Ken also advocates the concept of errorless learning, and setting the training session up in a way that helps the animal to achieve success, rather than punishments and reprimands for less than desirable performance. (Exton, PA)

Dog-Dog Group Dynamics Seminar and Bite-o-Meter Workshop presented by Sue Sternberg.   Sue is a compassionate presenter on dog behavior.  Sue dedicates her life to applying her critical thinking skills to the interpretation of dog behavior.   She challenges some of the common myths and erroneous interpretations of canine signals. Sue uses lots of video footage to open our eyes! (Richmond, VA)

CHICKEN CAMPS! (Columbia, MD)

In 2013 I attended three weeks of a series of Chicken Workshops titled 'Discrimination', 'Cuing' and 'Criteria' conducted by Bob Bailey and Parvene Farhoody .   I have a lot to continue to think about as a result of attendance at these intensive workshops. Chickens are speedy models for demonstrating to the open-minded learner how what the teacher does influences what the student learns - IOW how the animal behaves.
I learned lots in June, July & August this summer.  I'm sure I have so much more to learn.

Course Title: Canine Social and Psychological Development.   A five week online course taught by Gail Fisher.   Hosted by APDT Online Continuing Education.   I gained more valuable nuggets of knowledge while taking this informative and well-structured class.

Seminar presented by Sue Sternberg. Topic: Sociability Vs. Aggression Thresholds in Dogs.   Sue continues to enlighten professionals and pet owners alike regarding her observations that correllate behaviors seen during shelter dog temperament assessment and what that means for the adopter in a home environment.   Sue also challenged seasoned professionals to re-think what we'd been taught in terms of teaching bite inhibition to puppies.   Hosted by Lisa of KissAble Canine based in Arlington, VA (Burke, VA)

Seminar presented by Ken Ramirez: Advanced Training Topics: Reinforcement Strategies, Social Animals & Aggression Reduction.   Once again listening to one of Ken's thoughtfully presented comparison of training options available.   An educational discussion of how they work, advantages and disadvantages and advice about when different strategies might work best. Love all the video demonstrations Ken puts together for our visual learning and as always he helps put things in perspective when he compares and contrasts the behavior of canines to that of a variety of other animal species.   Hosted by Lisa of KissAble Canine based in Arlington, VA (Burke, VA)

Seminar presented by Kelley Bollen. Topic: Behavior Seminar for Shelters, Rescues & Animal Control.   I have heard about Kelley for many years since she did her masters' thesis centered around Sue Sternberg's Assess-a-Pet, an evaluation to determine best placement considerations for dogs that are in need of re-homing through the shelter system.   Kelley's knowledge and insight to companion animal behavior (both dogs and cats) made sitting and listening to absorb new knowledge for 14 hours on a weekend no effort at all.   I left wishing the seminar could extend to a third day.   I can't believe it took me so long to meet Kelley! Seminar hosted by Lisa of KissAble Canine at her lovely new training location in Springfield, VA

Seminar presented by Jill Marie O'Brien. Topic: K9 Nose Work.   A workshop conducted by one of the founding members of the dog sport K9 Nose Work. Jill Marie demonstrated how to incorporate short NoseWork introduction sessions with shelter dogs.   The Richmond SPCA provided Jill Marie with a wide variety of dogs (breed types from Beagles to Retriever mixes, etc.).   The dogs were cycled through the day long workshop multiple times so that we could watch their learning progression.   This activity provides the shelter dogs with much needed enrichment to help them maintain their physical and behavioral health while waiting to discover their forever homes.   So enlightening to see the liberties Jill Marie takes with this program to help this population of dogs.

Seminar presented by Pat Miller. Topic: Positive Solutions for Dog Aggression.   Pat Miller shared videos and case studies of professionally working with dog owners of dogs who have demonstrated aggression towards their human family, guests to the home and/or other pets living in the household.   Pat shared strategies that she has found to be successful.  Strategies that use Classical Conditioning, Positive reinforcement training and Force-free methods.   I attended this seminar specifically to learn ways to expand my knowledge to help my clients living with aggressive dogs in their homes.   I received a lot of confirmation for the advice and coaching I currently do, yet I received some new learning that I'll employ in an effort to do better.

Online Course offered by Pat Engle. Topic: Six Awesome Tricks   In this course the instructor presents video demonstrations of teaching the six assigned tricks to different dogs.   I was given six months to complete the training with one dog or the option to use a different dog for different tricks.   Requirement was to video myself cuing the dog(s) for each of the tricks performed twice to a cue.  The cue could be audible(verbal) or visual(hand-prompting).   The dog should not be lured with food, however, it is OK to reinforce the dog with food during the trick demonstration.   The dog I trained for the video demonstrations already had two of the tricks on cue. I was able to complete her training and pass the course within a few weeks.

Seminar presented by Sue Sternberg. Topic: Managing Dog-Dog Interactions & Avoiding Dog Play Dangers. Another great seminar brought by Puppyworks and hostessed by Lisa of KissAble Canine
Sue shares video after video of multi-dog interactions and helps us learn how to see each intricate behavior. So many great insights and quotes from Sue this weekend.
  "Three behaviors to be performed [taught] with JOY:
        (1) Heel on Left;
        (2) Heel on Right;
        (3) Front/Recall with Stationary Attention"
  "Isn't our goal to have a dog that adores us, feels comfortable around, but ignores other dogs?"
  "Letting dogs go up to other dogs encourages pulling/straining towards other dogs and can make walking and controlling your dog around other dogs difficult"

Seminar presented by Michael Shikashio, CDBC and Trish McMillan, MSc, CPDT-KA, ACCBC, CDBC. Topic: Training and Handling with Aggressive Dogs. Sponsored by The Loose Leash Academy
This was workshop originally planned to be held in Richmond, VA. As we all know everything changed Spring of 2020, so this workshop was done using Zoom. It was still a very interactive workshop with the features of the Zoom application.
  My primary take-away:
         Always have two levels of protection; In many cases this might mean both a barrier and a muzzle that has been properly fitted and conditioned.

Dog Behavior Conference
An international Zoom Conference with some amazing speakers, some from universities around the world.
  My take-aways:
         Let's find ways to give our dogs more choice, the opportunity to consent to requests from their humans. Following the science, we often have more questions than we have answers.

Separation Anxiety Dog Shadowing Program with Moira Hechenleitner DVM, CSAT
What an amazing experience to be able to shadow an experienced professional. This program is teaching me so much.
  My primary take-away:
         What I am learning will help my future students and at the same time is currently teaching me that my business model is not appropriate for taking on Separation Anxiety cases

Biology of Dog Aggression with Dr. Tim Lewis
Webinar - Explaining the science of biology related to our dogs and aggression

Aggression In Dogs Conference 2022 and again for 2023 hosted by Michael Shikashio
So many amazing presenters!

MET Conference (Modern Ethical Training)
Online conference with a variety of top international trainers including Simon Prins, Victoria Stillwell, Ken Ramirez and Hannah Branigan

You should be able to see from this list how much Karen prioritizes new learning. She seeks to learn from the leaders in discovery of the science of behavior. Let's not use training methods on dogs because this method worked on the last dog we tried it on. Let's use training methods on dogs that first do no harm to the animal and to the human-animal bond. Let's learn solid scientific principles from those who are able to educate us. In this way we can draw from this foundation for the development of good training. Just possibly, by training in this way, we'll get results. Yes, get results with no negative fall-out. No undesirable behavior that we later find we have to go back and repair.

In the future Karen looks forward to what more there is to learn about Dogs, Cats, People, and effective, pet-friendly methods of play, training and behavior modification to help all her clients!