Maple Ridge dog trainer earns a first in the city

Neighborhood canine training organization Head and Heart Instruction has acquired BC SPCA’s AnimalKind accreditation, becoming the only doggy coaching business in the town to hold the difference.

The path to puppy teaching for Kathleen Higgins, owner and trainer at Head and Heart, has not been a straight line. Higgins suggests, “My strategy was constantly to be a conservation biologist, specializing in the captive breeding of endangered species,” but soon after acquiring a master’s in biology from Simon Fraser University and doing work in Central America, Higgins moved back to B.C. to just take a break. Higgins took a work with a modest company walking reactive pet dogs, which she assumed would just be “an interim job.” Instead it was the starting of Higgins’s new path to pet dog training.

The recognition from the BC SPCA arrives as Higgins settles in Maple Ridge on a property that allows her to extend her solutions as her pet training organization grows. Higgins suggests, “It took some courage to alter fields, but I understood that doggy training was not that diverse than what I experienced initially set out to do: use science to boost the life of animals.”

The BC SPCA AnimalKind accreditation program recognizes puppy schooling firms that are committed to employing proof-primarily based positive reinforcement teaching strategies and endorsing animal welfare. Companies that receive AnimalKind accreditation go through a demanding auditing process to validate they comply with AnimalKind pet training criteria. Nicole Fenwick, manager, study and requirements for the BC SPCA, says, “In B.C., anybody can phone them selves a pet dog trainer, so it is tricky for doggy guardians to know who to rely on.” For trainers like Higgins, the software is a step in the right course. Higgins suggests, “It is totally needed that we have an authority certifying which trainers are working with science-dependent and ethical solutions, and I am so grateful that the AnimalKind accreditation plan exists to do this.”

The BC SPCA introduced the initially set of AnimalKind expectations – for wildlife and rodent regulate businesses – in 2018. Via a partnership with the UBC Animal Welfare Method, the BC SPCA, Vancouver Foundation, and the Peter Wall Institute for Superior Reports offered funding to set up the application. AnimalKind standards for dog teaching – the 2nd set of expectations made, were launched in January 2019.

Discover about AnimalKind accreditation, what to seem for in a coach, or discover a trainer near you.