PETCENTERED LEARNING CENTER
Pet owners believe that a service provider's concern for the welfare of their pet matches their own. Not always, but there can be a decided and definite disconnect between what is advertised and what is being delivered.
Part of what is being purchased is “peace of mind.” Take the dog owner who might worry that a dog is bored or lonely when the owner is away from home for 12 hours a day. Providing for the pet’s welfare by purchasing the services of a dog walker or a doggy day care establishment allows the owner the valuable belief that their companion animal is being very well cared for. When it comes to paying for services such as grooming or training, education and stress-free handling is part of what pet owners believe they are paying for.
While there are good pet services operating, not every service provides what owners and pets require. Unfortunately, along with no regulatory mandate for formal education or licensing for workers, not even a rudimentary knowledge of animal behavior and stress-free handing are required or trained by most pet care service establishments. Add, that those who want to educate themselves can be learning from grey literature which often offers misleading and conflicting information. Such literature is now often dominated by the resurgence in force-based compulsion training and handling methods which rely upon outdated dominance theories and punishment devices, such as prong, choke, or shock collars (now called “training” collars).
Pet care services establishments are businesses that keep an eye on what will benefit them the most both time-wise and economically. That's fine, unless it leads to the following conditions, found all too frequently:
> Overcrowded rooms (30 or more dogs at a time) without toys or furniture, overseen by only one staff member.
> Loud and discordant music played for staff-even though studies find this disturbs pets while classical music benefits them.
> Resulting boredom and frustration can lead to displacement behaviors such as feces eating, fighting, or repetitive mounting.
> Pet care businesses, including walkers, sitters, groomers, and daycares, can use punishment for behavioral control. These methods include: yelling, scruffing, hitting, rolling dogs over, spraying them with water, placing them in extended isolation a/k/a "time outs," reliance on restraints such as crates, muzzles, and being tied to walls.
> Establishments may provide only limited or even no outdoor walks, as well as insufficient sanitation (including the over-application of strong chemical cleaners such as bleach) to the point where both workers and pets suffer respiratory and/or skin irritation and in extreme cases, even the loss of the pet's life.
> Trainers, on site, and at board and train establishments, can use force based compulsion training including the use of prong, choke or shock collars (euphemistically called, "training" collars).
> Services may have limited or no outdoor walks, insufficient sanitation, including the over-application of strong chemical cleaners such as bleach, to the point where both workers and pets suffer respiratory and/or skin irritation.
> And in extreme cases, even the loss of the pet's life.
PetCenterEd can put appropriately educated and trained workers in every establishment that works with companion animals. We want to empower pet care service learners with a strong foundational knowledge of the science of animal behavior, the ethics and application of force free training, learning theory, welfare, biology, and stress free handling. Additionally, our curriculum includes environmental management, safety, anatomy, emergency first aid, health, nutrition, breed history and recognition, interpersonal skills and more.
We will ensure all learners receive the time and oversight needed to develop a standardized level of applied skill so they can be the best at what they do for the pets they work with and, for themselves.
PETCENTERED HUMANE EDUCATION PROGRAMS
PetCenterEd is now providing additional services to our community by offering New York State elementary schools humane education which promotes both responsible pet ownership and animal welfare.
PetCenterEd Humane Education Programs seeks to follow Section 809 of the Education Law of New York State which mandates:
"instruction to be given in every elementary school under state control or supported wholly or partly by public money of the state, in the humane treatment and protection of animals and the importance of the part they play in the economy of nature as well as the necessity of controlling the proliferation of animals which are subsequently abandoned and caused to suffer extreme cruelty. Such instruction shall be for such period of time during each school year as the board of regents may prescribe and may be joined with work in literature, reading, language, nature study or ethnology. Such weekly instruction may be divided into two or more periods. A school district shall not be entitled to participate in the public school money on account of any school or the attendance at any school subject to the provisions of this section, if the instruction required hereby is not given therein."
Our humane education programs rely on up-to-date welfare and science based foundational and theoretical concepts tailored to learners with diverse learning styles.
Benefits of the Humane Education Law are far ranging. Studies show that not only does responsible pet ownership promote the foundation for the development of attitudes and knowledge to ably care for, and respect companion animals, those attitudes can carry over to increased empathy towards peers. Added advantages follow, teaching the importance of spaying and neutering to address proliferation of animals can work towards remedying the shelter crisis in our city.
Did you know humane education also includes the care and welfare of classroom pets? NYS Education Law, Section 809 requires:
"Study and care of live animals. Any school which cares for or uses animals for study shall ensure that each animal in such school be afforded the following: appropriate quarters sufficient space for the normal behavior and postural requirements of the species proper ventilation, lighting, and temperature control adequate food and clean drinking water and quarters which shall be cleaned on a regular basis and located in an area where undue stress and disturbance are minimized."
We have specialized, evidence based programs for the pets in your classroom.
Find out about the PetCenterEd difference in humane education, including our introductory FREE presentation for your classroom.
