Use Visual Aids To Help Pet Parents Identify Emotions

One of the biggest obstacles for pet owners in trying to prevent or resolve behavior problems is that they are not good at recognizing the more subtle signs of emotional states such as fear and aggression. Many trainers and behavior consultants recognize this, and try to educate their clients in identifying these signs. However simply describing the postural cues and movements verbally often isn’t enough.

As the old saying goes, a picture is worth a thousand words. So your tip for the month is to use drawings, photos and videos to educate your clients. If you already have good examples – pictures – of the signs you want your clients to see, put them on your phone or your tablet, or print them out so you can show your clients as you explain their importance. If you don’t have a good catalog visual aids, start making your own. Take photos and videos of your own pets, when you teach training classes or do behavior consults, or even at dog parks and on walks. Be sure to get permission to photograph/video other peoples’ animals.

Our DVD –  “Canine Body Postures – A Professional’s Video Guide” has video of all the important body postures you need to show your clients.  You can capture stills and short video clips from this program to put on your phone or tablet or to print out to show clients the postures they need to learn about.  This technique is available ONLY for your own personal use   – you CANNOT post any of these on your website or any other place for public access as that would be violation of the video’s copyright.

So start building your video and illustration library today, and consider adding Canine Body Postures – A Professional’s Video Guide” to your list of resources. Just click on the title to go to the website to purchase.