The Who and What of Prairie Pups

The Who and What of Prairie Pups

Hello and welcome to our very first blog post! I am so excited to be starting this blog and share with all of you lots of training and relationship building tools for you and your pup(s)!

For this very first entry I thought I would answer some questions that you might be having… such as ‘Who or what the heck is Prairie Pups?’ and ‘What exactly do they do?’

So let start with who we are …

My name is Karen Durham and I am the owner and head trainer here at Prairie Pups!

I have over 12 years experience in the animal care industry and I found I had a special place in my heart for dog behaviour when I took my very first behaviour course back in 2008.

Since then I have worked in various roles in everything from animal health care, shelter/rescue work, to nutrition, retail, training and dog sport competition.

Seriously, when I comes to dogs I have experience in pretty much every aspect of it.

I love all of it but felt I was struggling to really find my niche, my place in the dog world where I could really make a positive impact and help dogs and their owner.

The last couple years I worked in a vet clinic I always felt myself drawn to behaviour and loved helping clients with their training questions. I was told multiple times by some of my co-workers that I would make an awesome dog trainer… and that’s where the idea of Prairie Pups started.

I knew I had the experience, but wanted to make sure I had the most up-to-date hands on knowledge I could so I could really help people and their pups to the best of my ability. So in January of 2020 I found an amazing experienced dog trainer and started a mentorship with her to really get my training skills where I wanted them.

With the way 2020 went *cough* COVID *cough*, I wasn’t exactly sure how I was going to launch this business, typical training classes were virtually impossible with social distancing limits and business shut downs. But thanks to the power of the internet nothing is impossible!

I settled on the idea of online training courses! This way clients could access the lessons in their own homes, and work at them on their own schedule, while still getting direct and personalized feedback from me every step of the way! So far the feedback has been amazing!

I am so thankful everyday that I am here and able to follow my dream and work with clients and their pups to help create well mannered family pets!

So, what makes Prairie Pups different?

The way I approach dog training may be different from what you have seen or experienced in the past. I follow a few guiding philosophies when it comes to dog training…

Relationship building!

The foundation behind every well behaved dog is a solid bond between owner and pup. Gone are the days that we use force and intimidation to get our dogs to do what we want them to (or these days should be gone, some trainers still use these methods). What truly allows us to have well mannered dogs is having a dog that WANTS to listen. That has such a deep bond with their owner that listening and behaving is second nature to them. They WANT to be with you, they WANT to listen. The best behaved dogs I have seen, the ones with amazing recalls and perfect manners, are the one who have learned to work with their owner as a TEAM. When you focus on working together instead of dominating, absolutely amazing things can happen.

Training is FUN!

I am a HUGE fan of learning through PLAY. There are so many basic behaviours and manners we can teach our dogs all through playing games with them. Instead of long frustrating training sessions, think quick fun games that are played in 5 minutes or less! Training through play is not only fun for both the owner and the pup, but it builds behaviours we want to see while simultaneously deepening that bond that we want as well. I make sure games are used in every course I teach.

Train the dog in front of you

Every single dog, owner, and desired relationship is different. So why would we want to train the exact same things in the exact same way for every one of them? A lot of the principles and skills we teach are the same, but the speed at which each dog learns and the way that they learn best can be completely different. I work with my clients to get to know the dog they have in front of them, and how to work with them so they learn best for THEM. A high prey drive dog is going to learn differently and work better in certain situations than say a low energy dog. They are completely different dogs, so why would you train them the same way and expect the same outcome? I don’t believe in one-size-fits-all training. Learning to work with the dog you have in front of you is the key to success.

And this is just the beginning…

There are so many tips, tricks, and stories that I want to share with you all and that is exactly what this blog is going to be. I am so excited to be here and thank you for following along! Make sure to head on over to our Prairie Pups page on Facebook and give us a like to make sure you don’t miss any of the good stuff coming your way!

Until next time!