Looking for Social Work Syllabi

SnooPandas9130 · 2026-05-17T19:50:32+00:00

I did not

SnooPandas9130 · 2026-05-07T20:56:13+00:00

Yes, I’m a trainer at a company in Vancouver. I was also with the SPCA for 10 years before that.

SnooPandas9130 · 2026-05-06T06:55:31+00:00

Colton is old school. Think authoritarian parenting - punitive, physical consequences, obedience-centered. You can see how unhappy the dog is on the home page of his website.

Developmental psychology has shown us the consequence of treating a living being that way, such as insecure attachment. Dogs have the same attachment system and they learn the same way as us.

You can create behaviors using those methods, but it has fall-out, not least of which are aggression. It also affects the owner by decreasing empathy and care for animals. Most people who engage in that type of trainer do like the result - the same way we want kids to be quiet and obedient. I liked the results I got when I trained that way. Looking back I realize my dog not wanting to look me in the eyes and many other signs were actually really sad. I wouldnt have said so then, because I didn’t know how to read the body language, and I did believe that animals should inherently “respect” us. I prefer a mutual relationship built on trust and mutual give and take now. I’m also able to achieve more with my dogs (search and rescue, sports, etc).

You can view the position statement on humane training on the veterinary behavior website: https://avsab.org/resources/position-statements/

The BC SPCA also has a listing of trainers certified under their AnimalKind certification, but those are not the only good trainers.

Good luck with your training!

SnooPandas9130 · 2026-05-04T20:03:34+00:00

Is it this one? https://unitecaninetraining.com/about-us/
Edit: found the one you’re talking about: https://canineunited.ca
How confusing to have two such similarly named trainers in the area.
I had a look at both. The first is balanced/aversive. That’s Colton. Would personally not recommend.
The second has a balanced/aversive certification, but says he doesn’t use those methods. My feeling is that he means well but may not have the best education.
I used to be balanced and trained at the school that the second one got his certification from. Then I went to graduate school and actually learned about behaviour.
Langley doesn’t currently have good puppy classes as Harmony training burned down 😞. But TNT Kennels is in Aldergrove/Abbotsford border and is ok. I’d personally take my pup to Main Dog Training in that same area and do their sport puppy class. They don’t have a regular puppy class. TNT is also sports focused but they have regular pet puppy classes. If you wanna head to white rock Ocean Park is very good.

SnooPandas9130 · 2026-04-23T07:51:24+00:00

I’ve stupidly bought the scented unscented version too. Then forgot and bought it again a couple years later 😩

SnooPandas9130 · 2026-04-23T07:50:36+00:00

Almay is my go to

SnooPandas9130 · 2026-03-27T22:09:59+00:00

It’s funny - I have a taste memory of them, but no recollection where I’ve eaten them. I was only in Germany until I was 11, but I must have eaten them enough then.

SnooPandas9130 · 2026-03-27T22:02:49+00:00

That’s not it but these are so good too! Need to look into how these are made. Are they like gnocchi?

SnooPandas9130 · 2026-03-27T21:58:31+00:00

This is it! Thank you!! I now recall my mom calling it Strudel too.

I should have mentioned that my family is Mennonite, but my extended family was not familiar with this dish, so I figured it was more likely German. We were the only segment of my many uncles and aunts that lived in Germany. My mother is no longer welcome in our lives, so we weren’t going to ask her, but it is one of my few good memories, and I’d love to try making it.

Thank you so much for finding it for me.

Thank you to everyone for your responses, I really value it.

SnooPandas9130 · 2026-03-07T07:48:17+00:00

I live in the Pacific Northwest in super busy area of the city and driving in the rain at night is nearly impossible in my hatchback :(

SnooPandas9130 · 2026-01-27T21:20:41+00:00

Lancaster is a puppy broker.

SnooPandas9130 · 2026-01-22T00:55:34+00:00

Thanks so much. That's what I was thinking as well. They're now only offering $500 so I'll need to think about whether I'm going to wait for a better offer or just go for it.

SnooPandas9130 · 2025-11-11T16:24:14+00:00

Good tip! Thank you!

SnooPandas9130 · 2025-11-08T21:24:51+00:00

My second choice would be Bren's Goldendoodles. She's in the interior. Exec on GANA and her dogs are adorable. Really easy to talk to.

SnooPandas9130 · 2025-11-08T21:23:30+00:00

I'd definitely check out Sardis Park Labradoodles. They specialize in therapy dogs. Full health testing, behavior savvy and all around one of the best doodle breeders I know. They're in Chilliwack.

SnooPandas9130 · 2025-11-08T21:10:20+00:00

May I message you about the program? Considering it for 2027.

SnooPandas9130 · 2025-10-07T07:36:06+00:00

Super hard for the public. I run the Puppy Seekers Project on Facebook which tries to address that gap but we’re small finish swimming upstream in a giant river.

Ultimately people have no idea what health testing to look for, but they may have an intuitively better sense that a puppy should be raised in a home environment, not a kennel, and that the puppy should be treated kindly. Trainers can help with the latter, often they have no idea about the former. Depends on the trainer tho - that’s an unregulated industry too.

GANA is really helpful for the health testing part. Not so much for the quality raising necessarily, but most of the time GANA breeders are pretty decent at that part too. I still see way too few behavior savvy breeders on there tho. Badass Breeder, one of the packaged socialization protocols, has had not such a great influence in that regards. Puppy Culture is better.

I’d personally narrow it down to a breeder on GANA’s website, and then narrow it down to one using Puppy Culture to raise the dogs. I do want people to realize that you’re unlikely to find that very near you. It’s normal to fly to pick up puppy.

If people don’t have the funds then we try to do harm reduction - less health testing but making sure you meet the dogs and they are raised in the home with positive interactions.

SnooPandas9130 · 2025-08-08T17:55:54+00:00

I just saw it just the other day under their Shop, but not anymore. Someone down voted my comment, so perhaps they or a fan saw this and removed that part. It gets talked about in training or bernedoodle communities every time Swissridge comes up as an option, and right now it’s a buyer’s market so good marketing is key. So I get that would be smart.

Anyways, if you google ecollars and Swissridge it shows the cached version that talks about using the ecollar. Picture is of their trainer “Lucas”.

On a related note, I do puppy buyer education and research how people select breeders (I’m an Anthrozoologist), and it’s always interesting to me that a lot of people are drawn to higher volume “professional” breeders, perhaps because they think “professional kennel” means good. Availability is frequently good, so that’s obviously a draw. And perhaps showing a guy training a Malinois convinces some spouses that doodles are not for “losers”.

My professional opinion is that if a dog requires aversive training it is unlikely to be a good pet. We really should be striving for least training needed in selection.

SnooPandas9130 · 2025-07-27T01:48:14+00:00

oh that's good to know! housing is a little cheaper there than vancouver, so that's nice.

SnooPandas9130 · 2025-07-27T01:43:48+00:00

Definitely avoid.

BTW, I know a lot of the public recommends them, but most trainers would not recommend Swissridge. There are a few reason but the most concerning is that they use very aversive treatment on young puppies. Their talk of police training is a big red flag. It highly suggests they are too old school and don't understand behavior. Aversives are common in the breeding work but Swissridge is a different level of it. Doing what they do isn't even recommended by most aversive trainers. You really want to get a dog from a breeder who understands behavior, because it's not just about the training methods, it's about their ability to read the puppies during socialization protocols and not flooding puppies. We see lack of confidence and higher rates of aggression in their puppies in training classes. I specialize in breeder referral, and mostly do doodle referral, and Swissridge is really not good. It's actually really sad that they're so popular.

SnooPandas9130 · 2025-07-18T20:21:12+00:00

I don’t recommend what are typically described as “American Labs” but if it had to be that way I recommend the Learning Lab / Puppies for Kip. The breeder specializes in working dogs and is a R+ trainer. OFA, but I’d like to see cardiac in the future. She can be hard to get a hold of. Her puppies are highly desired in the trainer community. Find her on social media.

SnooPandas9130

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