FEATURE
Resilience Conditioning in Shelter Dogs Building Bounce Back for Life in the Real World
By Devon Hubbard Sorlie , COTD editor
For trainers who devote their time at shelters , they witness these all-too-familiar scenes : A dog crammed in the corner of its kennel ignoring those walking around , or the dog who lunges and barks constantly at the people and dogs walking past the kennel . Neither behavior -- desperate or disengaged – are likely to get these dogs adopted . And both behaviors are ways dogs attempt to deal with the stress of being in the shelter environment . So what can be done for these dogs ? For one trainer , he believes the key is teaching these dogs resilience , which is the ability to recover from stress and resist the negative effects of stress .
Ferdie Yau , MA , CPDT-KA , offered a session , “ Resilience Conditioning in Shelter Dogs : Building Bounce Back for Life in the Real World ,” on that subject at the 2023 APDT / CAPDT conference in Covington , Kentucky . Ferdie got his master ’ s degree in conservation biology at Columbia University . His thesis research had him studying jaguars in Belize . Upon graduation , he worked as an ecologist in New York City , but trained dogs on the side to help pay off his student loans . By 2009 , Ferdie founded Sits & Wiggles Dog Training , LLC and earned his CPDT-KA in 2010 . By 2013 , he was training dogs full-time . Ferdie is now the director of Shelter and Community Outreach with Behavior Vets New York . Ferdie is also the staff trainer at the Humane Society of Westchester , New York , and has conducted workshops for CATCH Canine Trainers Academy .
Dogs weren ’ t Ferdie ’ s first choice of animal to train at the beginning of his career — he planned to become a wildlife biologist . He tracked urban coyotes , restored native riparian forests , built oyster reefs , and installed fish ladders on the Bronx River . But as an intern in the Animal Department at the Central Park Zoo in New York City in 2002 , Ferdie worked with an
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