Today we’d like to introduce you to Zoe Rosen.
Alright, so thank you so much for sharing your story and insight with our readers. To kick things off, can you tell us a bit about how you got started?
I started working with dogs about 8 years ago in the dog daycare setting. There, I really enjoyed watching dogs interact and learned more about different play styles. From there, I went on to work at various animal shelters in Vermont and Colorado. While working in shelters, I learned about enrichment, animal learning and behavior, and developed a love for educating the public on these topics! In the shelter setting, I worked as an adoption counselor and behavior coordinator, where I worked with fearful, anxious, and reactive dogs, in addition to training basic commands. Additionally, I worked with adopters on a smooth transition into the home, dog-dog introductions and overall supporting their new family member!
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
The road has overall been smooth so far!
Great, so let’s talk business. Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
I recently opened my dog training business, The Dog Refinery! My training and behavior modification methods are solely positive-reinforcement based. I have experience working with house training cases, jumping, mouthing, barking, chewing, crate training, and commands. I have also worked with dogs struggling with fear, reactivity, resource guarding, and dog-dog interactions.
I am proud to offer affordable dog training for the Denver metro area, while not compromising on quality. Each one of my clients gets a personalized training plan tailored to the challenges they are facing and their goals. I also offer different training set-ups depending on my clients lifestyle: day training while owners are working/out of the house, or don’t have enough time to train on their own, coaching owners on training their own dogs, or a mix of both!
In terms of your work and the industry, what are some of the changes you are expecting to see over the next five to ten years?
Thankfully, I see the industry slowly shifting towards using more positive-reinforcement based techniques!
Many debunked training methods such as the use of aversives, (prong collars, shock collars, or any other punishment based methods) are still widely circulated. A good example of this is Caesar Milan’s “dominance” based techniques, such as rolling dogs on their backs (“alpha-rolling”), hitting/yelling at dogs, etc.
However, with more research coming out on how animals learn and the detrimental effects of punishment based training methods, I see less pet parents wanting to use aversive methods, and more interested in science-backed training techniques.
This topic remains an uphill battle though, with many people and professionals continuing to advocate and practice punishment-based training practices.
Pricing:
- 1 hour long session is 75$
Contact Info:
- Website: https://dogrefinery.com/
Image Credits
N/a, all mine (:
