As you probably have noticed, there is a new and exciting type of dog training being offered now by ZENFULdog Training to give an even more eclectic, fun and well-rounded education to you and your dogs—Trick Dog Training!
What is Trick Dog Traning?
Trick Dog training teaches new commands and behaviours to your dogs that build confidence to help them when they explore new areas, get overly excited or find themselves in uncertain situations. For example, if they ever need to run through a tunnel, they will confidently know how to do so thanks to Trick Dog Training! Tricks can be practical too like teaching dogs to perform functional day-to-day tasks! Tricks are physically and mentally stimulating and encouraged by rewards.
Meet Your Trainer—Kether
Kether Fontaine-MacKinnon is certified to give you the best training experience. Kether completed the certification and education to teach you and your dogs new tricks. As Kendra’s son, he also has years of experience assisting, watching and helping train your dogs!
There could be nobody better for the job. Kether is knowledgeable, patient and loving and the dogs have responded to him beautifully because of those qualities. The dog-whispering talent definitely does not fall far from the tree—Kendra and Kether are an unstoppable dog-training duo.
Kether is taking on this new challenge with the thoughtfulness and dedication you have always loved and known from ZENFULdog Traning. So, with no further delay, let’s meet your new Trick Dog Trainer—Kether!
Why he became a Trick Dog Trainer: Kether has often served as an assistant teacher at ZENFULdog Training—whether it be as an assistant yoga teacher, a temporary TaeKwonDo instructor, assisting Kendra with Dog Training groups, etc., he has always found it incredibly fun and enriching to teach: “I’ve had more terrible teachers throughout my life than I can count. But the few good ones showed me that it’s easy and important to be a good teacher, all you have to do is learn. That’s why I want to be a trick trainer: I want to teach and learn. One day, maybe, I will make a career of it.”
How he earned his certification and two titles in Trick Dog Training: Kether followed the Certified Trick Dog Instructor (CTDI) course by Kyra Sundance on Do More With Your Dog to become a Certified Trick Dog Instructor. He also joined a team through the program to complete his Novice Trick Dog (NTD) and Intermediate Trick Dog (ITD) titles with Ren.
His experience achieving his NTD and ITD titles with Ren: While attaining his NTD and ITD titles with Ren, Kether trained her to do tricks for his CTDI certificate: “Despite having the stubbornness of a northern dog, with a little patience on my part, she’ll learn anything. Like any dog or person I’ve taught, she is sweet and smart. It’s all a matter of figuring out what approach works best.”
His favourite trick: It was hard for Kether to pick a single favorite trick but he does love teaching dogs how to run through a tunnel. He says it is a simple trick to perform and to teach: “All it takes is trust. Most dogs will be weary of the tunnel and slowly warm up to it. You patiently reward every little effort and let them back out if they choose to. The most harmful thing you can do is throw your dog into the tunnel. We, as humans, are thrown through tunnels our whole lives and the most crucial part of teaching or training is to break this practice.”
The most difficult trick to teach: Kether is not sure what the hardest trick is, or if there is one, but the hardest one he thinks he will ever teach is ‘Soda!’—where your dog runs to the fridge, grabs a soda, closes the door and brings it to you: “I guess a more honest cue would be ‘Beer!’ Either way, it requires a combination of several advanced behaviours.”
What has surprised him about dog training: Kether is always surprised by the sheer speed at which his clients and their dogs learn: “It sometimes feels like I’m in a race to come up with more challenges before they’ve already finished their current ones.”
His biggest challenge as a trainer so far: Kether thinks that his biggest challenge has been self-doubt, as with most things: “The cure seems to be to focus on my own little efforts and forgive myself for mistakes. I wouldn’t want to throw myself through this tunnel!”
His most rewarding dog training moment so far: Kether’s most rewarding moment was when he first taught a class how to perform a trick and was able to help each individual until they succeeded.
His goals as a Trick Dog Trainer: Kether wants to help people bond with each other and their dogs: “Tricks can have a functional role like when our dogs fetch paper (or beer). Most importantly, tricks are fundamentally fun things to learn and practice.”
The best thing about working with dogs: “My favourite thing about working with dogs is how much fun they are to be around and work with. Everyone loves dogs.”
Kendra describes Kether’s first successful evaluation: “Kether hosted his first evaluations on June 25th as part of his Novice Trick Dog program. It was awesome for me to see my son grow into a trainer in his own right, he is so observant of the behaviour of the dogs and the overall vibe of the class which makes him uniquely insightful to the needs of each team and how to support them. He deeply understands the dogs, how best they learn, and how to encourage the pet-parents.
It was amazing to sit back and assist and watch him rock it! The teams rocked it too, they were being evaluated on Novice tricks. Once they had established the 15 behaviours required to pass, Kether kept throwing more behaviours at them because he knew they could do them thanks to the program they completed in Tricks and their foundation training from Skills class, Canisport activities and Parkour.
Knowing your teams means setting them up for success and he did! He is very proud of the groups for completing 30 behaviours successfully and earning the Novice Trick Dog Masters title (NTD—M)! He loved the groups for their positivity, camaraderie and consistency in teaching their dogs so that they had fun learning.”
A very special “Thank You!” to Kether for providing insightful self-reflection and fantastic content for this feature. Welcome to your new role in the Zenfuldog Training family! We are lucky and proud to have you as our Trick Dog Trainer!
Don’t forget you can follow ZENFULdog Training on Facebook to stay connected to your like-minded dog-loving community every day!
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