ANNOUNCING THE LAUNCH OF: THE PROTECTED PET INITIATIVE
Animal Behavior Expert Parvene Farhoody Leads
The Fight For Humane Training Methods

New York, NY September 2006 - In a growing number of cases each year, well-meaning pet owners and trainers, using domineering and forceful methods to train pets, cause unnecessary pain, stress, injury, and sometimes even death to the animals they love. Dog trainers today are not required to be certified, let alone adhere to safe training methods. This month, Parvene Farhoody, founder of Behavior Matters, Inc., and Vice President of the Certification Council for Professional Dog Trainers (CCPDT), is launching the Protected Pet Initiative: a public awareness campaign to safeguard animals against the dangers of popular, yet antiquated, methods of punishment training, and a call-to-action for the animal training community to standardize training practices in order to protect the health and well-being of animals.

Farhoody is a proponent of contemporary science-based methods of Positive Reinforcement and asserts that a lack of education and awareness of the most effective, safe, and humane ways to train animals is to blame for animal misbehavior, not the pet owners. Positive Reinforcement and the science of Behavior Analysis, used by animal behaviorists with many different species for more than 50 years, employs techniques that result in a safe, effective learning environment - while punishment training ingrains fear and promotes aggression from both animal and owner.

Even though The American Humane Association's Guide to Humane Dog Training outlines what training techniques are considered humane and inhumane, one only needs to turn on the television to see examples of training practices that the AHA adamantly condemns. Among these inhumane practices are: depriving an animal of air (choking with a tight collar or leash), using devices or hands to pinch or squeeze parts of a dog's body, prolonging or forcing compelled behavior (tying dogs onto treadmills or having them run for extended periods along with bikes or rollerblades), “hanging” (lifting a dog off the ground by a collar or leash), and hitting or kicking of any kind. This type of activity according to the AHA is “unnecessary and painful, making their use simply an act of cruelty ….don't ever use these on your dog.”

Ms. Farhoody says: “People want to train their pets and love their pets at the same time and I'm here to tell them that they can. As a matter a fact, modern training technology has shown us that it is the best way to create a well-behaved pet that has a great relationship with its owner. Sadly, however, people are under the false impression that pets will only learn through the use of force, and that is simply not true. Owners are unknowingly putting their pets at risk of mental and physical injury, trauma, and death for no reason whatsoever.”

Positive Reinforcement is a method of teaching that harnesses the power of one of Mother Nature's most basic laws of learning: animals will repeat behaviors that bring rewarding consequences. Ms. Farhoody uses this modern teaching technology of providing rewarding consequences for desired behavior to create a two-way conversation with an animal, where the animal is as important a participant as the teacher. The goal is to empower the learner, not to overpower him. In positive reinforcement, the trainer seeks to understand the student, and keeps in mind that each animal is a unique individual who gets to decide which rewards are reinforcing. With these techniques, it is possible for a dog, cat, horse or any animal to safely learn a new behavior quickly and easily, with both human and animal enjoying the process.

Pet owners do not have to be behavioral scientists to understand and communicate with their pets. Anyone can learn how to use Positive Reinforcement. Training is an opportunity to build an understanding of how we all learn; Positive Reinforcement becomes a learning process for both pet and owner. Owners who take the time to teach their pets what behaviors are good and will be rewarded help their pets stay relaxed and behave appropriately.

The Protected Pet Initiative is a call to action for pet owners across the country, as well as training schools, animal associations, and professional trainers, to abide by a humane standard of teaching, rejecting cruel, antiquated, and dangerous training methods. Ms. Farhoody and her colleagues in the training, veterinary, and animal behavior fields call for radical progress in the pet training field and for standardization across the industry.

Parvene Farhoody provides private consultation with pet owners every day, instructing them in how to be attentive, engaged, and effective with their pets, for a whole new relationship with the animals they love most. She owns and operates Behavior Matters, Inc., an Animal Behavior Consulting and Training service in New York City. She is a Certified Pet Dog Trainer (CPDT), Vice President of the Certification Council for Professional Dog Trainers (CCPDT), as well as a Certified Animal Behavior Consultant (CABC) and a Certified Dog Behavior Consultant (CDBC) through the International Association of Animal Behavior Consultants. Ms. Farhoody holds a Diploma of Canine Behavior from Cynology College. She is Assess-A-Pet and Train-to-Adopt Certified by the Community Animal Shelter Association for both evaluating rescue dogs for placement and teaching staff and volunteers at rescue facilities about quality-of-life issues for rescue dogs. In addition to consulting with shelters, volunteer groups, professional trainers, and the public, Parvene has been featured on local and national television-The Learning Channel and NickelodeonJr. For more information on The Protected Pet Initiative, Parvene Farhoody or Behavior Matters, Inc. please visit www.behaviormatters.com or call 718.424.7556.

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