Pet Training and Behavior Consulting: A Model for Raising the Bar to Protect Professionals, Pets and Their People. Presented by Niki Tudge

CEUs: PPAB 1, CCPDT 1, IAABC 1, KPA 1

An Industry In Need!

In 2019, accredited pet professional training and behavior consultants Niki Tudge, Susan Nilson, Debra Millikan and Louise Stapleton-Frappell authored a book titled Pet Training and Behavior Consulting: A Model for Raising the Bar to Protect Professionals, Pets and Their People.

This body of work was the culmination of two years of research conducted on the Pet Services Industry (including pet training, behavior consulting, care, and management) and its need for oversight and regulation, compounded by the sense that we need to be “careful what we wish for,” so to speak.

In other words, any industry regulation needs to be more than simply the implementation of a licensing model.

In the book, the authors present their collective views on what is needed to facilitate the professionalization of the pet services industry to provide oversight that protects the pet, their owner, guardian, or caretaker, as well as all the people who practice within it.

In this presentation, Pet Professional Guild president Niki Tudge will summarize the book’s key messages and speak to the need for a greater understanding of what occupational licensing is, as well as how this needs to be underpinned by several additional interconnected concepts. These include Competency, Consumer Transparency and Protection, the Reclassification of Pets from objects to living beings – and much more.

It is the authors’ opinion that without these important issues being taken into consideration, the pet services industry will be left with a regulation model that does little more than place further financial burden on pet professionals – while providing little oversight or protection for pets or their owners.

This is an issue that everyone operating in the pet services industry today needs to be aware of and have their voice heard. So please do join us for this vitally important presentation which will be followed by a live question and answer session, giving you the unique opportunity to contribute to the discussion.

About Your Presenter

Niki Tudge MBA PCBC-A CABC CDBC

Niki Tudge MBA PCBC-A CABC CDBC is the founder and president of  the Pet Professional Guild, DogNostics Education and The DogSmith. She has substantial leadership experience in business management and administration, particularly in the nonprofit sector, which encompasses her role as the president of Doggone Safe, a nonprofit educational organization. She has published numerous articles, which have been featured in publications such as the New York Times. She has also authored five books; her most recent project, Pet Training and Behavior Consulting: A Model for Raising the bar to Protect Professionals, Pets and Their People, which she co-authored, was published in 2019.

Before following her passion into small business and nonprofit management, she enjoyed a distinguished career in the hospitality industry, holding executive positions all over the world. Her real passion in her corporate role was the identification and development of female talent in the workplace. She enjoyed managing and coaching her team through both their personal and professional development and loved watching the process of female empowerment and growth at a high level of management.

Along with her business degrees from Oxford Brookes University in the U.K., her professional credentials include ISSA Certified Fitness Trainer and she is Six Sigma Black Belt Certified, specializing in data analysis and process improvement. She is also an International Training Board (HCITB) certified people trainer at levels TS1, TS2 & TS3 and a certified facilitator and project manager. In addition, she was recognized for her outstanding contribution to the business community and honored with a Fortune 500 Company Leadership Award for her accomplishments. 

This was previously aired at Geek Week 2021.