Recently, I attended the annual conference for the Association of Pet Dog Trainers. Our lead writer on training, Pat Miller, has been an active member of the Association for some time, and the founder of the organization, Dr. Ian Dunbar, has been a generous contributor to WDJ. Both Pat and Ian have encouraged me to attend the conference; they said it would be right up WDJ’s alley.
Of course, they were right. The APDT promotes the use of positive reinforcement in dog training, and encourages its members to minimize the use of aversive training techniques, and its educational seminars featured some of the best-known dog trainers and animal behaviorists in the world. The lectures and demonstrations were fascinating.
I was particularly interested in the discussions among the trainers as they shared the gentlest and most effective ways to teach dogs and people how to get along safely and enjoyably. One person would bring up a particular training challenge – for instance, how to train a family dog to be safe around a new baby, if the mother is blind – and 10 people would offer suggestions that would help the family cope. It was a great reminder that with dogs (and people!) there are usually dozens of ways to solve any problem.
I have to apologize to our readers about an ongoing typographical error that has appeared just to the right of Rupert’s and my photo on this page. I have accidently reported several erroneous versions of the email address that a person can use to either subscribe to WDJ, or to change their mailing address. Today, I definitely determined the correct address. It is:
Why is there a “d” at the end of palm coast? I just found out: It stands for Palm Coast Data, the name of the company that provides our subscription services. Why is “Journal” shortened to just a small letter “j” and a small letter “l” – the latter which looks like the number “one” in every font in the world? I don’t know. But I can tell you how many ways I have messed this up in the past three months (three), and tell you again how sorry I am for any inconvenience this may have caused.
While I’m at it, I may as well explain all of our contact numbers and addresses. As I said above, to buy or renew a subscription, problems with subscriptions (billing errors, magazines not received, etc.), or to let us know about a change in your mailing address, you should contact Subscription Services at (800) 829-9165 or wholedogjl@palmcoastd.com.
To purchase back issues, you should contact our Customer Service department at (800) 424-7887 or customer_service@belvoir.com.
For editorial questions, you can contact me at (510) 749-1080 or wholedogj@aol.com. I can’t help you with either your subscription or back issues (nor, I should add, can I help you with health or training problems with your dog – I’m not a vet or a trainer!), but I can refer you to people who can do all these things.
However, if you do have a problem with your dog, you should know that my first advice is always the same! For health problems, contact the American Holistic Veterinary Medical Association (AHVMA) for a referral to a holistic veterinarian near you. The contact numbers for AHVMA have been listed on page 24 of every issue of WDJ since its inception.
And for training issues, consider contacting APDT for a referral to a non-force-based trainer near you. I’ll list APDT’s contact numbers in ‘Resources’ in every issue of WDJ from now on.
-Nancy Kerns
Your website lacks a very simple place to go to renew subscription – how do I do that?
Click on “customer service” on the top right of the page.