ABOUT ME AND MY PHILOSOPHY
Hi! Thanks for visiting my website. My name is Cathy Painter, and I am a Licensed Veterinary Technician (LVT), a Certified Behavior Consultant Canine—Knowledge Assessed (CBCC-KA), a Fear Free Certified Trainer and an Elite Fear Free Certified Technician. I am proud to have previously chaired the education committee for the Association of Professional Dog Trainers.
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The main tools I use to achieve behavior change are good management followed by positive reinforcement. This means I will help you set your pet up for success and then I will reward the behaviors we want A LOT.
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I strongly believe continuing education is the key to successful animal training and behavior modification.
I strongly believe pain and fear are unnecessary and detrimental to teaching animals.
I strongly believe the purposeful use of pain or fear by a dog trainer is abuse.
If your pet is fearful and you use "corrections" to change their behavior, you are setting the stage for failure. If your dog is fear aggressive and you use what he or she views as harsh methods to correct their behavior, you are creating a situation where a person may be hurt. Consider who suffers most when this happens.
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Animals are usually willing to cooperate with our wishes if we communicate with them in a way they understand!
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MY BACKGROUND
My career began in 1990 as a zookeeper at a little zoo in Indiana. In 1996, I completed my education at Purdue University and accepted a position as a veterinary technician at the Dallas Zoo. After a promotion to hospital manager in 2010, I immediately missed my direct interactions with animals. By 2015, I was ready to change course.
Becoming the director of The Training Studio in Carrollton, Texas where my focus was dogs showing fearful, reactive, and aggressive behaviors, was both demanding and fulfilling. Now, I am ready for a new challenge; starting my own business.
My goal is helping you and your pets—whether they have fur, hooves, scales or feathers—build a better relationship and achieve the results you want through positive reinforcement.
CONTINUING EDUCATION
2025
Southwest Veterinary Symposium 2025
9-5-25: Living with Claws: Confidently provide guidance to Feline Caregivers.
9-5-25: Mare behavior/performance problems.
9-5-25: Recognizing discomfort in equine patients.
9-6-25: Supporting the Anxious Feline.
9-6-25: Veterinary Spinal Manipulative Therapy.
9-6-25: Is There Life Beyond Clinical Practice? Career Options for Credentialed Veterinary Technicians.
9-7-25: Is Nutrition Our Profession’s Unicorn or Dragon? The State of Veterinary Nutrition and n Update on the Latest Nutrition Trends/Events.
9-7-25: When Things Don’t Go Gently; Feline Constipation and Megacolon.
9-7-25: Cats are not small dogs: they are wonderfully weird.
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IFAAB 2025 4-4-25
Reinforcer efficacy.
Grace Phillips and Dr. Gunter Measure of dog activity pre and post adoption
Cats in the bag–cat strollers.
Sound related to pain in horses.
Fear in rescued dogs
Choice and Control in Animal Welfare.
Music in shelters.
Beyond “doing better” Ordinal rating scales to monitor well-being.
Incompatibilities between people and pet dogs; Saving Normal.
Canine Aggression and Client depression
Understand dog adopter behavior following adoption
Get Them Home and Keep Them Home: data-driven solutions for post-adoption support
If not licensing, what and why.
Companion Animal Study Programs: Past, Present, and Future.
An ongoing dog bite legal case.
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2024
Southwest Veterinary Symposium
9-28-24: Dealing with The hot mess of stress
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9-28-24: Feline Pain is Purr-tinent, Too: Intervention For Feline Pain
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9-28-24: Me-Ouch! Feline Pain Assessment
9-27-24: House Soiling in Cats
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9-27-24: Geriatric Behavioral Support
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9-27-24: Behavioral Euthanasia
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9-27-24: Bang, Pop, Boom! Noise and Other Fears and Phobias in Dogs
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9-27-24: Better Living Through Chemistry
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9-27-24 Understanding Canine Aggression part 2
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9-27-24 Understanding Canine Aggression part 1
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9-26-24: Body Language of the Dog and Cat
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9-26-24: Psychotropics for Technicians
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9-26-24: Natural Behaviors and Enrichment: Preferences in Zebrafish
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9-26-24: Interdog aggression
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APDT Virtual conference
9-19-24: Human dog interactions and non-verbal faux pas
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​9-18-24: Revisiting Reactivity
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9-18-24: Aggression Treatment Procedures
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2023​
10/18/23-10/20/23: Association of Professional Dog Trainers Conference
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9/21/23-9/24/23: Southwestern Veterinary Symposium
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2022
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5/1/22: Chicken Camp
Training chickens using positive reinforcement.
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3/22/22: Noise Aversion
Nutraceuticals and Behavioral Medicine
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