{"id":1380,"date":"2014-09-03T04:00:00","date_gmt":"2014-09-03T04:00:00","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2021-08-03T17:09:32","modified_gmt":"2021-08-03T17:09:32","slug":"interview-dog-trainer-kate-perry","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ourstories.shinola.com\/our-stories\/interview-dog-trainer-kate-perry\/","title":{"rendered":"Interview With Dog Trainer Kate Perry"},"content":{"rendered":"

Things just got a little better for man’s best friend. Meet Shinola Pet, a new line of high quality, American-made canine accessories, from<\/span> Shinola dog beds<\/span><\/a> to toys to leashes and collars, developed alongside famed photographer (and next-level dog lover) Bruce Weber. To kick off the collection’s launch, we sat down with three women\u2014a breeder, a trainer, and a humane society advocate\u2014who know a thing or two about keeping canines happy. <\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

For Kate Perry, it was a serendipitous encounter with a pack of Tribeca canines that sent her on the way to becoming one of New York\u2019s most in-demand dog trainers. They just happened to belong to famed lensman Bruce Weber, and the experience set off a domino effect that would soon lead Perry off the beaten career path. The intervening decade has been a veritable whirlwind of events for this self-proclaimed \u201ctrainer to all walks of life.\u201d In 2010, <\/em>New York<\/span> magazine dubbed her the city\u2019s Best Dog Trainer, and that same week, Penguin Books came calling. The result was her much-lauded <\/em>Training for Both Ends of the Leash<\/span>, released in 2012. Perry has worked with the pets of everyone from Anna Wintour to Jon Stewart, and today does in-home training consultations in Manhattan. <\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

Below, she speaks candidly about getting her start as a trainer, pooch personality types, and her ultimate dog owner\u2019s mantra.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

What was it that drew you to dog training?<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

I always knew that I was going to work with animals, but it wasn\u2019t specific to dogs\u2013I loved all animals. I was en route to become a vet, so I started a dog walking business back in the day, and somebody said, \u2018Well, there\u2019s a pack of dogs down in Tribeca that nobody wants to walk at 8:00 in the morning,\u2019 and I was basically going to do that as a side job and do my evening courses as a vet. But by meeting Bruce\u2019s dogs, I started learning about the psychology, and that was it. I knew that that was my calling. I always say that vets heal them with the stitches and the Neosporin, and I want to heal them from the psychological aspect. It\u2019s the kind of profession that, the more you do it, the better you get. A two-year course ain\u2019t gonna do it, it\u2019s lifelong. The difference between my style and a lot of other trainers\u2019 is what I call the four character traits: party animal, sensitive artist, methodical thinker, and workaholic. I always say to owners that we have those traits, too. Maybe you have all of those, but you have your primary trait. I always use Bruce as an example, because he has five Retrievers and people tend to stereotype them as a happy-go-lucky dog, and of course they are, but those five dogs have very different personality traits, or what I call \u201ccanine-ality\u201d traits. A lot of times people will call me in and say \u2018My dog\u2019s not very bright,\u2019 and I\u2019ll say, \u2018No, actually, it\u2019s more of a methodical thinker.\u2019 It pauses before it does something. So when I go and work with people, I sort of get a sense of what the personality type is on the dog, and also the owner. Very often my job is going into people\u2019s homes where it\u2019s not always the perfect personality match and making that work. Just like with any relationship, you grow and kind of adjust.<\/span><\/p>\n

As a trainer, what are your views on adopting versus going to a breeder?<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Any trainer under the sun for the most part is going to advocate adopting. Dogs are overpopulated. There are too many in the shelters, and there are too many \u201crecycled\u201d dogs. And there are plenty of good ones in there. The challenge is that you still have to match up the right dog with your lifestyle. Know your lifestyle, know what your capabilities are, know what your budget is before adopting. Just having a big heart and wanting to have a load of dogs is one thing; having the finances to properly care for those dogs is another. Sometimes it\u2019s better just to volunteer at a shelter to do good in that context, rather than just adopting a dog for the sake of adopting a dog. It goes back to what I was talking about before: knowing yourself and really taking time to pick out the right match. The same holds true for going to a breeder. You want a good breeder who\u2019s breeding for temperament, not aesthetics. I always say get a professional trainer, whether you\u2019re getting the dog from a breeder, or whether you\u2019re getting it from a rescue. That should be part of the financial investment in that dog. People are prepared to go to a vet, and to spend loads of money on dog outfits, and fancy food, but people think getting a trainer is an indulgence, but actually it\u2019s an investment in having a happy, healthy relationship between you and your dog.<\/span><\/p>\n

If you were trying to give a mantra to owners on the path to a better-behaved dog, what would it be?<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIf you\u2019re going to correct it, redirect it.\u201d I always use the analogy that if water\u2019s going down a pipe and you plug it, it\u2019s only going to burst the pipe, or if there\u2019s another pipe to go down, it will redirect it. Old school military concepts of training, like the choke collar and the shock collar\u2013it\u2019s just plugging the emotion, it stops it through aversive stimulus. \u201cI don\u2019t like the barking, I\u2019m going to zap you.\u201d To me that\u2019s a little barbaric, because you don\u2019t know what the emotional state of that bark is. If I\u2019m in anxiety and you hurt me, then I\u2019m going to be in more anxiety.<\/span><\/p>\n

Your book is called <\/strong>Training for Both Ends of the Leash<\/em><\/strong>; could you elaborate on what that title means?<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

It\u2019s cooperation training for you and your dog. The method of training derives from dolphin training, but the point of the book is using real-life stories, to show that people have to shift sometimes, and to train them to alter their behavior to then alter the dog\u2019s behavior. I always say training means practice. When you\u2019re training for a marathon, you train for a marathon, you don\u2019t just run 26 miles. Training for both ends of the leash takes practice. As a trainer, we have to get trained to become a trainer, you go through apprenticeships and you learn the craft, the art, the science. At the end of the day, it\u2019s about training owners and pets for connection, so that you can your dog can cooperate.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Things just got a little better for man’s best friend. Meet Shinola Pet, a new line of high quality, American-made canine accessories, from Shinola dog beds to toys to leashes and collars, developed alongside famed photographer (and next-level dog lover) Bruce Weber. To kick off the collection’s launch, we sat down with three women\u2014a breeder, a […]<\/p>\n

Read More…<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":67,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[],"tags":[18,7],"yoast_head":"\nInterview With Dog Trainer Kate Perry - Our Stories<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/ourstories.shinola.com\/our-stories\/interview-dog-trainer-kate-perry\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Interview With Dog Trainer Kate Perry - Our Stories\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Things just got a little better for man’s best friend. 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