Dog body language is important. Dog body language illiteracy is partly why his well-meaning fans haven’t driven Cesar Millan off television. It’s why countless dogs’ suffering is ignored or re-branded as power plays or manipulation. It’s why good people laugh at “guilty dog” memes rather than expressing outrage that a terrified animal is passing for entertainment. It’s why people aren’t sure whether their dogs’ play is safe or not. It’s why people miss warning signs and are bitten. And on. And on.
iSpeakDog is the brainchild of Academy student and writer Tracy Krulik. Its aim is to up our body language literacy. This week is iSpeakDog Week and The Academy is thrilled to be partnering with Tracy to help to spread the word about accurately interpreting dog body language.
There’s a ton of content in the site, including this nifty image generator.
Author: Jean Donaldson
Jean is the founder and principle instructor of The Academy for Dog Trainers. The Academy is celebrating its twentieth anniversary in 2019. She is a four-time winner of The Dog Writers' Association of America's Maxwell Award. In 2017, Jean was recruited to create Dog Training 101 for The Great Courses. Born in Montreal, Canada, Jean founded the Montreal Flyball Association, and Renaissance Dog Training, the first positive reinforcement-based school and counseling service in the province. Her own dogs and dogs she has trained have earned numerous titles and wins in a variety of dog sports, including OTCh, TDX, HIT and FDCh. While a student, she worked as an adoption counselor at the Montreal SPCA and later served on its Board of Directors. Before founding The Academy, Jean did exclusively referral aggression cases for six years. She lives in Oakland, California, with her dog, Brian, adopted in 2015.