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History of Canine Connection LLC
Canine Connection LLC was founded by Cindy Ludwig in 2009 to meet a need in eastern Iowa and the tri-state area for modern, state-of-the-art positive reinforcement training. It was Canine Connection that offered the first genuine clicker training (force-free positive reinforcement training with a marker signal), taught by the area's first certified clicker trainer, and brought the idea of true force-free positive reinforcement training to Dubuque, Iowa and the tri-state area.
Cindy Ludwig, an experienced professional educator, registered nurse and lifelong animal lover was the only Karen Pryor Academy Certified Training Partner in eastern Iowa and the tri-state area, and was one of three in mid-Missouri. Karen Pryor is well known among animal training professionals as one of the major proponents of force-free animal training responsible for popularizing clicker training in the early 1990's. Clicker training is not new. It was first used by the famous American psychologist, B.F. Skinner and his student, Keller Breland, in the middle of the last century. Breland and his wife Marian trained thousands of animals belonging to over 140 species for the military, television and their own IQ Zoo in Hot Springs, Arkansas.
In addition to clicker training, Canine Connection set many other precedents in the tri-state area, such as being the first to offer the AKC S.T.A.R. Puppy Program, the first to offer day training, first to offer the Doggone Safe "Be A Tree" bite prevention program in eastern Iowa and the first to use pressure wraps, i.e., the original Anxiety Wrap in behavior modification. Cindy brought a unique blend of skills to dog training to eastern Iowa and the tri-state area, then to mid-Missouri with her knowledge of dog behavior and training, professional teaching experience and extensive medical background which enables her to serve dog owners with complex as well as simple behavior and training problems.
With her commitment to the force-free methods taught by the Karen Pryor Academy and recommended by the American Veterinary Society of Animal Behavior and the American College of Veterinary Behaviorists, Cindy offers dog owners a unique opportunity to learn the very best ways to solve, as well as prevent behavior problems using effective, evidence-based training.
At Canine Connection, the philosophy of positive reinforcement extends to the company's human clients as well as their animals. We offer a family-friendly learning environment and encourage the participation of children. Learning is enjoyable, individualized and immediately practical! Clients of Canine Connection are consistently awed by how quickly their pets respond to training and behavior modification.
In addition to dog training and behavior modification, Canine Connection offers service and therapy dog training and testing. In 2012 Canine Connection took therapy dog testing and training to a new level by launching a new and unique therapy dog program with strict force-free requirements for both evaluators and therapy dog teams. All dog candidates must be trained using force-free methods (no shock, choke chains, leash corrections, prong collars, dominance, physical molding, verbal corrections, etc.) and evaluators must demonstrate a commitment to force-free positive reinforcement training and handling as well as a high level of expertise in dog behavior and training.
Cindy Ludwig, an experienced professional educator, registered nurse and lifelong animal lover was the only Karen Pryor Academy Certified Training Partner in eastern Iowa and the tri-state area, and was one of three in mid-Missouri. Karen Pryor is well known among animal training professionals as one of the major proponents of force-free animal training responsible for popularizing clicker training in the early 1990's. Clicker training is not new. It was first used by the famous American psychologist, B.F. Skinner and his student, Keller Breland, in the middle of the last century. Breland and his wife Marian trained thousands of animals belonging to over 140 species for the military, television and their own IQ Zoo in Hot Springs, Arkansas.
In addition to clicker training, Canine Connection set many other precedents in the tri-state area, such as being the first to offer the AKC S.T.A.R. Puppy Program, the first to offer day training, first to offer the Doggone Safe "Be A Tree" bite prevention program in eastern Iowa and the first to use pressure wraps, i.e., the original Anxiety Wrap in behavior modification. Cindy brought a unique blend of skills to dog training to eastern Iowa and the tri-state area, then to mid-Missouri with her knowledge of dog behavior and training, professional teaching experience and extensive medical background which enables her to serve dog owners with complex as well as simple behavior and training problems.
With her commitment to the force-free methods taught by the Karen Pryor Academy and recommended by the American Veterinary Society of Animal Behavior and the American College of Veterinary Behaviorists, Cindy offers dog owners a unique opportunity to learn the very best ways to solve, as well as prevent behavior problems using effective, evidence-based training.
At Canine Connection, the philosophy of positive reinforcement extends to the company's human clients as well as their animals. We offer a family-friendly learning environment and encourage the participation of children. Learning is enjoyable, individualized and immediately practical! Clients of Canine Connection are consistently awed by how quickly their pets respond to training and behavior modification.
In addition to dog training and behavior modification, Canine Connection offers service and therapy dog training and testing. In 2012 Canine Connection took therapy dog testing and training to a new level by launching a new and unique therapy dog program with strict force-free requirements for both evaluators and therapy dog teams. All dog candidates must be trained using force-free methods (no shock, choke chains, leash corrections, prong collars, dominance, physical molding, verbal corrections, etc.) and evaluators must demonstrate a commitment to force-free positive reinforcement training and handling as well as a high level of expertise in dog behavior and training.
Listen to interviews...
Service dog fraud (KY3 News, Springfield, Missouri, June 6, 2019)
Service dog fraud (KMIZ17 News, Columbia/Jefferson City, Missouri, May 2, 2019)
Service dog fraud (KOLR10 News, Springfield, Missouri, March 2019)
Interview with Paula Sands, Paula Sands Live, KWQC, Quad Cities (January 2013):
Interview with Tracy Hotchner, author of The Dog Bible and The Cat Bible on DogTalk Radio (June 2012):
Listen here (2nd guest, 20 minutes, or a third of the way into show)
Interview with Dubuque, Iowa Chamber of Commerce (May 2011):
Interview for story on LCTV regarding the recent incident in Hopkinton, Iowa and "aggressive breeds"
(March 2011)
More about Cindy...
Cindy's dogs...
"Ginger was abandoned as a puppy on a cold January day in 2007.
I adopted her from the humane society where I'd been volunteering as a trainer and fostering dogs and kittens. Ginger earned her Canine Good Citizen (CGC) award and became a registered therapy dog at about 1 year of age. She made weekly therapy visits to a local nursing home for nearly 4 1/2 years before we relocated back to Missouri. Ginger was a favorite of staff as well as residents at Stonehill Care Center who looked forward to her weekly visits and she will be greatly missed." |
"Opal was bred to be a service dog but was 'career changed' out of the program due to her gregarious personality and dislike for force-based training. She responded very well to positive reinforcement/clicker training and was certified as a demonstration service dog. She accompanies me not only in talks about service dogs, but due to her agreeable personality, in my work with dogs with fear and aggression issues.Opal has the unique distinction of making history as Iowa's very first Dog Scout!" |
"My knowledge and method of dog training and techniques has evolved over the years from military style compulsion training with a choke chain and leash corrections (which I never liked and never did as forcefully as instructed) to prong (pinch) collars to various types of balanced and positive reinforcement training, including using a clicker as an event marker but not an end marker, and finally (genuine) clicker training.
My knowledge and methods of teaching and training people has also evolved over the past 4 decades since I took my first paying teaching job as a golf instructor and Head of the Golf & Team Sports Department at a private girls camp in Virginia in the early 1970's."
My knowledge and methods of teaching and training people has also evolved over the past 4 decades since I took my first paying teaching job as a golf instructor and Head of the Golf & Team Sports Department at a private girls camp in Virginia in the early 1970's."
Formal education
"In addition to my undergraduate coursework in the biological and social sciences and my graduate work in education and learning, my graduate study at the University of Missouri included work as a research assistant in an animal learning laboratory under the direction of Dr. Douglas Anger, Professor Emeritus in the Department of Psychology. This gave me direct hands on experience in operant conditioning (learning, behavior modification) and schedules of reinforcement -- also in desensitization -- I had to learn to feel comfortable holding and handling rats! I have also completed post-graduate coursework in dog biology and behavior, wolf ethology and pet nutrition." Teaching experience
Certification and licensure
Other:
"Above I am pictured with a harp seal pup on a photographic expedition
to Nova Scotia. Not all the pups were this accepting of our presence. This one happened to be the only one in the week long expedition that allowed us to approach this closely and actually touch it. We worked on a buddy system so that one photographer of each pair was always watching for mother seals, which would aggressively protect their pups." |
Pictured with Sasha,1994
following graduation from the University of Missouri Continuing education
Representative list of recent continuing education:
Interacting with one of the wolves at Wolf Park in Battle Ground, Indiana
Photo courtesy Monty Sloan Professional affiliations
Additional animal experience
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