As one of the trainers in our Community Training Partners (CTP) program, Skye Poitras helps families in the Salt Lake City area correct aggressive behaviors of their dogs, behaviors that might otherwise compel or obligate those families to relinquish their dogs to a shelter.
Sparing dogs from such a fate was what inspired Poitras to be a trainer in the first place, which made her a perfect candidate for CTP. The goal of this nation-wide program is to keep difficult dogs in their homes, which the program does by pairing Best Friends-approved trainers, such as Poitras, with people who need help changing their dog’s dangerous behaviors.
A job more vital
At the time Poitras decided she wanted to be a trainer, she was working as a media buyer for a San Francisco advertising agency. On the weekends she would volunteer at the Berkeley City Animal Shelter. There, she cared for — and grew attached to — a pit bull named India, who was in the shelter for being aggressive to other dogs. One weekend, Poitras arrived at the shelter to find out that India had run out of time and had been euthanized.
“I got to my desk on Monday and had all of these work deadlines, which were hardly life or death situations,” Poitras says. “It just got to the point where these shelter dogs and my dogs were so much more important than my work. … I decided I’d had enough.”
Poitras quit her job, and enrolled in dog training classes.
“My goal was to learn how to work with these [aggressive] dogs and keep what dogs I could out of the shelter,” she says. Poitras believes India was one of those dogs whose behavioral problems could have been corrected by a good trainer, had one been available to work with her before it was too late.
After a year of learning how to be a trainer (which included a stint with renowned, Washington-based trainer Terry Ryan) Poitras opened her own dog training business in Portland, Ore. After Poitras gave birth to her daughter Austin, she decided she wanted to be closer to her family in her hometown of Salt Lake City.
Pit bulls in daycare
Poitras moved back to Salt Lake with the intention of continuing her dog training business there. But she knew that it would take some time to build a clientele. In the meantime, to support herself and her daughter, she opened a children’s daycare out of her home.
Mind you, Poitras has three pit bulls at home — not exactly what some parents would like in their children’s daycare. But Poitras was upfront with her perspective clients, and when they came to meet Poitras, they also met her dogs, and saw how they could have their ears tugged, food taken away, and other things that might incite aggression, and act like it was all in fun.
Poitras currently cares for five children five days a week, and has never had an incident involving the dogs.
While Poitras was getting her training business up and running in Salt Lake, her sister and brother-in-law happened to visit Best Friends. While here, they talked with CTP coordinator Mike Harmon and mentioned Poitras’ skill with aggressive dogs. Poitras had never heard of Best Friends, but when she did hear about us through her sister, she knew she wanted to partner with us.
Harmon contacted Poitras just around the time Poitras was about to contact Best Friends to see if she could be of assistance to us.
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Zero |
So far, Poitras has worked with several dogs through the program, one of whom is a German shepherd named Zero.
Zeroing out aggressive behavior
Zero’s family contacted Best Friends after the German shepherd jumped the fence and chased after a girl on a bicycle, causing the girl to fall. During the incident, a neighbor called the police, and when an officer arrived, Zero allegedly charged him. Consequently, a judge ordered the dog either put down or moved to o an out-of-state shelter, compelling the family to contact CTP coordinator Mike Harmon, who in turn asked Poitras to work with the family. Poitras gladly obliged.
The family also hired a lawyer, who was able to persuade the judge to give Zero more time at his home, at least until the family could present the court with a detailed training program for Zero and show how that program was helping Zero curb his aggression to strangers. Poitras put together a program and has since had six sessions with the family.
In that time Zero has shown a marked improvement around young strangers.
“He’s now to the point where he can meet kids and be happy about it,” Poitras says. “He’ll stand at the school bus stop, lick the kids and wag his tail. … I’d say he’s about 75 percent better than he was before.”
Poitras will present her assessment of Zero to the judge next month, which will hopefully result in his being able to stay where he belongs — with his family in Salt Lake.
“We realized early on in our relationship with Skye that she is the type of trainer we want to build the Community Training Partners program around in Salt Lake,” Harmon says. “We have a great working relationship with Skye and feel extremely comfortable with her as a Best Friends’ representative in her community. We look to our community training partners to be an extension of our team here at the sanctuary and the voice for the program in their communities, and Skye does both extremely well.”
To learn more about Best Friends’ Community Training Partners program, click here.
To learn more about Skye Poitras’ dog training services, click here.
Written by Ted Brewer
Photos courtesy of Skye Poitras
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