OWNER SUE (ROSEBUD) SKIFF IS A LIFETIME ANIMAL LOVER
Sue Skiff has been caring for animals since she was a young child; and has been working professionally with both wild and domestic animals for over 26 years. In college, she learned much about animal behavior while earning degrees in Zoology and Biological Ecology at the University of Claifornia at Davis (UCD). During this time, and for a few years after, Sue worked as a research wildlife biologist in national parks, national forests, and at UCD.
Sue first learned about dog training and behavior, and dog psychology in 1994 while taking private lessons in these areas from C. W. Meisterfeld, who has specialized in solving dog behavior problems since the 1950’s. Dr. Meisterfeld taught her that often dog aggression and dog dominance issues can be attributed to the dominant, alpha training methods that became popular in the mid-20th century. He asserted that dog biting behavior in large dog breeds, such as rottweillers, was often related to the use of the alpha-wolf rollover. In all of his years of working with dogs, his successes in correcting dog behavior problems came from building dogs’ trust and respect through positive reinforcement training methods. Sue has used what she learned about dog training from Dr Meisterfeld to successfully help dogs with a variety of behavior poblems. Since learning from Dr. Meisterfeld, Sue has studied other positive reinforcement methods, such as dog clicker training and Constructional Aggression Therapy, by attending workshops, conferences, and seminars. She incorporates all that she has learned about dog training into her dog training methods; continuously working to make dog training as positive an experience for dog and guardian as possible. She endeavors to use play in her training, and to come up with methods that will help dogs quickly. Sue is a member of the Association of Pet Dog Trainers and attends its conferences when they are in California. Sue first taught basic dog obedience training for a local school district adult education program from 1995-1998. In addition, she worked as a dog behavior specialist at a veterinary hospital in Walnut Creek from 2000-2005. For several years, she taught dog obedience classes on her own, renting spaces to hold the classes from city governments and non-profit agencies. She has been doing in-home dog behavior consultation work with dogs and their humans since 1995. In addition, Sue has spent over 10 years doing pet sitting work. She has also done volunteer work caring for wild animals at the UCD Raptor Center, and at Lindsay Wildlife Museum (LWM). She has been a part-time staff member in LWM’s education department since 1995. |
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