Help Us Help Force Free Dog Trainers

Phenix Advocacy Center

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My name is Annie Phenix and I am a professional dog trainer and behavior expert. I am the CEO of the Phenix Advocacy Group which advocates on behalf of force free dog trainers.

In February of this year, I hit a breaking point in my career as a professional, force free dog trainer. It wasn’t because of the plight of the dogs – although they are also suffering in these modern times, too. I had spent 10 straight days receiving phone calls from distraught colleagues because yet another seismic public feud had taken over social media. My fellow canine professionals felt as low as I did.

I became a dog trainer more than 20 years ago to help my favorite creature on earth have a healthier and more joyful life alongside dog’s complicated and all-too-busy human keepers. Because of my experience with modern, science-backed education in how dogs learn, I have been able to assist thousands of dogs and their guardians. But I never received potentially life-saving information on how to avoid burnout in this highly demanding career.

So, I burned out.

I left the industry for five years.

I had a lovely time, but even as I was enjoying my time away, I knew my colleagues were suffering the same exhaustion I felt. I had weekly conversations with excellent positive reinforcement (R+) trainers who had no more spirit in them to help dogs. The industry drained them dry.

Then Covid hit. Dog trainers – many of whom make little profit year to year and view their work as a labor of love – had to pivot quickly to keep helping the dogs we loved so much as the world shut down. Take a worn-out professional and dump a global sickness on top of their already tired lives and you will see exhausted humans leaving the industry for less demanding work. The sense of hopelessness and isolation among canine professionals became more entrenched than ever. The lack of connection with colleagues added a cruel blow to an already desperate field. The census bureau shows us that the average time a professional dog trainer stays in the industry is a bleak two years!

I knew I had to do something.

What I did is ask for 24 other canine professionals to help me create a support network that lifted up our fellow trainers who never resort to using pain, force, fear or intimidation when working with animals.

From Feb. 1st onward, we have been very busy:

• We received hours of specific peer-to-peer training that the volunteer team paid for themselves.

• We created a safe space online for R+ trainers to meet, support one another and to connect. The conversations we host there are moving, intense and reflect the difficulty of our jobs.

• We've studied chronic trauma in humans and we are becoming ever more educated every week on how we can best assist our colleagues.

• We make it a priority in our hectic schedules to be that shoulder to lean on.

• We scheduled monthly discussions with colleagues and professionals from all walks of life to keep educating trainers on self-care. Our goal is to lift up R+ professionals and to help them want to stay in the industry. We need them – your dogs need them.

Now we need to do more to help these professionals so we don’t lose them in our communities. We need to sponsor an R+ trainer to obtain additional intensive training that will allow our group moderators to offer even more support for our colleagues.

We are asking for donations to meet our goal of $5,000 to help us help canine profsesionals. We seek $3,000 for advanced peer-to-peer support training for 10 of our moderators and leaders in our volunteer group. The training is called Emotional CPR (www.emotional-cpr.org) and it costs $300 per person.

A research study published in April 2021 indicates that eCPR may increase feelings of belonging while increasing supportive behaviors toward individuals with mental health problems and improving clinical outcomes related to positive and negative affect and feelings of loneliness.

We’ve met with the lead trainers of this non-profit training center and we feel that eCPR is exactly the kind of training we need to kick our support of our colleagues into an entirely new level.

We seek $1,000 to be able to send colleagues going through a hard time a support gift basket from our organization. A small thing can brighten up someone's day and lend courge to continue on with our important work.

We also seek to raise an additional $300 for our commercial business insurance and $700 to pay for professional accounting services and for business administration purposes.

Canine professionals who love dogs and are able to train them with no need to use harmful tools or ideologies are incredible human beings. They love your dog like you do and most of us have sacrificed making a substantially better income in less stressful industries. We love dogs and the human who love dogs – it really is that simple.

Will you support a force free dog trainer?

We need your support so that we can continue to raise up dog trainers who love your dog just as much as you do. We know you are compassionate and you care about the welfare of the dogs and the well-being of trainers who make them better in your community.

Every donation helps to attain our goal.

Will you donate $5 or more?

Each of our volunteers has donated to assist with this much-needed training.

Your donation will allow us to reach out and provide emotional support for the best dog trainers in the world, and the dogs they help every day.

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The Phenix Advocacy Center advocates on behalf of force free canine professionals. Please visit our website: www.PhenixAdvocacyCenter.com