Teamwork

 

I have been teaching a class called Teamwork since the fall of 2021. I designed the class to be a bridge between beginner obedience classes and more advanced classes focused on dog sports such as rally, scentwork, and agility.

The curriculum of beginner obedience as it is taught at the club is heavily focused on heeling, which is taught by having dogs and handlers practice heeling over and over and over. Not very exciting.

When handlers moved into one of the sports tracks after beginner obedience, they didn’t have any idea how to train their dogs. They didn’t know anything about learning theory, positive reinforcement, operant conditioning, shaping, how to use a clicker…really, they only thing they had been taught up to that point was to put a pinch collar on their dogs and pop the leash hard when the dog didn’t do what they wanted.

For the most part, the sports dog training world has moved on from such antiquated, punishment-based training. There are holdouts—many field dogs (retrievers, spaniels, and the like) and personal protection dogs are trained with pinch collars, shock collars, and hard leash corrections. A lot of formal obedience trainers still use punishment, unfortunately including most of the instructors of the club’s beginner obedience classes. The rest of the dog training world moved on decades ago.

Although there are rumblings for change amongst younger club members, we aren’t going to change those old school obedience trainers for a while yet. They are dying off though, so time is on our side.

I firmly believe that you can’t build a relationship with your dog through punishment. Rewarding the dog’s good choices and restricting their options to make bad choices by managing the training environment is a lot of work. But I don’t think you can be successful in any dog sport if the primary method of communication with your dog is through punishment and pain.

I designed the Teamwork class to fill that gap. In 8 short weeks, handlers learn how to communicate consistently and clearly with their dogs, and the dogs learn that their handlers are now reliable sources of information and rewards.

I teach Teamwork four times a year. The class always fills. Most of the students are not members of the club, although club members who do agility always take my class when they get a new puppy. These folks generally already know how to train dogs, so I’m flattered that they trust me to help them. The intense focus on training the handlers in Teamwork requires close observation and one-on-one work so I always have an assistant instructor.

The class moves at a fast pace. We push the handlers pretty hard. The dogs come along for the treats and praise so they don’t feel the same pressure. For most of the teams, the switch flips around week 4 (if they are doing their homework) and the growing partnership is obvious in class. The dogs are no longer looking around the room. Their focus is on their handler as they wait for the next fun game to be revealed. The handlers are praising and rewarding their dogs regularly, sometimes for just sitting quietly by their side. It’s really fun to see the relationship develop.

But some dogs come into Teamwork with significant deficits: anxiety, no relationship with the owners, no tolerance for commotion, fear of other people and dogs. Those dogs can’t even approach a cone, much less walk around it. They won’t take treats from me (and I always have better treats than their owners). They may be stuck to the ground, unable to even move.

These dogs deserve the same opportunities to learn how to work with their owners as their more resilient classmates. As long as they keep coming to class, I’m happy to meet them where they are. I put them in a quieter corner. I ask the owner to bring better food rewards. Dog is scared of the tippy board? The handler can still learn to shape if the dog works on a platform. Dog is scared of the platform? Don’t be afraid to lure the dog with a treat. Reward the dog for taking even a tiny step forward. Heck, reward the dog for simply looking at the platform.

Don’t let the perfect be the enemy of the good. Don’t force the dog. Find the place where the dog will work and start there.

And these handlers and dogs also find success by the end of the class. Seeing the faces of the handlers light up when their dog finally puts both front paws on the perch bowl or goes around the cone without a lure is worth the extra effort it took to get them there. Being kind is rarely the wrong choice. 

 

They Can't Make A Living: Sources

 

Here's a short article about AVMA's economic analysis. You can get access to the full report if you are an AVMA member, or pay money for it if you aren't a member. 

This is the link to the USDA Economic Research Service report entitled "Food Animal Veterinarians and the Persistence of Rural Shortage Areas."

Finally, here is the link to an AAVMC report on veterinary school demographics. This link takes you to a PDF of the report.

They Can't Make A Living

 Here is a link to a short news item from a South Dakota media group about a retiring veterinarian who can’t find another veterinarian to purchase his practice. Take a minute to read it. I’ll wait.

https://www.keloland.com/keloland-com-original/parker-veterinarian-to-retire-seeks-successor/

This tale of woe is being told over and over across the U.S. Maybe you haven’t heard this exact tale, but you probably have heard that there is a “shortage” of veterinarians. This is only partially true. There is a dramatic shortage of large animal (livestock and food animal) veterinarians.

According to AVMA, for data collected in 2024, about 73% of new DVM graduates accepted positions in companion animal practices. Around 3% of new graduates accepted jobs working with food animals. New DVMs working in private practice for livestock reported starting salaries that were around $30,000 less per year than new DVMs in private practice for companion animals. Now add in the fact that the average DVM graduated in 2024 with more than $200,000 of debt.

According to AAVMC, around 3,300 DVMs graduated from vet school in the U.S. in 2025. Around 100 of them took private practice jobs working with food animals. One hundred people. Dr. Parker has a lot of competition.

Let’s take another look at Dr. Parker’s situation. He says that his practice has been listed for sale for over a year. He says that he has hosted vet students trying to find one to take over his practice but hasn’t been successful.

Maybe the overall state of the economy is making it harder for new DVMs to finance the purchase of a clinic. Anecdotally, I’ve noticed a lot of small businesses in my area that survived COVID have been closing down in the past month or so.

Maybe his 48-year-old practice doesn’t have modern equipment. New DVMs know that the gold standard medicine that is taught in many large veterinary teaching hospitals is not always easy to reproduce in the real world, but they expect basics like in-house radiography and ultrasound, not to mention a full suite of bench diagnostics to evaluate things like fecal parasites, serology, and blood chemistry and a decently stocked in-house pharmacy.

Maybe he doesn’t have enough support staff. The article doesn’t even include the word “technician.” New DVMs know that providing good veterinary medicine requires a team of trained professionals. In high-volume companion animal practices, you might see two technicians per DVM, plus other technicians assigned to cleaning, stocking, kennel management, and so forth. Plus you will have a front office staff who handles appointments and payments.

Maybe his service radius of 20 miles is too small. Maybe there aren’t enough clients. More likely, there aren’t enough clients who can afford to pay realistic fees required by a modern veterinary practice.

Maybe his willingness to be “on call 24/7 since I’ve been open” is in direct conflict with the demand of new DVMs to have a healthier work-life balance. This is a big generational shift with no easy fix.

By far, the biggest factor preventing Dr. Parker from selling his practice is money. It always comes down to money. His mixed animal practice can’t generate enough revenue for a new graduate to pay student loans, pay support staff, purchase equipment and supplies, and support a family. Few rural practices, even if they include some companion animal clients like Dr. Parker's clinic, can.

These nuances are rarely discussed. They are barely acknowledged by veterinary schools themselves. Better to claim, there’s a shortage of veterinarians so let’s pump out more! Let’s increase class size (diluting the critical hands-on aspect of learning how to practice medicine)! Let’s increase tuition (increasing the already crushing levels of debt that most DVMs have at the end of four years)!

Those aren’t solutions because they don’t address the real problems.