About Us
Jane Koopman -Owner and Head Trainer, Certified in Training and Counseling (CTC)
Jane graduated with honors from Jean Donaldson’s world renowned Academy for Dog Trainers where she studied animal learning, behavior, psychology and evolution, dog training, behavior modification and client counseling. In 2020 In Partnership Dog Training was started just after she graduated. Jane is AnimalKind accredited by the BCSPCA which means that she meets some of the highest standards there are for humane, fear free, science based training. She is also senior field faculty for NOLS, a global wilderness leadership school, where she leads whitewater, horse packing, kayak and ski expeditions around the world. She enjoys using this coaching and expedition experience with dogs and their humans to teach them effectively and prepare them for adventures big and small. Jane lives in Nelson, British Columbia with her partner Jonny and their dog Vigo. Vigo was a puppy in training with the Pacific Assistance Dog Society who Jane co-raised as a volunteer and when Vigo decided the service dog path was not for him Jane did not hesitate in adopting him forever! In addition to working with dogs and their humans, she is happy exploring the mountains and waterways of the world on skis, foot or horseback and from the cockpit of a kayak.
Jane sought a career with animals since she can remember and, inspired by James Harriot, had early aspirations to be a vet. Though she was unable to have a dog growing up in a city apartment, she paid regular visits to the local animal shelter and had numerous dog friends including Logan the black lab, Mac the golden “receiver” (as she called him before she knew better) and Buster the mutt from outer space. At some point she realized she was more interested in animal behavior than medicine and began the journey to learn more.
While living in Maine Jane had a dog walking and pet sitting business. She has apprenticed with dog trainers in Maine and Wyoming observing and assisting classes and helping them train reactive shelter dogs.
Jane believes there is nothing more special than the human animal team and wants to help you make the most of yours!
Dog training is a unregulated business. That means anyone can call themselves a dog trainer. Do your due diligence. Make sure you hire a dog trainer who is educated in animal behavior and dog training and whose methods you understand and trust. Ask them “If my dog does something right what happens? If my dog does something wrong what happens?”
Our Philosophy and Methods
We believe that dogs and people deserve the most high quality, kind and science based training methods that exist. That is why we pledge to train with humane, evidence based, positive reinforcement based techniques that have been proven on thousands of dogs across the world. These techniques leverage things your dog loves such as food, toys, play, you, access to the outdoors and social stimuli to promote or extinguish behaviors.
We will never use fear, intimidation or tools like shock collars, choke chains or prong collars, that may change behavior but can cause irreparable physical and mental harm. We do not believe in hurting and scaring dogs to train them, especially when there are proven alternatives that work well. Our BCSPCA AnimalKind accreditation is further demonstrates our standard of care and commitment to science based humane training.
Are you looking to transition away from aversive tools? We would love to help you!
American Veterinary Society of Animal Behavior Position Statement on Humane Dog Training
Behavior Modification using Positive Reinforcement
We were delighted to be featured with our clients Toad and Tiffany in this video put together by the BCSPCA’s Animal Kind program. It showcases how positive, humane, science based training methods can be used to modify behavior challenges.
Evidence Based Methods - What does that mean?
There is significant evidence that shows that training without fear and pain helps dogs learn more effectively and efficiently and results in happier more confident, friendly dogs. We will never ever use consequences that are painful or scary with your dog.
We work using the foundational concepts of animal behavior and learning by applying the principles of operant and classical conditioning to behavior modification. All animals with a spinal cord learn in these ways. Operant conditioning is governed by consequences: if you do X behavior → Y happens. If the consequence is one you like, you will keep doing the behavior, if it is one you don’t like you will stop doing the behavior.
For example: Your dog jumps up on you when you come home. He gets attention which he loves, so he keeps doing it. You do not like him jumping so you stop paying attention to him when he jumps. After several days his jumping begins to decrease because it no longer results in a consequence he likes.
Classical (or Pavlovian) conditioning is about associations between events. If event Z happens→ event A follows. If event A is something wonderful and is reliably preceded by event Z, then you come to love event Z because it predicts event A. If event A is scary and is always predicted by event Z then you will come to fear event Z. We use classical conditioning to change dogs’ emotions about things.
For example: Your dog is nervous about his nail clippers, but now every time he sees his nail clippers he gets some chicken. Pretty soon your pup starts to get excited when the nail clippers come out because nail clippers predict chicken!
Carefully manipulating consequences and order of events in a dog’s world is the basis for effective dog training.
With Jane's coaching Hank has become more confident and less scared/reactive, is polite, and has a really strong recall. Jane was able to hear our description of our Hank's behavior, understand what is going on in his dog brain, and immediately identify how to change his behavior or response. She has clear, step-by-step, exercises that are fun for both us and Hank and lead to quick learning. Most importantly, with Jane's guidance we achieved these things without using any form of fear or dominance based tactics and as a result Hank is happy, trusting, and well-behaved.
-Kaitlyn, Will and Hank, Victor Idaho