Santa Barbara Humane offering animal behavior training classes for dogs

SANTA BARBARA, Calif. - Santa Barbara Humane is hoping to bring more attention to its animal behavior training program.

The focus of the training program is to bring positive reinforcement to your dog.

The program offers a variety of classes every week from basic manners classes to reactive rover classes.

"They can come and learn how to be a good canine citizen ... basically sitting and down and heeling and coming to you when they're called ... puppy classes are definitely great for socialization and getting around puppies," said director of shelter services Sandy Simmons of Santa Barbara Humane.

Trainers are seeing more people adopting dogs this year.

“We are actually … we have seen quite an uptick in the last year or so … especially since the restrictions eased more people are able to come to training … and quite a few of them were adopted during Covid and so they didn’t really get a lot of training because they weren’t out as much," said animal behavior manager Christine Brewer of Santa Barbara Humane.

Trainers hope every dog owner will participate in the positive reinforcement training program.

“This is June bug and she is well trained. She helps out with a lot of the training classes and is an active participant in a lot of the reactive over classes," said shelter supervisor Larry Ortiz of Santa Barbara Humane.

While classes fill up quickly, Santa Barbara Humane said their training sessions are ongoing year-round.

“It’s important because we want them to be an active member of the community … so that they can interact with everybody that they meet. They can just be a well mannered participant," said Ortiz.

The nonprofit organization believes these classes will help to strengthen the bond with your pet.

If you’d like to sign up for positive reinforcement classes for your dog, log onto: https://sbhumane.org/.

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