ABOUT ME
Jackie Schott Bear
LEARNING FROM DOGS
Animals have always played an important role in my life, and I love and feel connected to them all, yet wolves and dogs hold a special fascination for me. As soon as I was able to read, I devoured any book I could find on canines. Every dog owner I encountered was thoroughly questioned in my quest to learn everything about dogs. I spent as much time as possible with dogs of relatives, friends and neighbors.
After years of pleading, I finally got to adopt my first dog when I was 11. She was an approximately 5-month-old pit bull mix whom I named Heidi. Heidi was a very sociable doggy and adored all living beings, including thieves, easy to train and therefore the perfect dog for a first-time dog owner. She was a wonderful teacher and over 17 years my loyal and faithful companion, best friend and guru.
In the years after Heidi’s passing, due to my work I wasn’t able to get another dog. So, I looked after the dogs of friends and neighbors and was often on the go with groups of dogs of various breeds and temperaments. I traveled all over the world, and no matter where I went, everywhere I came into contact with dogs and learned how foreign cultures treat or, sadly, mistreat them. On a few occasions I was able to observe street dogs in their “natural” environment and witness their interactions.
With all things and in all things, we are relatives.
-Sioux-
Finally, in 2004, I adopted Cash, a four-and-a-half-year-old American Pit Bull Terrier, an intelligent, gorgeous male with a strong character. Cash was the first dog I felt I needed support with. I contacted a highly recommended dog trainer who, unfortunately, used aversive training techniques. In the end, she managed to cause a phobia of loud noises (and of her) in him. Along with his other issues, he had a new one to cope with.
Since all the other dog trainers we went to afterwards focused exclusively on dog training – often with outrageous methods – this gave me the impulse to become a knowledgeable, certified dog trainer and behavior specialist myself.
The education and training I have completed is based on modern, force-free and dog-friendly methods and coincides with my indigenous approach and the LIMA principle. My passion for dogs and thirst for knowledge drive me to keep my education up to date and to learn from the best.
Cash benefited from this and became a well-balanced role model dog – despite his strong character, which he maintained throughout his life. People who knew him from the beginning could hardly believe he was the same dog and that such a change for the better was possible.
There had never been anything wrong with Cash, but I first had to learn a lot about dog behavior to understand his behavior and meet his needs. He and his successors Mato, Riki, Adonis and a number of foster dogs have been and continue to be the best teachers.
Currently I live in the beautiful Bernese Oberland with my partner, our purebred Staffordshire Bull Terrier, Adonis, who we adopted from a Swiss shelter, and our 9-year-old foster dog Laiko, a senior Amstaff who was abandoned by his previous guardian in grave condition. Both males have health issues, which of course affects their behavior. Nevertheless, the coexistence is harmonious, which can’t be taken for granted.
