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The American Veterinary Society of Animal Behavior recommends veterinarians only refer to trainers who follow the scientific guidelines of positive reinforcement, as opposed to trainers who favor dominance theories and confrontational training. Read AVSAB’s position statement (PDF 2.54MB)
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About Us
Dr. Ericka Mendez, DVM, ABCDT
Dr. Ericka Mendez is a veterinarian and certified dog trainer. She is a member of the Association of Pet Dog Trainers, the American Veterinary Society of Animal Behavior, the American Veterinary Medical Association, and the Florida Veterinary Medical Association.
Ericka got her doctorate of veterinary medicine from Cornell University, where she focused on behavior-related medicine and assisted at the Cornell Behavior Clinic. She later attended Animal Behavior College’s dog trainer course and completed their challenging year-long internship.
To stay at the forefront of animal behavior knowledge and dog training techniques, Ericka regularly attends professional association conferences and workshops with leaders in the field. When she isn’t helping people train puppies, dogs, and cats, she works at Flagler Animal Hospital or enjoys leisure time with her own animal family, pit bull/boxer mix Tallula, Chihuahua/Papillion mix Mimi, and Tommy the cat.
  
Training Philosophy
Ericka uses only humane reward-based training techniques grounded in behavioral science. Rather than force, intimidation, or physical punishment, this type of training takes advantage of dogs’ natural motivations to eat, play, get attention and love, etc. Things like toys, food, play sessions, and praise are used to reward behavior we like. Unwanted behavior is ignored or a reward is removed.
This type of training, also called positive reinforcement (R+), is both kind and effective. It produces happy, confident dogs that love to show off their good manners.
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