About The Institute of Canine Sciences
Our Mission
Our mission is to improve the lives of dogs through the education of Professionals and Performance Dog Handlers in science based, proven techniques that result in reliable and powerful training, working and care programs for dogs.
Our Founder
Penny Buckner is a Registered Nurse and Canine Behaviourist with over 25 years of experience training dogs from house pets to working k9s, and certifying professionals in the canine care industry. Penny specializes in the assessment and rehabilitation of dogs with severe behavioural problems and aggression.
Penny is the Training Director for the Synergy Working Dog Club. Penny was the founder of K9 Solutions, and a founding partner of K9 Montessori and RoseWood Pet Resorts, offering dog boarding, training and grooming.
Every head of the 80-20 Rule? 80% of the dog owners, handlers and people working in the dog industry participate at an average level. The Institute of Canine Sciences was created for the 20%, those of use who are obsessed with learning more and doing our best for the dogs we care for, work with and love!
ICS provides the highest quality theoretical and practical training programs available. Providing Performance Dog Handlers (advanced trainer and working dogs) and Professionals with the most comprehensive level of knowledge available. This is not the local pet stores dog training program, and is not for house pet owners!
ICS is dedicated to elevating canine care from simply being a job, to becoming a profession. ICS has created the professional standard in the canine care industry to ensure that all professionals have access to a scientific and standardized education, assuring owners get the best advice available!
“When I began working with dogs over 25 years ago, I was assessing dogs with behavioural problems that had never received training. Today, the majority of the dogs I treat for behavioural problems have been to training, with many having been to multiple levels of training. Responsible owners are paying for training that inadvertently allows dog behavioural problems to arise due to a lack of professional standards. I founded ICS to educate professionals, ensuring that all owners have access to great care and advice that will help, not hurt, their dog! ”
— Penny Buckner, RN, Canine Behaviourist
The Science
The practical application of scientific theory is what we do!
Learning Theory is the branch of psychology that scientifically explains how animals learn. Our programs teach how applying Learning Theory and normal canine behaviour in dog training programs produce immediate and long lasting results. Examples of training topics include:
Learning Theory Topics
Operant Conditioning
Classical Conditioning
Reinforcement Schedules
Desensitization and Flooding
Habituation
Extinction Bursts
Canine Behaviour Topics
The role of evolution and selective breeding on behaviour
Appeasement Gestures
Displacement & Avoidance Behaviours
Social Cues
Social Structure
3 Phases of Canine Learning
Understanding canine aggression
Our programs are focused on providing the theory of how animals learn and the practical application of this information in working with and caring for the domestic dog.
The Business
(coming soon)
Unfortunately, building the best mouse trap does not ensure the success of a business. There are many critical areas needed to build and maintain a successful business. Most dog businesses are small businesses that benefit from education and support created exclusively for them.
The growth of any small business is directly driven by the customer experience and the quality of the services you offer. ICS offers programs to help canine care professionals start or grow their businesses, with topics such as:
Customer Care - The Goal
Creating a customer-centric business
Creating the ultimate customer experience
Use of Change Management Principles to create a vision and owner “by-in” to improve results
Use of the Conscious Competence Matrix in training owners
Sales Cures All - how to boost sales & improve profits
Understanding insurance for canine businesses
Offering services that meet the clients needs and boost profit
Class Design that Keeps Customers Coming Back
Creating lessons plans that meet the customers needs
Delivering engaging and fun group lessons
Creating service options that increase sales to long-term customers to maintain repeat business
Marketing to Grow Business
Creating your own website for less
Marketing ideas that work for dog businesses
Harnessing the power of social media
Networking 101
Care of Dogs in Group Environments
Group health maintenance
infection control
Understanding canine group dynamics for safety
Medication administration
Business Courses - Growing Revenue & Profit
Creating the ultimate customer experience
Sales cures all - how to boost sales & improve profits
Understanding insurance for canine businesses
Offering services that meet the clients needs and boost profit
Building your own website from scratch
Marketing tools that work today
Why start from scratch, reinventing the wheel? Our business support includes staff training and certification, providing template class outlines, forms and contracts, and software recommendations. We help with your business needs so you can focus on what really matters, caring for your customers!
Our Philosophy
Dogs are not people,
which is what we love about them!
We love dogs because dogs provide us with unconditional love, companionship, and reliable partnerships that often go beyond the relationships we even have with people. Unfortunately, the very thing we love most about dogs, that they are dogs and not people, is the very thing that can cause behavioural problems with them. To successfully create the relationships we want with our dogs we must understand their behaviour and their needs in order to socialize and train them to be loving, valued and safe members or our families and reliable working partners.
The Disneyfication of dogs and shift from pet ownership to pet parenting has been extremely detrimental to dogs, and how our relationship with them.
The Institute of Canine Sciences’ training programs are based on innate canine behaviour and Learning Theory, which is the scientific understanding of how animals learn.
ICS values the relationship people have with dogs, and the importance of their role in our lives. Our goal is to ensure that we care for that relationship by understanding the needs of our dogs, and how to socialize, train and care for them based on their understanding of the world and the scientific application of Learning Theory.
ICS uses this understanding of normal canine behaviour and Learning Theory to raise and socialize dogs to become truly great companions or partners, allowing you to create the relationship you envisioned when you decided to bring your puppy or dog into your life, and ensures professionals provide science driven advice and care for dogs!
The best relationships are built upon loving others for who they are, and not who we want them to be, so love your dog because it is a dog, rather than treating it like a person.
“Love them because they are dogs, not people.”
— Penny Buckner, RN, Canine Behaviourist
When we bring a dog into our lives, it is our responsibility to understand that it is a dog, not a human. It us unfair to believe that a dog sees the world as we do, just as it is unfair to believe that a child sees the world as an adult does.
Our job it to understand how our dog sees the world and train and socialize it. It is our responsibility to raise our dog to be a loving, valued and safe member of our family and community, and great working partners.