Mittsy Voiles
Mittsy has offered dog and puppy training classes at the clinic since 2007, and was hired as a behavior specialist in 2008. Her role is to make sure patients (and clients) have positive, low-stress visits to our clinic.
She is skilled in cooperative care for patients, and teaches dogs and cats how to participate in their care. She loves working with staff to devise creative new ways to support our clients and patients in having the best experience with veterinary care.
She is passionate about shelter medicine, having worked in animal shelters since 1998, including as Animal Care Manager at Elmbrook Humane Society in Brookfield, Wisconsin.
As founder and director of Good dog!, Queensland, Australia, 2003-2007, Mittsy developed and taught classes for puppies and adult dogs, focused on understanding behavior, preventing problems such as aggression and fearfulness, and providing proper care for the lifetime of the dog.
Her specialty is canine behavior, but her training has been across many species, including cats, ferrets, chinchillas, and zoo residents including bats, parrots, wombats, chimpanzees, baboons and dingoes.
Besides Australia, her travels have taken her to Iceland, New Zealand, Germany, England, Wales, Dubai, Canada, and all 50 U.S. States. Outside work, you can find her at one of Jefferson County’s amazing parks.
Training Philosophy
Mittsy’s training philosophy is simple, and is familiar to reward-based trainers around the world: If you train with your brain (rather than relying on equipment), you don’t need physical contact with the animal you are training. The secret to training is to understand the animal, and to discover what motivates the animal to do what you want to teach. If you train for motivation, you get an animal who wants to work with you. That builds trust, invites optimistic behavior, and allows the animal to be creative.
Services
Mittsy offers dog and puppy training classes at the clinic, in-clinic behavioral services, special behavioral appointments to help your cat or dog overcome past bad experiences with nail trims, baths and other types of handling and care, comprehensive help for anxiety, aggression and more serious problems, in the clinic and via home visits.
Certifications
- CPDT-KA
Specializations
- Canine behavior
- Shelter medicine
- Cooperative care for patients
- Anxiety
- Aggression
Training Methods
- Reward-based training
- Positive reinforcement
