by Evie Abston, Reiki Group Team Leader
Bobbi Durston and friend.
Bobbi Durston (CTC, CPDT) is on staff as the Benicia Vallejo Humane Society's Behavior and Training Coordinator. Bobbi started volunteering for her first shelter at the age of 14. That began her life long involvement with animals. Her most notable volunteer experiences include a stint at the Knowland Zoo in Oakland working with baby tigers and her seven years with ARF as a foster and adoption counselor. She has been a professional trainer for the past 8 years. Bobbi evaluates each dog that come into our shelter and then designs a training program that uses positive re-enforcement and teaches humans how to communicate with their canine charges to understand and honor rules and boundaries. She is also responsible for teaching our wonderful volunteers about dogs and dog training. She, along with her "canine brigade," have helped dogs overcome behavior issues so they can get matched with the perfect family.
I asked Bobbi how she became a trainer. She had opened up her own pet sitting business and was looking for more when she was hired on at The Berkeley Humane Society as part of a pilot program called "Open Paw". Open Paw is a wonderfully innovative three-prong preventative approach to solving the problem of unwanted pets:
1. To educate prospective pet owners before they get their pets.
2. To promote the adoption of minimum mental health requirements for shelter animals.
3. To make shelters a place where shelter staff and volunteers, and existing and prospective pet owners can get a hands-on education in animal training and behavior problem counseling.
It was during her time with Open Paw that two things happened. First, she met the originators of the Open Paw program, Kelly Gorman and her husband Dr. Ian Dunbar. Second, she realized how vital working with the shelter dogs was. Without the proper education and training dogs go into inappropriate homes and are returned to the shelter over and over until they eventually have to be euthanized. One of Open Paws aims is to put an end to this vicious circle. After participating in the Open Paw program under Gorman and Dr. Dunbar, Bobbi decided to make dog training her career.
Dr. Dunbar steered Bobbi to The Academy for Dog Trainers at the San Francisco SPCA under the direction of Jean Donaldson. After completing the Academy Bobbi began an internship with Dr. Dunbar's Sirius dog training and began her career as a trainer specializing in aggressive dogs. For the last 7 years Bobbi has been an instructor of group obedience and puppy classes with Sirius Dog Training and a private aggression trainer under her own companies name "Naughty Dog Training". She has also worked as a dog evaluator for Citizen Canine in Oakland. After two years work she earned her more advanced certification, CPDT with The Association of Pet Dog Trainers.
Bobbi is very excited to be a part of Benicia Vallejo Humane Society. It has been her goal to return to her roots working with the shelter dog and bringing the Open Paw Program to the shelter. In addition to her work at the shelter she continues her classes and private aggression work as well as mentoring new trainers. Bobbi is currently owned by 5 rescue animals - three cats, Akasha, Braveheart and the evil Sophia - and two dogs, Loki and Isadora Bubbles.