WELCOME

I am Dr. Mark Plonsky (Dr. P), a Professor of Psychology at the University of Wisconsin - Stevens Point. I am an experimental psychologist with expertise in animal learning & behavior, drugs & behavior, and educational technology. One of my interests and passions is dog training. Personally, I prefer the scientific perspective since that is how I was trained. While I have been very successful with this approach, I also have respect for other points of view because I have known many very successful trainers who are not familiar with scientific theories.

My goal for this site is to organize and give visitors easy access to the information available on the Internet about dog training and behavior. The idea is to use technology to provide a resource (or virtual library) that will be useful to pet owners, hobby trainers, professional trainers, scientists, veterinarians, police K9 handlers and other students of canine behavior. In order to provide easy access to such a large amount of information, four interfaces are available. The Main Page serves as a brief table of contents. The Library is a detailed listing and description of all of the sections of the site. The Site Index lists each of the pages at the site. Lastly, there is a Search Engine for the site.

Please note that I have included links to ANY page that provides substantive information about dog training and is not blatantly commercial (except for sections on books, videos & magazines & equipment providers, etc.). Thus, I do not agree with everything that you may read here. In fact, sometimes one article will contradict another. However, I am a firm believer in intellectual freedom. The American Library Association defines intellectual freedom as "the right of every individual to both seek and receive information from all points of view without restriction. It provides for free access to all expressions of ideas through which any and all sides of a question, cause or movement may be explored. Intellectual freedom encompasses the freedom to hold, receive and disseminate ideas".

I have had dogs for most of my life and it is to them that I dedicate this site. I obtained my first purebred, a black, male, German Shepherd named Lobo in 1989. I began training him in a variety of ways (cross training). We received titles in obedience, agility, and Schutzhund (protection) training and have given a few hundred presentations on the subjects of assistance dogs in particular and dog training in general. In 1994, I began working as a part-time, Field Instructor/Presenter for the nonprofit organization, PAWS With A Cause and have worked with several mobility impaired and hearing impaired clients since. Also in 1994, I began a K9 Behavioral Consulting Practice and obtained a second German Shepherd (a sable, female named Schatze). In 2001, I obtained another German Shepherd named Cree (after loosing Lobo to old age).

This site grew out of my bookmarks file and was first posted in April of 1996. It has won numerous awards and typically undergoes a major update twice each year. If you would like to be notified when this occurs, send an e-mail with the words "DT notify" in the header to mplonsky@uwsp.edu. I believe that my experience of studying animal learning and behavior in an academic/research context, training dogs in a variety of ways, and using technology in education, provides me with a good perspective with which to serve as an organizer of this material and the webmaster (or librarian) of this site. If you like the site, please consider making a donation to help support it.

Feel free to link to this site. Please note that the graphics used were designed to give it a unique look and feel and are NOT for public use unless they serve as banner links back to the pages of this site. If you wish to reprint an article, for whatever reason, you must obtain permission from the author of the article.

I sincerely hope you enjoy your visit here and find it to be educational, helpful, and fun!

Contacting Dr. P

Please note that due to the large number of requests I receive, I can no longer give free, personal advice on problems related to dog training and behavior.

In order for me to give such advice we would have to "talk" about the problem at length. That is, I would need detailed information about the dog, it's environment and routine, the problem, and the situation in which the problem occurs. Thus, this type of consultation takes time which I cannot afford to give away for free.

If you wish such advice, please see the information I have provided about my K9 Behavioral Consulting practice. Another alternative to obtaining personal advice is to participate in e-mail, chat room, & newsgroup discussions.

If you:

• have comments or questions,
• would like to contribute an article to this virtual library,
• have found a dead or changed link,
• have some interesting news about dog training,
• or would just like to say hello,

If you:

• know of a link or resource not listed,
• would like me to add a link to your page(s),
• or would like to add a link to a description of an upcoming K9 Event,