About Dogs Behaving Badly?
My name is Maureen Byrne, and I specialise in helping dogs and their owners to overcome and manage behavioural and training problems.
To tell you a little about my background, I have a lifelong interest in all animals, and spent a great deal of my childhood and early adulthood working with horses, my area of special interest being the development and training of young horses to competition level.
Dogs featured throughout my life too, we always had a dog of some shape or size while I grew up. But all animals were a source of fascination to me!
It was almost inevitable that I went to college after leaving school to study animals, by doing a Science degree in UCD. I graduated with a B.Sc. in Zoology in 1993, and went on to study for a PhD, which I was conferred with in 1998.
Some years later, having moved away from home and finally getting my own dog, I ran into some pretty serious problems with his behaviour. In those days, dog behaviourists were hard to come by, and so I set about studying and researching the field of dog behaviour, so that I might understand where I was going wrong with my dog.
I realised that once I understood where my dog was coming from, and why he was doing what he was doing, that I could set about putting things right. I was hooked on understanding dog behaviour at this stage, so I went on to study for a Certificate in Dog Psychology with the Canine Behaviour Centre in the UK: I was awarded Student of the Month following my assessment with them!
Once I’d done some studies, and spent some time working with dogs and their owners on a voluntary basis, in 2002 my company Dogs Behaving Badly? was born! Since then, I have assisted hundreds of dogs and their owners with all sorts of issues, from straightforward obedience training, to very complex and serious behavioural issues such as aggression and phobic behaviour.
I am proud to be a founding member of the Association of Pet Dog Trainers Ireland (APDT Ireland. Member No. 006), which was launched in 2010. Together with a number of other like-minded dog trainers and behaviourists we set up APDT Ireland to improve the standard of dog training in Ireland.
APDT Ireland assesses all applicant Professional Members to ensure they have a good knowledge of learning theory and the science behind how dogs learn, coupled with an ability to put their knowledge into practise by running dog training classes to a high standard. Most importantly, members of APDT Ireland must embrace the concept of positive, reward-based, ethical dog-training.
Dog owners can now find a local APDT Ireland dog trainer who they can be confident conforms to our ideals, and who will train their dog effectively, whilst having some fun too!
APDT Ireland has as our patrons none other than Dr. Ian Dunbar, Professor Peter Neville, US dog behaviourist Andrea Arden, and Kelly Dunbar. We have a number of advisors on board too, who are the top of their game in the fields of canine nutrition and health, and we have been working closely with our friends in the APDT UK, who have been a wonderful support to us.
I am an associate member of the Canine Behaviour Centre, and I am a member of the UK Association of Pet Dog Trainers (APDT UK), Member No. 924. This is the only establishment in the UK and Ireland which assesses their members “in the field”, to ensure that we are all reaching a certain level with our dog training skills, but more importantly, that we all use “kind, fair, effective” methods. In other words, we must use gentle, reward-based, motivational training techniques. I have also become a Provisional Member of the Association of Pet Behaviour Counsellors (APBC)
I have recently received my Certificate as a Canine First Responder, in which I received training in how to provide first aid care to dogs in emergency situations. This course must be refreshed every two years, and is part of my commitment to keep my training and learning up-to-date.
I have been a regular contributor to TV and radio shows, including RTE TV’s The Seoige and O’Shea Show, RTE Radio 1’s Morning Ireland, and Drivetime, Today FM’s Ian Dempsey’s Breakfast show, and Newstalk 106’s Tom Dunne Show and Orla Barry Show.
I’ve had a lot of newspaper articles and letters published on the topics of dog behaviour and welfare in the Irish Times, The Irish Examiner, The Star, The Sun, and a number of other local newspapers
