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Mittsy Voiles
Mittsy is a Veterinary Assistant and behavioral trainer at Lake Mills Veterinary Clinic. In collaboration with Nancy Michaud of Red Rover Pet Sitting and Dog Walking, she offers classes for puppies and adult dogs at the clinic. She also offers private lessons and home visits in
Mittsy has over ten years of experience working with dogs in animal shelters and rescue organizations, including training, temperament testing and enrichment programs. She has also developed enrichment and conditioning programs for zoo animals, including bats, parrots, chimpanzees, baboons and dingoes, since 1999.
Prior to joining the staff at Lake Mills, she was the Animal Care and Behavior Manager at Elmbrook Humane Society in Brookfield, evaluating and treating problem behaviors to improve the lives of shelter animals.
As founder and director of Good dog!, Queensland Australia, from 2003 to 2007, Mittsy developed and taught training 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. Mittsy also provided in-home behavior evaluations and private training for dogs with problem behaviors. Her interest in animal behavior began when she became a volunteer and then an assistant trainer with Dog's Best Friend, started by Patricia McConnell, Ph.D. She currently teaches a variety of classes for Dog's Best Friend at several Madison locations.
Her training philosophy is simple, and 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, to please you. That builds trust, and is a huge reward for both the trainer and the animal.
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