Raising the bar in eastern Iowa and the tri-state area...
Canine Connection was founded by Cindy Ludwig in 2009 to meet a need in the tri-state area for modern, state-of-the-art positive reinforcement training. It was Canine Connection, which offered the first genuine clicker training (force-free positive reinforcement training with a marker signal) taught by the area's first certified clicker trainer that really brought the idea of truly positive reinforcement training to Dubuque.
Cindy Ludwig, an experienced professional educator, registered nurse and lifelong animal lover is the only Karen Pryor Academy Certified Training Partner in eastern Iowa and the tri-state area. Karen Pryor is well known in the animal training field as one of the major proponents of force-free animal training responsible for popularizing clicker training in the early 1990's. Clicker training is not new. It was first used by Keller Breland, a student of the famed American psychologist, B.F. Skinner in the middle of the last century. Breland and his wife Marian trained thousands of animals belonging to over 140 species for the military, television and their own IQ Zoo in Hot Springs, Arkansas.
In addition to clicker training, Canine Connection has set many other precedents in the tri-state area, such as being the first to offer the AKC S.T.A.R. Puppy Program, the first to offer day training, first to offer the Doggone Safe "Be A Tree" bite prevention program in eastern Iowa and the first to use pressure wraps, i.e., the original Anxiety Wrap in behavior modification. Cindy brings a unique blend of skills to dog training in the tri-state area with her knowledge of dog behavior and training, professional teaching experience and extensive medical background which enables her to serve dog owners with complex as well as simple behavior and training problems.
With her commitment to the force-free methods taught by the Karen Pryor Academy and recommended by the American Veterinary Society of Animal Behavior and the American College of Veterinary Behaviorists, Cindy offers dog owners a unique opportunity to learn the very best ways to solve, as well as prevent behavior problems using effective, science-based training.
At Canine Connection, the philosophy of positive reinforcement extends to the company's human clients as well as their animals. We offer a family-friendly learning environment and encourage the participation of children. Learning is enjoyable, individualized and immediately practical!
In addition to dog training and behavior modification, Canine Connection offers service and therapy dog training and testing. In 2012 Canine Connection launched a new and unique international therapy dog program with strict force-free requirements for both evaluators and therapy dog teams. All dog candidates must be trained using force-free methods (no shock, choke chains, leash corrections, prong collars, dominance, physical molding, verbal corrections, etc.) and evaluators must demonstrate a commitment to force-free positive reinforcement training and handling as well as a high level of knowledge and expertise with dogs. The program takes therapy dog designation to a new level with other important differences that set it apart from other programs worldwide.
Cindy Ludwig, an experienced professional educator, registered nurse and lifelong animal lover is the only Karen Pryor Academy Certified Training Partner in eastern Iowa and the tri-state area. Karen Pryor is well known in the animal training field as one of the major proponents of force-free animal training responsible for popularizing clicker training in the early 1990's. Clicker training is not new. It was first used by Keller Breland, a student of the famed American psychologist, B.F. Skinner in the middle of the last century. Breland and his wife Marian trained thousands of animals belonging to over 140 species for the military, television and their own IQ Zoo in Hot Springs, Arkansas.
In addition to clicker training, Canine Connection has set many other precedents in the tri-state area, such as being the first to offer the AKC S.T.A.R. Puppy Program, the first to offer day training, first to offer the Doggone Safe "Be A Tree" bite prevention program in eastern Iowa and the first to use pressure wraps, i.e., the original Anxiety Wrap in behavior modification. Cindy brings a unique blend of skills to dog training in the tri-state area with her knowledge of dog behavior and training, professional teaching experience and extensive medical background which enables her to serve dog owners with complex as well as simple behavior and training problems.
With her commitment to the force-free methods taught by the Karen Pryor Academy and recommended by the American Veterinary Society of Animal Behavior and the American College of Veterinary Behaviorists, Cindy offers dog owners a unique opportunity to learn the very best ways to solve, as well as prevent behavior problems using effective, science-based training.
At Canine Connection, the philosophy of positive reinforcement extends to the company's human clients as well as their animals. We offer a family-friendly learning environment and encourage the participation of children. Learning is enjoyable, individualized and immediately practical!
In addition to dog training and behavior modification, Canine Connection offers service and therapy dog training and testing. In 2012 Canine Connection launched a new and unique international therapy dog program with strict force-free requirements for both evaluators and therapy dog teams. All dog candidates must be trained using force-free methods (no shock, choke chains, leash corrections, prong collars, dominance, physical molding, verbal corrections, etc.) and evaluators must demonstrate a commitment to force-free positive reinforcement training and handling as well as a high level of knowledge and expertise with dogs. The program takes therapy dog designation to a new level with other important differences that set it apart from other programs worldwide.
Canine Connection founder and owner, Cindy Ludwig
Listen to interviews...
Interview with Paula Sands, Paula Sands Live, KWQC:
Interview with Tracy Hotchner, author of The Dog Bible and The Cat Bible on DogTalk Radio: Listen here (2nd guest, 20 minutes or a third of the way into show)
Interview with Dubuque Chamber of Commerce:
More about Cindy...
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"I have a special place in my heart
for German Shepherds, although I welcome all breeds into my classes and into my heart."
Pictured above is Cindy with her first dog, "Queenie." Undoubtedly this early relationship had a significant influence in her lifelong affection for dogs. Left: A client's German Shepherd Dog gives Cindy an affectionate lick of approval |
Cindy's dogs...
 Photo courtesy Christa Galluci, 2008 "Ginger was abandoned as a puppy on a cold Iowa January day in 2007.
I adopted her from the humane society where I'd been volunteering as a trainer and also fostering dogs and kittens. Ginger earned her Canine Good Citizen award (CGC) and became a registered therapy dog with Therapy Dogs International (TDI) around 1 year of age and has been making weekly visits to a local nursing home for the past 4 years. At 2 years of age Ginger developed some fear and anxiety issues and I voluntarily canceled her registration with TDI but Ginger continued to make therapy visits, doing the work she loved while we worked through her issues with the assistance of a veterinary behaviorist. Ginger is a favorite of staff as well as residents at Stonehill Care Center who look forward to her weekly visits." |
"Opal was bred to be a service dog but was 'career changed' out of the program due to her gregarious personality and dislike for force-based training. She responded very well to positive reinforcement/clicker training and is now a certified service dog who accompanies me not only in talks about service dogs, but due to her agreeable personality in my work with dogs with aggression.Opal also has the unique distinction of making history as Iowa's very first Dog Scout!" |
Dog training experience
"Prior to becoming a full time professional dog trainer in May of 2009 I worked part time as a professional dog trainer and volunteered hundreds of hours at animal shelters in Missouri, Wisconsin, Iowa and Illinois between 1992 and 2009, caring for animals, advocating for animal welfare and training dogs to help make them more adoptable. I worked as a Field Representative for Paws with a Cause from 2009 to 2012. In this position I performed needs assessments of applicants for service dogs, placed dogs with new clients/handlers, provided in-home training and support, did presentations on service dogs, re-training as needed and certified dog/handler teams." |
"The cute collie mix pup below was one of my favorites at the Eau Claire County Humane Association in Eau Claire, Wisconsin. Fortunately, she was one of the lucky ones that was adopted."  "In addition to shelter experience, I taught group classes in Wisconsin and Iowa, and did private consulting for behavior issues in Missouri, Wisconsin and Iowa prior to opening Canine Connection in 2009. I have been teaching dog training professionally for 6 years, full time for 4 years, and prior to 2007 part time as a hobby. I've had a lifelong interest in biology and animal behavior. I bought my first animal behavior book in the early 1970's on a day off as a camp counselor in southwestern Virginia, and have been studying psychology, biology and physiology for more than 40 years. |
"My knowledge and method of dog training and techniques has evolved over the years from military style compulsion training with a choke chain and leash corrections (which I never liked and never did as forcefully as instructed) to prong (pinch) collars to various types of balanced and positive reinforcement training and finally (genuine) clicker training.
My knowledge and methods of teaching and training people has also evolved over the past 40 years since I took my first paying teaching job as a golf instructor and Head of the Golf & Team Sports Department at a private girls camp in Virginia in the early 1970's"
My knowledge and methods of teaching and training people has also evolved over the past 40 years since I took my first paying teaching job as a golf instructor and Head of the Golf & Team Sports Department at a private girls camp in Virginia in the early 1970's"
Experience with wolves
"I have been associated with the International Wolf Center in Ely, Minnesota since 2003, participating in seminars, wolf pup care, and recently a wolf ethology (behavior) course for graduate credit."
 © 2011 Lucinda "Cindy" Ludwig All rights reserved.
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Wolf pup care
"Here I am interacting with 10 week-old gray wolf pup, Grizzer during the 2004 pup socialization period at the International Wolf Center (IWC) in Ely, Minnesota.
Every 4 years the center adds new pups to its exhibit pack, and Grizzer was one of 3 pups added in 2004. For 10 weeks the pups undergo intensive socialization with carefully selected pup care staff to make them less fearful of humans so that they can be more easily handled by IWC staff and veterinarians. Socialization also causes the wolves to be less elusive than they would be without this intervention. This allows the public to view them through the glass windows when they visit the center. If the wolves were not socialized, they would hide in the the wooded area in the back of their enclosure and the public would not be able to observe them and learn about wolves. It's important to understand that these wolves are never tame, and are still very capable predators. If anything, socialized captive wolves are potentially more dangerous than non-captive, unsocialized wolves because they are not as afraid of humans. Wolves are not socialized the same as pet dogs, and are not handled like dogs. The wolves at the International Wolf Center are not trained, and only limited staff is allowed to have direct contact with them under the careful direction of the wolf curator. At the left is this same wolf, 2 years later." |
Formal education
"In addition to my undergraduate coursework in the biological and social sciences and my graduate work in education and learning, my graduate study at the University of Missouri included work as a research assistant in an animal learning laboratory under the direction of Dr. Douglas Anger, Professor Emeritus in the Department of Psychology. This gave me direct hands on experience in operant conditioning (learning, behavior modification) and schedules of reinforcement -- also in desensitization -- I had to learn to feel comfortable holding and handling rats! I have also completed post-graduate coursework in dog biology and behavior, wolf ethology and pet nutrition." Teaching experience
Certification and licensure
 "Above I am pictured with a harp seal pup on a photographic expedition
to Nova Scotia. Not all the pups were this accepting of our presence. This one happened to be the only one in the week long expedition that allowed us to approach this closely and actually touch it. We worked on a buddy system so that one photographer of each pair was always watching for mother seals, which would aggressively protect their pups." 
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 Pictured with Sasha,1994
following graduation from the University of Missouri
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© 2009-2013 Canine Connection LLC All rights reserved. 
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