About Your Inner Dog – Dog Training and Behavior

<h2>Holistic behavior coaching in the Champaign area, and online worldwide</h2><p>Your Inner Dog is Deb Bauer’s practice. The footer on every page reads “In-Person Dog Training and Behavior Support (Champaign IL area) &amp; Virtual Support World-Wide,” and she introduces herself on the home page as a “Holistic Dog Behavior &amp; Wellness Coach” and “Internationally recognized Blind &amp; Deaf Dog Expert.” Her approach, as she writes it, works on the whole picture rather than the symptom: “I assist and support people who want to give their dogs the very best lifestyle and quality of life possible. I do this by considering all aspects of the dogs’ lives – environment, diet, exercise, sleep, enrichment, socialization, and more.” The site says behavior concerns “often melt away when we make adjustments to lifestyle and environment.”</p><h3>What she works on</h3><p>Three strands are published. The first is one-to-one training and behavior support, opened by a free consultation – the home page’s call to action is “Schedule a FREE Consult Now” – aimed at owners “looking for solutions to your dog’s unwanted behaviors.” The second is her specialty with blind and deaf dogs: “Learn ways to communicate, how to set up your home and yard for success, and ways to encourage behaviors you like in place of those you don’t,” including help to “create and implement an individualized Quality of Life Plan for your dog.” The third is the Well-Rounded Dog material, built around what she calls the Your Inner Dog Wellness Wheel. Her bio also lists extensive experience with “dogs exhibiting shy, fearful, and reactive behaviors” and a special interest in educating about homozygous merles.</p><h3>Online classes</h3><p>Classes run through an online school she created, Uniquely Paws-Able, “to offer expert instruction to everyone – with an emphasis on adapting teaching methods for dogs with visual and/or hearing impairments (blind, deaf or both),” while noting that “dogs that can see and hear just fine are also welcome to join us!” The site says “all teaching is based on positive reinforcement methods,” delivered in written and video lessons. Most classes run for six weeks with new lessons published weekly; some are home study that can be joined at any time; questions and instructor feedback are part of the format, and students keep access to the lessons after a class finishes, for as long as it remains active through the school. Ask about class fees before enrolling.</p><h3>Background as the site states it</h3><p>Her bio page credits her with “over 30 years of experience teaching and consulting with dogs and their people” and “over 20 years of experience custom-training assistance dogs, including medical alert dogs, to match specific needs of each person.” It describes her as an “international expert in working with blind, deaf and blind/deaf dogs,” a published author of books and articles, and a presenter in person and by webinar, and says she has trained dogs in “therapy work, flyball, herding, print ad and media work, obedience, rally, agility, musical freestyle, conformation, lure coursing, tricks and scent work.” She also says she frequently works with rescues and shelters. Those fields are the background she describes, not a menu of classes – the bookable work published on the site is the coaching, the blind and deaf dog support, and the online school.</p>