The UP Team’s Official Position on Hosting Bite Night
As of Dec. 5th, we are officially hosting the Blackwood Bite Club at our facility on Friday nights. Blackwood Bite Club is run by David Wright, of Blackwood Canine, a seasoned decoy with over a decade of experience training dogs for protection sports.
Emma started working with David in 2021 as she and her dog Vector embarked on a journey to train for a niche protection sport, called Mondioring. When we originally reached out to our network to find trainers who were looking to offer sport and working dog training opportunities at our facility, David inquired about using our facility to host Blackwood Bite Club’s Bite Night. This isn’t just a unique opportunity for UP clients who might be interested in learning more about protection sports—this is one of the only opportunities in the entire Portland Metro area for trainers who are looking to compete in protection sports to work with a seasoned decoy.
With this said, we must be very candid that the arena of protection sports is heavily influenced and founded by trainers who use aversive training tools. These trainers, including Blackwood Canine, have a different point of view than the UP team does in regards to the science and ethics of animal training.
Urban Pawsibilities does not, will not, and under no circumstances condones the use of aversive training tools on dogs in our training programs. We have stated, will continue to uphold, and will irrefutably defend that positive reinforcement based training is the most humane and effective training method for learners of all species. If you choose to go to Bite Night, you will see Emma and Vector happily working without the use of aversive tools, and you can see for yourself that bitework can be trained using R+ methods!
While Urban Pawsibilities does not endorse the use of aversive tools or techniques in dog training, we also believe that education cannot happen without connection. Our hope is that by hosting Bite Night at Urban Pawsibilities it will serve as a way for us as positive reinforcement based trainers to demonstrate what can be done without tools in the world of bite sports, where they are considered “the norm,” and make room for more R+ trainers to feel welcome in this space.
We had a frank discussion as a team about whether or not everyone who worked at Urban Pawsibilities was comfortable with us hosting Blackwood’s Bite Night, and the decision was unanimously in favor. If you are interested in learning more about protection sports, or you are hoping to discuss and air any grievances you might have in regards to us hosting Bite Night, please reach out to Emma directly HERE.
