MISSION STATEMENT
Ensuring the welfare of New Mexico’s dogs and their families by providing access to well-informed resources and qualified dog trainers practicing without the use of fear or pain.​
New Mexico Dog Trainers United (NMDTU) is a professional membership organization dedicated to connecting pet guardians to professional dog trainers who meet high standards for education and ethical behavior.
All dogs are sentient, emotional beings whose welfare demands modern, ethical, science-based training methods which serve to strengthen the human-animal bond.
To become members of NMDTU and be listed as resources on this website, trainers must meet a set of minimum standards for education, experience, and use of training approaches that align with industry standards approved by national organizations such as The Certification Council of Professional Dog Trainers, the International Association for Animal Behavior Consultants, The Association of Professional Dog Trainers, the Pet Professionals Guild, and others. Essentially, all these organizations require trainers to pursue continuing education, to keep up with the science of behavior change, and to apply an ethical approach in training that minimizes the fear or pain an animal experiences in the name of “training.”
In the winter of 2023, a story came out in Albuquerque, New Mexico about families struggling to get their dogs returned from a local “board-and-train” dog trainer, or dogs returning from this same trainer underweight and injured. This trainer was ultimately charged with and pleaded guilty to animal cruelty and cannot continue training in New Mexico, but sadly, these shocking experiences for dogs and their families are not uncommon here in the United States.
In our country, dog training is an unregulated industry with little to no oversight of the skill sets, experience, education, or ethical behavior of trainers. Trainers who advertise and charge for teaching may be highly educated, reputable experts using modern, ethical approaches…or they might be completely new to the industry and unknowingly offering services above their experience level…or they might be using outdated tools or training techniques that have been proven to needlessly cause both psychological and physical harm to the dogs they are training.
In such an unregulated environment, it is extremely difficult for pet guardians to know the difference between these various levels of skill, experience, and appropriate techniques, and as a result many dogs and their guardians are exposed to unsuccessful or even abusive training approaches.
The story of the Albuquerque trainer found guilty of animal abuse galvanized a group of local “fear free” trainers to create NMDTU dedicated to connecting dog guardians to ethical training professionals and resources. NMDTU was created by working dog training professionals. We know what minimum standards should be required in our industry, we know what it takes to meet these standards, and we know that most of the best trainers in the world are dedicated to meeting them. We want to connect you with these awesome trainers, and help you avoid accidentally harming or traumatizing your dog while simply trying to teach behaviors to make them a safe and enjoyable companion.
A better world for our dogs and ourselves is possible through the use of modern training approaches, and we hope to help bring that world to our communities here in New Mexico!