For Manhattan-based positive reinforcement dog trainer Patricia Calderone, prioritizing connection and care above all else has led to nearly two decades of success — but she didn’t learn this method solely through training dogs. Her story began with training an unconventional species.
“It’s crazy, because when I got into dog training, it started with me training chickens and going to chicken camp to train another species,” Calderone recalled of her unique training experience at renowned trainer Terry Ryan’s Chicken Training Camp 101 and 102.
Calderone said that training chickens — or any other species, like a guinea pig that she also trained — really makes trainers see how good they are. The chicken-training course raised the stakes, because the chicken would fly away if pushed too hard. She honed her skills and, in return, gained a totally new perspective on training.
“It’s always been a passion of mine to get people on board to basically look at things differently,” she said.
There is no shortage of dogs to train. In 2024, the American Pet Products Association reported 94 million United States households have at least one pet, and of those 94 million, 68 million are dogs.
It’s no wonder out of all those homes with furry companions, people want to be able to happily take their dog out for a pup cup or bring over new people without a negative experience — or perhaps visit the new dog park in town without a “ruff” interaction.
“Anything with a brain stem, you can train. You can shape behavior. And that’s the fascinating thing about it,” Calderone said of the experience.
Calderone’s force-free method of dog training relies on establishing trust and helping owners create a safe, loving environment that sets the dog up for success. She goes into people’s homes for private training and offers instruction that’s really customized to the dog’s needs, plus she offers a four-week foundational course.
Dogs have the cognitive ability of a toddler, and so they will often chew things or act out to gain attention, Calderone explained.
“We live in a very distracted society,” she said, noting a lot of times pet parents are missing the communication cues, which can lead to “bad” behavior.
“If you have that connection and care first, and you’re meeting your dog’s emotional needs, the dog always is going to come check in with you and come to you for safety, and that’s really all you need,” she explained.
“A lot of people think that ‘my dog is acting out, I need obedience.’ It’s not about obedience. It’s knowing how your dog communicates, and every dog communicates differently with their owner,” she said.
The care-first approach makes all the difference in guiding the animal to a desired behavior, Calderone said, offering her own story.
Although Calderone’s training history began with chickens, it also included a brief foray into traditional obedience training. It wasn’t a positive experience.
“I got into this in the early 2000s, and I started off in traditional obedience, doing competitive obedience. I got my first AKC title on my Doberman, and my instructor kept telling me my dog needed a correction and to do it harder. I got to the point where I couldn’t do it harder, and the dog wasn’t understanding,” Calderone explained.
“I went home, cried, and I said there’s got to be something else that I’m missing,” Calderone recalled, noting the repeated corrections and negative reinforcement fractured the relationship with her dog, who didn’t understand what it was doing wrong.
Not long after, Calderone met a woman working with a Doberman like hers, training it to be a service dog — and that trainer wasn’t correcting her dog.
Calderone marveled at how the service dog could pick up a penny off the ground without swallowing it and without needing correction. She was using clicker training.
“I said this is where I need to be, so I went to seminars and workshops for about 20 years,” Calderone said, never looking back.
“With the dog training world, there’s no standard of care. There are so many people who want to be dog trainers as a side job, but it’s an unregulated, unlicensed profession,” Calderone said.
For Calderone, dog training is her passion. Her love of dogs drives her dedication to staying current with the latest science and information.
“Learning is forever, and we still learn so much about our domesticated dogs, and new scientific studies are coming out,” Calderone added, noting the science continues to support the success she’s experienced exclusively using force-free, positive reinforcement.
The positive reinforcement training seemed to have worked on her, too, after Calderone’s own positive experience with the service dog trainer inspired her to follow the force-free way.
She later became not only a highly skilled and certified dog trainer, but also a certified animal behaviorist, accumulating a myriad of credentials that few seek out — and she continues to learn, having even completed a course on living with a reactive dog just this year.
In 2023, she obtained FDM (family dog mediator) Certification. Before that, she completed the Karen Pryor Academy of Behavior and Training to attain a Graduated Certified Training Partner, KPA-CTP certification in 2019.
That’s not all. She completed the Dr. Susan Friedman Certificate of Excellence, Living and Learning with Animals, and the Science and Technology of Behavior Change in 2016. The same year, she became a Certified Fun Scent Games Instructor. In 2013, she graduated from the Raising Canine Professional Dog Trainer Course and became a Certified Professional Dog Trainer – Knowledge Assessed (CPDT-KA) in 2011. She also obtained a certificate in Understanding Canine Behavior from Barbara Handelman, CDBC, and, not to be forgotten, the esteemed Chicken Camp, with Terry Ryan.
All of that training and experience led her to successfully train hundreds, maybe even a thousand pets over the years — and she’s not just training people’s pets, she’s working with rescue organizations to help rehabilitate dogs who endured traumatic environments.
She’s proud to say she’s worked with dogs rescued from shelters and county animal control that are in foster homes awaiting their forever home, including dogs from Enrichment Initiative Rescue in Plainfield, All Herding Breed Rescue, Dark Horse Dogs Not for Profit, Second City Canine Rescue, Peace for Pits, Inc., and Chi-Town Pitties, to name a few.
“Not only am I a dog trainer, but I am someone who does competitive dog sports. I have extensively titled dogs in several organizations in dog sports, from rally obedience, to nose work, to master trick dog titles,” Calderone said, and she’s done it all exclusively using clicker training.
From chickens to canines, Calderone’s unlikely journey to force-free clicker training stemmed from a common failed experience with traditional training methods. It’s something she hopes will change someday.
“I’m more like the trainer that fixes. We need positive reinforcement training to be at the forefront,” Calderone said.
Those needing a fix — or who want to be at the forefront — can contact Patricia Calderone at www.clickercanines.com.
Stephanie Irvine is a freelance reporter.