Our understanding of animal behavior and cognition have changed vastly in the last century. While we had seen hyper-obedience and performance with balanced training and physical punishments, we did not understand the potential detriment that had to the animals' mental and emotional well-being or to the bond that they have with their owner or handler. At Muttessori of Wyoming, we never use fear, pain, force, intimidating or physical punishments to change the behavior of an animal. Rather, we teach animals a variety of skills that they can use to make healthy choices, analyze the function behind a behavior and change their conditioned emotional response to said stressors or stimuli so that you have a animals who can make proper decisions. We adhere to the LIFE (Least Inhibitive, Functionally Effective) training model, with a focus on communicating what we want the animal TO do, rather than punish unwanted behavior, treating each animal as an individual with unique needs and providing the animal as much choice and control as possible. We never hurt an animal for the sake of obedience. We create a desire to cooperate rather than animals who comply out of fear.  In the vast majority of cases, desired behavior change can be affected by focusing on the animal's environment, physical well-being, and operant and classical interventions such as differential reinforcement of an alternative behavior, desensitization, and counter-conditioning. In other words, you never have to fear for your animals in our care and neither do they.