Meet the Wiggle Butt Team
Kristi Bass, CPDT-KA, FDM
AKC Canine Good Citizen Evaluator
AKC Trick Dog Evaluator
Fear Free Certified Professional (In process)
After working in banking for 8 long years, Kristi began her career as a dog trainer in 2016. Since then she has earned her Certified Professional Dog Trainer (CPDT-KA) through the Certification Council of Professional Dog Trainers and is working toward the Certified Behavior Consultant Canine (CBCC). She has also completed the L.E.G.S. Applied Ethology Course to become a Family Dog Mediator (FDM) and Michael Shikashio’s Aggression in Dogs Master Course. She will soon complete the training to become a Fear Free Certified Professional.
Kristi loves working with shy dogs, helping them build confidence and develop the skills they need to be successful in their homes and out in the world. While she likes teaching dogs skills and tricks, she especially enjoys helping dog owners find creative ways to solve behavior problems that don’t involve complex training plans.
Kristi shares her life with her husband and 4 dogs—three Boston Terriers named Joey, Chandler, and Doctor Geller; and a deaf Boxer named Gunther.
CPDT-KA stands for Certified Professional Dog Trainer - Knowledge Assessed. Those with this certification have at least 300 hours of dog training experience within the previous three years, obtain a reference from another CPDT-KA trainer or veterinarian, and agree to the certification council's Standards of Practice and Code of Ethics and Least-Intrusive Minimally-Aversive (LIMA) Behavior Intervention Philosophy. They have also passed a 180-question exam that tests them on instruction skills, learning theory, ethology, training equipment and animal husbandry. To maintain certification status, trainers must complete continued education credits or re-take the exam every three years.
​​​​IKim Brophey’s L.E.G.S. Model of Integrated Canine Science, endorsed by leading canine scientists and celebrated by dog pros worldwide, has been called “ the single most important development in the dog behavior industry” and “ the future of dog training”. As an applied ethologist, Kim introduces us to the basic foundational system of orchestral elements that direct the behavior of every single animal on Earth and explains what this means for our modern canine companions.
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An AKC Canine Good Citizen Evaluator is trained and approved to hold and certify Canine Good Citizen exams. Evaluators may also certify and/or teach the AKC Community Canine, AKC Urban CGC, AKC Family Dog, AKC Trick and Therapy Dog.
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In Progress: Completing the Fear Free Animal Program allows trainers to work in partnership with veterinary teams to prevent and alleviate fear, anxiety, and stress and improve an animal’s emotional wellbeing during veterinary care and home care. This certification program is designed to give qualified animal trainers the knowledge and tools required to begin implementing Fear Free techniques with their clients’ pets at the veterinary hospital, through in-clinic training classes for puppies and kittens, and in day-to-day training of animals in the home.