Pia Silvani

Pia Silvani's love of teaching began over 20 years ago as a private trainer, dance instructor, track, field and swimming coach for the Special Olympics and a Regional Clinician for an international aerobics corporation where she trained new instructors in the field. After 13 years of para-legal and office management work, she decided to make her part-time teaching career a full-time dream. She combined her love of teaching people with her other fondness, dogs.

Pia is Director of Training and Behavior at St. Hubert's Animal Welfare Center in Madison, New Jersey. Through research, continuing education, and enthusiasm she was instrumental in developing a pet-training curriculum focusing on positive, reward-based techniques, which are extremely effective in the enhancement of the bond and relationship of the dog and her human companion. The result of her efforts is an astounding 75+ classes per week, which include 8 levels of pet-training classes and specialty courses designed for dogs with extreme behavioral problems. She has written five training manuals, which are being used around the country as a resource guide for other trainers. Pia also developed a behavioral department that offers a wide range of private consultations in both canine and feline behavior.

Pia conducts behavior/temperament testing and runs a Canine Coach training program for shelter dogs. She writes quarterly behavior articles for the shelter's newsletter; has been written up many times in national, state and local newspapers and made numerous guest appearances on television and radio. She has spoken at various conferences and forums around the country and routinely consults with various shelters (including San Francisco SPCA) to assist them in improving and expanding their programs.

Other accomplishments:

• Member of the American Humane Association Task Force for Humane Dog Training
• Business Practice chairperson of the Delta Guidelines for Humane Dog Training, which was published in 2001.
• Past V.P. of the APDT and charter member
• Restructured the training curriculum with five team members for over 500 PETsMART stores in North America and was part of the educational team who educated the trainers
• Staff instructor of the ITC and AITC training program for the past 3 years
• Board Advisor to the National Association of Professional Pet Sitters
• Subject Matter Expert for the first national certification program for dog trainers
• Board of Directors of Certification Council for Pet Dog Trainers
• Authored 5 training manuals

Pia is in the process of co-authoring two new books. Pia lives with her best friend, husband Marty, as well as her new member of the family, Lance, a 4-year-old Belgian Tervuren.