Pia Silvani
Pia's love of teaching began over 30 years ago as a private fitness trainer, dance instructor, and swimming and track and field coach for the Special Olympics. She was also Regional Clinician for an international aerobics corporation where she trained new instructors in the field. After 13 years of paralegal/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. The nonprofit organization’s Dog Training School offers one of the largest and most comprehensive training programs in the United States. Pia has developed various courses focusing on positive, reward-based techniques, which are extremely effective in the enhancement of the human-animal bond. The result of her efforts is an astounding 100+ classes per week, which includes eight levels of pet training classes, specialty courses designed for dogs with extreme behavioral problems and much more. She has written six training manuals, which are being used around the country as a resource guide for other trainers.
Pia also developed a behavior department and conducts private consultations specializing in aggressive and anxiety-related problems for dogs and cats. She contributes behavior articles for the shelter's newsletter and library and has been featured many times in national and international publications. Pia has made numerous guest appearances on television and radio and is called upon frequently to lecture all over the United States as well as Canada, Japan, Belgium, England and Bermuda. She shares her expertise with various shelters to assist them in improving and expanding their programs.
Pia’s book, Raising Puppies and Kids Together - A Guide for Parents, was voted in the top three parenting books for a Franklin D. Roosevelt Foundation Award. She is a contributor to several other published books including: Professional Standards for Dog Trainers: Effective, Humane Principles, sponsored by Delta Society, The Dog Trainer's Resource, published by Dogwise, as well as The Dog Behavior Answer Book by Storey Books Publications.
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
- Past V.P. of the Association of Pet Dog Trainers and charter member
- Restructured the training curriculum for over 500 PETsMART stores in North America and part of the educational team who educated the trainers Staff instructor with Dogs of Course Instructor Training courses
- Telecourse instructor for Animal Behavior Associates
- Webinar instructor for Behavior Education Network
- Past Board Advisor to the National Association of Professional Pet Sitters
- Subject Matter Expert and past V.P. of the National Certification Council for Pet Dog Trainers
Pia shares her home with her husband, Marty, as well as their 6-year-old Belgian Tervuren, Guinn, 2 year old Belgian, Lena and 8 month old Belgian, Galahad. Pia competes in Obedience, Rally-O, Agility, and plays around with Freestyle.
Affiliations:
Charter member of APDT
Member if IAABC
Subject Matter Expert CCPDT
American Behavior Society
Publications:
- Raising Puppies and Kids Together: A Guide for Parents TFH Publications,
Neptune City, N.J.
- The Dog Trainer’s Resource – The APDT Chronicle of the Dog Collection, Dogwise Publishing, Wenatchee, WA
- The Dog Behavior Answer book – Practical Insights & Proven Solutions for Your Canine Questions – Storey Publishing, North Adams, MA
The Dog Trainers Resource 2, The APDT Chronicle of the Dog Collection, Dogwise Publishing, Wenatchee, WA
Professional Standards for Dog Trainers: Effective, Humane Principles, Delta Society, 2001