|
The program schedule for 2010 will help you learn more in three days than you thought possible! Chock full of stimulating courses and exciting hands-on labs, taught by the ClickerExpo Faculty who bring their unique talents and perspectives to work for you. The program features more than 50 courses.
Registration will be available soon.
Day 1: Friday
Reaching the Animal Mind: Opening Plenary Session
Karen Pryor, Aaron Clayton
Clicker training is a lot more than a method or a training approach; it’s the leading edge of a new technology. Clicker training is a replicable, transferable, and reliable system by which many people can learn to do something that previously had been difficult, chancy, and requiring immeasurable individual skill. A technology does not limit you to one use: to dogs but not horses; to gymnasts but not pilots; to pets but not police dogs. A technology can have as many applications as there are people to think them up. At ClickerExpo you’ll meet some of the most brilliant innovators in the field, the people who are taking this technology further every day. Your host Karen Pryor, trainer, teacher, and scientist, is one of those people. With highlights from her new book, Reaching the Animal Mind, Karen will share with you her latest perspectives on clicker training as a communication system, one that all of us, from beginners to experts, can use, not just to communicate with animals, but to understand when animals communicate back.
Course Type: Plenary Session
Experience Level: All Levels
A Moment of Science: Clicker training 101 - (Part 1)
Kathy Sdao
Related Lab(s)/Session(s):
Are you new to clicker training? Or are you using it, but are a bit confused by the terminology and the reasons behind what we do? Here's a crash course, in two parts, on clicker training, learning theory, and the laws governing how learning really works. You'll learn what you need to know about the underlying science to get out of the gate fast.
Kathy Sdao, certified applied animal behaviorist, former marine-mammal trainer, and dog professional, is a gifted teacher who will help you understand why the principles work and what the terms really mean. Start your ClickerExpo experience on Friday with these two Sessions, and you will have the foundation and vocabulary to help you understand, enjoy, and benefit from the rest of the program.
Note: If you have been using a clicker but are not fully familiar with the science behind it, you will find this Session to be highly worthwhile as well.
Part 1: What is training?; laws of learning; operant conditioning; antecedents, behavior and consequences; types of consequences; extinction.
Part 2: Selection of reinforcements; the Premack Principle; schedules of reinforcement; cues as reinforcers; classical conditioning.
This course is presented in two parts (Part 2 is NOT a repeat of Part 1). Part 1 Friday 10:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. and Part 2 Friday 3:30 p.m. to 5:15 p.m.
Course Type: Learning Session
Experience Level: Foundation
Agility Right from the Start: Foundation Skills
Eva Bertilsson, Emelie Johnson Vegh
This Session is about agility right from the start! Foundation skills form the core of agility, and are valuable not only in the beginning of your training but throughout your career. Agility is a complex sport and fun and successful training comes from building the needed skills bit by bit. In this Session, you’ll learn both what to train and how to train it!
Attendees will learn the basics of clever clicker training for agility using our two favorite strategies to get behavior: “aim for it” and “race to reward.” You’ll also learn trainer and handler skills, reward requirements, transports, and useful foundation skills such going between/over/under and creating noise and movement. These things are important for trainers to know because both you and your dog will have more fun and be more successful when you get things right from very beginning. By teaching yourself and your dog all the foundation skills, you set the stage for success and lay the base for fast, independent, and reliable obstacle performance. Through our foundation training, proper handling (your body-language cues) is built-in right from the start, establishing good habits for both you and your dog. In short, this Session will cover everything you need to know about agility training!
Eva and Emelie’s vivid lecturing style is accompanied by lots of examples and demonstrations on stage and on video.
Even though the Session focuses on agility, the principles and ideas presented are valuable to all trainers who compete in canine sports. Because the ideas presented are novel, even the most experienced agility competitor will find this information valuable.
Course Type: Learning Session
Experience Level: All Levels
Smart Reinforcement
Ken Ramirez
Related Lab(s)/Session(s):
Reinforcement is the key to successful training, as most trainers already know! However, there are many different reinforcement strategies and reinforcement options available to trainers: consistent schedules, variable schedules, life rewards, toys, play, food, treats, etc. The mythology around how various schedules of reinforcement work can mislead trainers into using a strategy inappropriately and lead to frustration for the animal and the trainer. Many trainers fail to approach new reinforcement strategies systematically, which can be the reason why certain strategies seem to fail.
This class will explore both the science behind these concepts and successful strategies for implementing different types of reinforcement into a training program. We will explore techniques for evaluating whichever approach you choose.
Course Type: Learning Session
Experience Level: Advanced
Dancing with the Paws: Clicking & TAGteaching for Freestyle Success
Michele Pouliot, Theresa McKeon
Participant notes:
- Dogs should be accustomed to offering behavior and responding to cues without the use of lures.
- Handlers should be able to maintain their dogs’ attention and direct their learning of new behaviors by the use of clicker techniques in a distractive environment.
Get ready for freestyle fun! In this Learning Lab, you'll discover how TAGteach can quickly improve any freestyle handler’s movement and the overall quality of his or her freestyle routines. This Lab will show how anyone can move less like a dog trainer and more like a performer. You'll learn how artistic handling in your choreography becomes a powerful performance cue for your freestyle partner.
Think you have two left feet and will never be able to learn dance moves? We will use TAGteach to enhance your routines by improving your choreography movement. You will also learn to create a new “choreography behavior cue” to your dog that will be as or more powerful than a verbal cue.
A portion of this Lab will be you (without your dog) learning a new movement. After learning your choreography move, you will then learn how to teach your dog this new cue for his or her part of your “dance.”
This Lab will cover:
- Improving freestyle behavior responses in your dog
- Learning an artistic move of your own via TAGteach
- Creating your own “choreography cue” for a behavior
- Putting your new move together with your dog’s behavior
TAGteach—Teaching with Acoustical Guidance—puts marker-based positive reinforcement training to work teaching people. Using the same acoustic marker signal (the clicker), in combination with a well-developed teaching methodology, TAGteach dramatically improves learning and outcomes in children and adults. Of course it works—what will astound you is how much better it works than anything else you’ve tried.
Dogs will participate in certain segments of this Lab while other segments will not involve dogs. As a consequence, your dog should be able to sit quietly without you while you are learning your choreography!
Course Type: Learning Lab
Experience Level: Intermediate
Total Targeting!: Teach Your Dog Advanced Targeting Skills
Steve White, Jen White
Participant notes:
Dog and handler teams should have the following skills:
- Fluent momentary nose touches (at least 20 reps per minutes at 90% success).
- Fluent paw touches (your hand or a designated object, at least 20 reps per minute at 90% success).
- All participating dogs should be sociable and reliable off leash or with a dragging leash.
- You may participate with your dog or you may attend as an observer.
- Observers are not permitted to bring their dogs to the Lab (unless the dog is a qualified service dog).
- There is no prerequisite Learning Session for this Lab.
This two-hour Lab will explore a variety of targeting techniques and uses. People are often introduced to target training using a target stick, teaching “follow the target” or “spin.” But a target stick involves only the first layer of target training. Imagine what you could do if your dog could target with different body parts, or maintain the touch for minutes at a time. The possibilities are endless, and the process is truly exhilarating for the trainer and dog when you creatively tackle targeting challenges together.
In this Lab, you will explore a logical way to think about targeting and structure your training accordingly. As you develop targeting as a learning platform, you and your dog will begin to find new levels of communication and understanding. This Lab will improve your ability to shape at least three different dimensions of targeting behavior. We will practice developing and building complex and unique targeting behaviors such as duration touches, multiple body part touches, and olfactory (scent) targeting.
Exercises and games will use the dog’s different body parts—rear, foot, and/or side—to target. We will address the three D’s—how to add duration, distance, and distractions. Participants will be asked to think up a novel targeting skill for their dogs, develop a simple training plan, and put that plan to work. Once you understand the principles, you can develop many cool and functional uses for targeting. Targeting serves as a foundation for useful service behaviors and is critical for creating stress-free husbandry protocols in zoos and aquaria. Strong targeting skills can bring SAR (search and rescue), agility, obedience, and other dog sports to new levels.
Course Type: Learning Lab
Experience Level: Advanced
Shaping!: Build the Behavior You Want
Helix Fairweather, Joan Orr
Related Lab(s)/Session(s):
Shaping behavior by reinforcing small steps toward a future goal is one of the core processes of clicker training, and a vital skill for the trainer. It is often hard for trainers to make the shift from luring, prompting, or leading the animal through the desired movements, to letting the animal discover what “works” on its own, but the benefits to both trainer and animal are enormous. Shaping builds the trainer’s observational and mechanical skills, and is the foundation of teaching complex behaviors, making training fun for the animal and strengthening the relationship between animal and trainer.
We’ll review the foundations of solid shaping technique, including how to begin a shaping session, how to build behavior in increments, how and why to employ a high rate of reinforcement, and how to appropriately raise criteria. We’ll also cover open-ended/creative shaping versus goal-oriented shaping so that you can employ both intentionally and appropriately.
Trainers who have never shaped before, or have done limited shaping, or trainers who are frustrated with their shaping results will all benefit from this Session. We’ll use live shaping demonstrations with dogs from the audience to illustrate important shaping concepts and techniques.
Course Type: Learning Session
Experience Level: Foundation
What to Do About…: Vexing Training Issues & What to Do About Them
Steve White, Jen White
Anyone who has ever trained a dog has experienced it: failure. Or maybe things are just not quite going according to plan. The range of performance failures is varied, but some are more common and vexing than others. To illuminate the principles underlying some very concrete solutions, this Session will examine four issues that stump a lot of trainers:
- Inadvertent chains. Sometimes, as if by some dark magic, stimuli and behaviors link in ways that range from mildly embarrassing to totally disastrous.
- Long duration behaviors gone short! “Pop-up” downs, “Split-second” sits, and “Tap-dancing” stands are all the result of an imbalanced approach to four key aspects of any behavior.
- Distractions. Those unforeseen train-wrecks that ruin an otherwise perfect performance.
- Management failures. What do you do when carefully crafted management systems crumble? How do you handle it when a squirrel gets chased because a gate was left open, or when someone left dinner on the counter and Rover got to it?
Join Steve and Jen White to learn how stay cool and effective as you train through and around these issues that vex even experienced trainers.
Course Type: Learning Session
Experience Level: Intermediate
Teaching a Reactive Dog Class
Emma Parsons
Related Lab(s)/Session(s):
Participant notes:
Remember: Reactive or aggressive dogs are NOT allowed at ClickerExpo.
This Session is about teaching experienced instructors how to teach reactive dog classes safely. A “reactive dog class” is one specifically designed for reactive and aggressive (biting) dogs where the structure is a classroom setting with several other dogs, in contrast to one-to-one behavioral counseling.
This Session is geared toward teachers who may already be using clicker training principles in one-to-one behavioral counseling involving reactive and aggressive dogs but are interested in a service that could expand their impact on the many dogs and owners who need assistance.
Using slides and videos, Emma gives students a base reactive-dog class curriculum that uses clicker training and instructions on how to set up and lead a class that keeps trainers, owners, and dogs all safe.
Course Type: Learning Session
Experience Level: Advanced
Sightless!: Develop All Your Training Senses
Michele Pouliot
Participant notes:
- To participate, dogs should already be able to offer behavior and reliably perform several behaviors in a distracting environment.
- To participate, handlers should already be able to cue their dogs to target an outstretched hand.
- There is no prerequisite Learning Session for this Lab.
Challenge your senses of touch and hearing while learning fun exercises to help you clean up your communication with your dog. What are the actual cues that prompt your dog for a given behavior? Is it only a verbal cue or are you unaware of other cues your dog responds to? This Lab will get you thinking out of the box and add a new level of awareness to your training.
Michele Pouliot instructs blind handlers of guide-dogs to clicker train their own dogs, without the ability to visually observe behavior. Come and experience working with your dog without the use of your vision and take the sightless clicker challenge.
In this Lab, you will learn about assessing your handling and how it can inadvertently cue behavior more strongly than your intended cue, the challenges of clicker training as a sightless handler, and additional tools for communicating with your dog.
This Lab will have one or more exercises including but not limited to training a new behavior while under blindfold and assessing what cues your dog responds to when performing specific behaviors.
Course Type: Learning Lab
Experience Level: Intermediate
Smart Reinforcement: In Action
Ken Ramirez
Related Lab(s)/Session(s):
Participant notes:
Advanced trainers only. Dogs must be clicker-wise with at least four behaviors under full stimulus control. You may participate with your dog or you may attend as an observer. Observers should not bring their dogs to the Lab and do not need to meet the participant criteria. There is no prerequisite Learning Session for this Lab.
In this Learning Lab, Ken Ramirez will demonstrate how he conditions new reinforcers. With practice, you'll begin conditioning a new reinforcer in a systematic manner. For those participants who use alternative reinforcers regularly, Ken will detail a process for evaluating whether those reinforcers are as effective as they could be, and will demonstrate mechanisms for making alternative reinforcers stronger.
Attendees will learn how to:
- Condition new reinforcers
- Evaluate reinforces already in use
- Approximate to a more “random” or “variable” schedule of reinforcement
This Lab will have one or more exercises including but not limited to:
- The process for conditioning new reinforcers
- Observing animals that already use alternative reinforcers well
- The demonstration of methods for approximating an animal toward more random reinforcement
Course Type: Learning Lab
Experience Level: Advanced
A Moment of Science: Clicker training 101 - (Part 2)
Kathy Sdao
Related Lab(s)/Session(s):
Prerequisite: A Moment of Science: Clicker Training 101 (Part 1) Learning Session
Are you new to clicker training? Or are you using it, but are a bit confused by the terminology and the reasons behind what we do? Here's a crash course, in two parts, on clicker training, learning theory, and the laws governing how learning really works. You'll learn what you need to know about the underlying science to take your training to a new level.
Kathy Sdao, psychologist, marine mammal trainer, and dog professional, is a gifted teacher who will help you understand why the principles work and what all those terms really mean. Start your ClickerExpo experience on Friday morning with these two Sessions and you will have the foundation and vocabulary to help you understand, enjoy, and benefit from the rest of the program.
If you have been using a clicker but are not fully familiar with the science behind it, you will find this Session to be highly worthwhile as well.
Part 1: What is training?; laws of learning; operant conditioning; antecedents, behavior, and consequences; types of consequences; extinction.
Part 2: Selection of reinforcements; the Premack Principle; schedules of reinforcement; cues as reinforcers; classical conditioning.
Course Type: Learning Session
Experience Level: Foundation
Learning Games & Play
Kay Laurence
Related Lab(s)/Session(s):
Play is nature’s schoolroom. Through play and games, life skills are acquired and mental capacity is stretched. Too few trainers realize the value of play and games in developing their dogs’ emotional, intellectual, and physical capacities. For example, games can fulfill a dog when the real skill cannot be employed. Structured games can teach movement, self-awareness, memory skills, puzzle solving, impulse control, concentration, and focus.
By first becoming aware of the capacity of these activities and then by consciously selecting activities that teach one skill or another, you can more fully enrich your dog’s life and help him or her thrive.
Come and fully explore the power of play and games and the capacity of each, alone and in combination, to develop your dog to his or her fullest potential, learn new games that you can play with your dog, and learn which games will be most useful for developing what traits and skills in your dog.
Trainers with Intermediate and Advanced skills will both find this Session novel and informative.
Course Type: Learning Session
Experience Level: Intermediate
Clicker Research: The Good and the Bad
Jesús Rosales-Ruiz
Can you believe what you read? What makes a good research project in the area of marker based training? Is something that is published well-designed and reliable? How do you tell a well-designed project from one that has fatal flaws? How do you become an informed consumer of claims based on research?
This Session will help attendees become more informed consumers of the scientific training literature pertaining to marker-based training. Trainers should become smarter consumers of the studies they read, as they cannot rely exclusively on editorial boards to weed out poorly designed studies.
We’ll take a look at four studies in progress now at the University of North Texas:
- Concept acquisition in the dog
- The effect of the jackpot
- Comparison of click and voice+click
- Creativity training in rats
We’ll look at the goals, assumptions, and procedures of these studies and examine what the data tells us. We will also compare these studies to two published research papers, one with horses and one with dogs, in which the clicker did not show any benefit in behavior acquisition. Are there research flaws that led to these results? If so, can you spot them?
Course Type: Learning Session
Experience Level: Advanced
Shaping!: In Action
Helix Fairweather, Joan Orr
Prerequisite(s): Shaping! Build the Behavior You Want (Learning Session)
Participant notes:
Dogs should already understand the click/treat relationship and should be able to work in close quarters with other dogs. Handlers should be able to work independently to click and give reinforcers. You may participate with your dog or you may attend as an observer. Observers should not bring their dogs to the Lab. To participate in any Lab, you are expected to attend the prerequisite Learning Session. Observers are exempt from the prerequisite.
This Learning Lab is designed for those new to shaping or uncertain about whether they're on the right track with their shaping skills, including people who have trained their dogs primarily with lure/reward techniques but want to learn how to transition from luring to shaping.
In this Lab, you’ll learn how to shape, raise criteria to ensure success, use non-linear criteria, and shape using a high rate of reinforcement. We'll work on improving your observational skills and your ability to deliver a high rate of reinforcement. If needed, we’ll explore exercises for “loosening up” dogs that are used to waiting politely for instruction/guidance from their handler rather than offering behaviors.
Training exercises include: shaping a movement (spin or back up); shaping an interaction with an object (chair, ball, toy); shaping a target touch; and using the target to get started with shaping another behavior (leg weave, heeling, etc.). Depending on the skill level and progress of participating dog and handler teams, we may be able to demonstrate and discuss “next level” issues: How do you shape a longer duration behavior? How do you improve the shaped behavior after it is on cue? How do you teach the dog to work facing away from you, going away from you, or staying 50 feet off? Can you shape behavior in a noisy, distracting environment?
Course Type: Learning Lab
Experience Level: Foundation
Teaching a Reactive Dog Class: In Action
Emma Parsons
Prerequisite(s): Teaching a Reactive Dog Class (Learning Session)
Participant notes:
- This is NOT the place to work with a reactive or aggressive dog. Do not bring reactive or aggressive dogs to ClickerExpo.
- To simulate the class environment, participation in this Lab will be limited to five dog and handler teams.
- Participants must attend the prerequisite Session Teaching a Reactive Dog Class.
- Dog skills: Dogs participating in this Lab should already be clicker-wise—they should understand the clicker training process. Participating dogs do NOT need a repertoire of established behaviors on cue.
- Handlers: This class is aimed at those who want to teach. Emma will assume a high level of awareness about applying and using clicker training in standard classes and in one-to-one coaching. This Lab would also be appropriate for experienced handlers who want to experience the exercises for use at home.
Emma Parsons will lead participating dog and handler teams through the re-enactment of a reactive dog class, covering key topics and exercises from weeks one through six. The Lab will use live demonstrations by “normal” attendee dogs (reactive/aggressive dogs are not allowed at Expo!).
The Lab will demonstrate how to get dogs acquainted to the working space, how to move dogs through the space, what equipment to use, and how the class is set up. Dog and handler teams will participate in multiple exercises, including:
- The “See It!” game
- Click and treat the dog for looking at the concerning stimulus calmly
- Automatic eye contact as the result of the game played above
- Foundation behaviors including but not limited to default sits, targeting hand and shoe, get behind the handler and stay, “go find,” etc.
- Emergency cues like turn and run away, grab the dog's collar and muzzle, and body blocking against the wall
Course Type: Learning Lab
Experience Level: Advanced
Day 2: Saturday
Where's the Beef?: Understanding Your Dog's Food — Sponsored by Bravo
What does it mean when your dog food brand lists beef as its first ingredient? Do you know the difference between “beef dinner” and “made with beef?” Is it possible to assess the safety of what goes into your dog's food? No matter what you feed your dog, understanding what's in your dog's food is an important step in keeping your pet healthy.
Join Bette Loughran of Bravo for an informative Session designed to educate you and provide everything you need to know about keeping your dog healthy.
Course Type: Plenary Session
Experience Level: All Levels
Social Networking for the Entrepreneurial Dog Trainer: An Introduction—Sponsored by Karen Pryor Academy
Presented by Laurie Luck, KPA Faculty, CTP
Have you heard about social networking, but don’t know what all the fuss is about? Are you feeling overwhelmed? This session will introduce you to social networking. Learn the basics and get the answers to questions like:
- What is social media and how can it improve your top and bottom line?
- What are the most common social media tools?
- How do I evaluate social media tools?
- How can social media improve my business?
- What are the pitfalls of social media?
- How do I create my social media strategy?
Course Type: Plenary Session
Experience Level: All Levels
What a Cue Can Do: Developing Cueing Skills
Kathy Sdao
Related Lab(s)/Session(s):
Effective cueing is essential for achieving reliable responses. The process of adding cues in clicker training is different than in other training methods. Getting behaviors on cue is often the most difficult concept for new clicker trainers to understand, because the process is somewhat counterintuitive.
This Learning Session is about choosing and maintaining effective cues for operant behaviors, and is also about understanding how cues are integral to more advanced training applications. Kathy Sdao will show you how to use cues to gain control of operant behaviors. You'll learn what a cue is—and isn't—and how cues differ from commands. We'll discuss how to choose cues to maximize clarity, how to transfer a known cue to a novel cue, and how cues function in behavior chains. You'll also learn how cues can be transferred and combined to produce complex and flexible behaviors, and how to avoid the “good enough” syndrome.
Course Type: Learning Session
Experience Level: Foundation
Good Agility Practices: Turning Skillful Training into Great Agility
Eva Bertilsson, Emelie Johnson Vegh
Related Lab(s)/Session(s):
Our goal when training agility is to create a happy and confident dog that embarks on any task with enthusiasm. Along with the principles of clicker training, good agility practices provide the framework for your training, and is what makes your skillful training great agility training. Good agility practices should begin at the outset of your agility training, far away from the equipment, and throughout your entire agility career. Good agility practices ensure that your dog’s learning—and your own—will progress quickly and smoothly while you’re having tons of fun!
Course Type: Learning Session
Experience Level: Intermediate
Breakthrough!: Six Powerful Strategies Get You Through Training Blockages
Alexandra Kurland
Many trainers encounter periods in their training where they are no longer making consistent progress. Perhaps in their attempts to lengthen the duration of a behavior they've inadvertently fallen into a predictable pattern and it is creating problems. They've hit a "glass ceiling." They can get five steps of the behavior, but their animal sticks at six. Or perhaps they've gotten their training out of balance. They've created lots of "go-energy" behaviors, but they've overlooked the calming behaviors that keep all that enthusiasm in balance. Alexandra Kurland takes you through six strategies that will help you navigate your way past these training "speed bumps."
- Training by Priority: Adding Criteria to an Existing Behavior
- Swinging the Pendulum: Keeping Behaviors in Balance
- Always Know Where Your Mat Is: Managing Behaviors and Goals
- 300 Peck Pigeons: Building Duration
- Overcoming Fear Through the Power of Cues
- The Microshaping Strategy and the Evolution of Loopy Training
Course Type: Learning Session
Experience Level: Advanced
An Ounce of Prevention: Training that Heads Off Behavior Issues
Emma Parsons, Helix Fairweather
Participant notes:
This is great for both shy and over-exuberant dogs. To participate, the dog should already be able to hand target. The handler should already understand clicker training and learning theory principles. There is no Session prerequisite for this Lab.
Helix Fairweather and Emma Parsons will teach students how to prevent severe behavioral issues, like reactivity or aggressive issues, with their dogs. By practicing the skills that they introduce, your dogs will be less likely to engage in these types of difficult behaviors.
In this Session, you’ll learn about making a quick getaway turn on a loose leash, marking and reinforcing the behaviors of relaxation on a mat, greeting behavior to other on-leash dogs, putting the action of meeting new people on cue, and the behaviors “say hi!” and “check it out.”
This Session will have one or more exercises including but not limited to emergency-turn cue shaping, relaxation on a mat, shaping dogs to greet each other on cue, and teaching dogs to say hello by targeting a stranger’s hand or shoe.
Course Type: Learning Lab
Experience Level: All Levels
Learning Games & Play: In Action
Kay Laurence
Prerequisite(s): Learning Games & Play (Learning Session)
Participant notes:
- Handlers must have at least Intermediate skills
- Dogs may be at any skill level and any age
- Handlers must attend the prerequisite Session
Participants will teach their dog several of Kay’s favorite games. The games will help improve areas such as movement, self-awareness, memory skills, puzzle solving, impulse control, concentration, and focus. The games chosen will depend on the age, needs, and skill levels of the dogs participating in the Session.
Course Type: Learning Lab
Experience Level: Intermediate
Concept Training: Copycat? Copy Dog!
Ken Ramirez
Related Lab(s)/Session(s):
This Session will focus on concept training and help attendees understand the basics of teaching an animal a concept as opposed to a specific behavior. In past years, Ken has focused on modifier cues; this year he will focus on the concept of mimicry. Ken will present the training plan he has followed to teach various species, including dogs, to mimic or replicate the behavior they see another animal perform. There will be a discussion of the challenges to this type of training and the controversy that seems to revolve around this topic.
In this Session, attendees will learn examples of concept training (modifier cues, adduction, etc.), foundational behaviors, and approaches needed to be successful with any type of concept training. Ken will engage attendees with a step-by-step look at the process used for training mimicry, the challenges of mimicry training, and the parallel pitfalls that can occur in any type of concept training.
While these are advanced concepts that not every trainer needs to know or understand, these ideas help all trainers recognize what dogs are capable of learning when the right training approach is used.
Course Type: Learning Session
Experience Level: Advanced
Clicking with Class: Teaching Classes Clicker Style
Tia Guest
Related Lab(s)/Session(s):
Many professional trainers first try clicker training with their own animals. Then they get excited, learn more, start using it a little bit in the classes they teach—and then get stuck. How do you teach beginning pet owners to click? A good clicker class may be very different from a traditional class. Instead of learning just one set of behaviors, dogs and people can learn foundation skills that enable a lifetime of successful learning. You can teach dogs to actively try to earn clicks, and you can teach people to stop thinking about stopping bad behavior and focus on building new and successful behavior instead.
Tia Guest, Program Director for Karen Pryor Academy, provides the KPA perspective on how to plan and teach successful clicker training classes. You’ll learn about exercises suited for use in a clicker class. You’ll also discover how using TAGteach in a clicker class enables you to teach dog owners with the same principles of positive reinforcement that the owners are learning to use with their dogs.
Course Type: Learning Session
Experience Level: Intermediate
Going Up!: Elevating Your Freestyle Training with Platforms
Michele Pouliot
One of the most important tools freestylers should have is training behaviors using raised platforms. Raised platforms, used effectively, can help your dog learn precise positions and master new freestyle behaviors more quickly. These platforms are practically indispensable when training your canine partner in distance work.
In this Session, freestyle champion Michele Pouliot will teach you about incorporating platforms into your training with beginning to advanced freestyle dogs. She will teach you how to select a proper platform, what behaviors to teach with it, how to teach them, and how to fade the use of platforms as you progress towards performance. With Michele, you're going up!
Course Type: Learning Session
Experience Level: Intermediate
What a Cue Can Do in Action (Part 1): On Cues Control!
Kathy Sdao
Related Lab(s)/Session(s):
Prerequisite: What a Cue Can Do: Developing Cueing Skills (Learning Session)
Participant notes:
To participate, your dog should already be able to do a simple targeting behavior to an object or to someone’s fingertips or hand. Handlers should already be able to use a food lure to elicit simple movements, and have basic clicker-training mechanical skills (the treat follows the click, the click overlaps the desired behavior, etc.). You may participate with your dog or you may attend as an observer. Observers should not bring their dogs to the Lab. To participate in any Lab, you are expected to attend the prerequisite Learning Session. Observers are exempt from the prerequisite.
Stimulus control is the foundation of fluent, reliable, real-life behavior. With a solid mastery of how to add cues to operant behaviors, you’ll maximize correct responses, resulting in better compliance and less frustration for dogs and owners.
In this Learning Lab, you’ll learn two different ways to add a cue to a behavior, how to extinguish off-cue behavior, and how to give a new cue to an old behavior. In-class exercises include adding a cue by fading a lure and adding a cue by using temporal conditioning. We’ll use the science of classical conditioning to improve cue training, and contrast older methods of adding cues with a more clicker-based method.
Course Type: Learning Lab
Experience Level: Foundation
Good Agility Practices: In Action
Eva Bertilsson, Emelie Johnson Vegh
Prerequisite(s): Good Agility Practices: Turning Skillful Training into Great Agility (Learning Session)
In this Lab, you will learn how to maintain maximum focus while working on agility foundation skills, maintain top intensity while working on agility foundation skills, and stay true to your system of handling.
Hands-on exercises include spontaneous starts and “Aim at it!” These and other exercises will teach you how to focus on trainer/handler skills and teach you that you can’t directly alter your dog’s behavior, only your own. This is one of the reasons that good agility practices are so important. Good agility practices should guide all of your training—not just the obvious later stages of agility training. This Lab will give you a first glimpse into foundation work with the two exercises that you will use to build the skills that you will rely on throughout your dog’s career.
Course Type: Learning Lab
Experience Level: Intermediate
Punishment and the Public
Karen Pryor
Traditional, punishment-based dog training has become not just entertainment but a cultural phenomenon. False assumptions about “dominance” in dogs (and other animals) are widely used to justify punishment. People believe what they hear and imitate what they see; shelters and veterinary behaviorists are seeing the resulting damage.
In the past, the clicker community has responded to such propaganda by ignoring what we don’t like, reinforcing what we do, and teaching by our own example. Now, however, we face increasingly misinformed clients and overt training methods we find horrifying. The increasing success of positive training may in fact be one reason for this flare-up of force-based training. This whole phenomenon could be an extinction burst.
Is ignoring the phenomenon enough? What is our present responsibility in this issue? Can we counteract this emphasis on punishment without becoming punishers ourselves?
Karen Pryor shares her thoughts about punishment, the public, and the way forward.
Course Type: Learning Session
Experience Level: All Levels
Reaching the Veterinary Mind: Create Winning Partnerships with Vets
Julie Shaw
Every veterinary hospital should have a qualified, associated trainer. How do you become that trainer? This Session will give you insight into how to best reach inside the veterinary profession and become a valuable asset. Attendees will learn about the most efficient and productive methods for approaching veterinary professionals, the skills and services veterinary professionals want and need, and how to create a veterinary-directed marketing plan and proposal. While you may feel intimidated initiating contact, veterinary hospitals are a tremendous resource for gaining new clients. A relationship of mutual respect and appreciation between trainers and veterinary professionals will open new avenues and services to trainers. This Session will include audience participation and presentation of information obtained from veterinary professionals at the American Veterinary Medical Association, American Veterinary Society of Animal Behavior and American College of Veterinary Behaviorists’ 2009 annual meeting.
Course Type: Learning Session
Experience Level: All Levels
Rosetta Bone: Understanding Animal Body Language
Joan Orr
What is an animal’s body language telling you? Quite a lot! Understanding this “language” is important for you and all the animals in your life, but many people either don’t speak the language or can’t make use of what they see.
Being able to tell if an animal is anxious, nervous, tired, over-stimulated, or calm and happy is of enormous importance to trainers, owners, and families. For example, anxious animals are more likely to bite, scratch, or kick. Calm and happy animals learn better. And sharpening observation skills makes you a more effective trainer.
In this multimedia Session with pictures and video, Joan Orr will teach you how to read and make use of animal body language. She will discuss the importance of considering an animal’s emotional state during training, how to interpret common body language signals in a variety of species, and how to be a good observer.
Dogs, cats, ferrets, horses, and possibly other species will be covered in this Session!
Course Type: Learning Session
Experience Level: All Levels
Clicking with Class: In Action
Tia Guest
Prerequisite(s): Clicking with Class: Teaching Classes Clicker Style (Learning Session)
Participant notes:
- The first half of this Lab consists of exercises suited for a pet class orientation and these do not involve dogs. Participants in this Lab should bring crates or have an observer/caretaker in the lab to handle their dog for the first half of this Lab.
- The second half of the workshop contains training exercises with dogs.
- Participants must attend the pre-requisite session
Tia Guest, Program Director for Karen Pryor Academy, provides the KPA perspective on how to teach successful clicker training classes. You’ll learn about which exercises are suited for use in a clicker class, and may take part in role-play as both teachers and students.
Exercises in a clicker class are designed to let pet owners experience quick success. Owners learn clicker mechanics, observation skills, how to capture and shape behaviors. Dogs experience high rates of reinforcement, learn self-control and focus, and begin to offer behavior to earn clicks and treats. And the exercises are fun for all!
Participants in this workshop will practice exercises designed for teaching a people-only orientation class: mechanical skills such as timing and treat delivery and utilizing TAGteach to mark and reinforce students as well as creative exercises to teach pet owners to train fundamental skills such as polite leash walking and following a target.
Course Type: Learning Lab
Experience Level: Intermediate
Concept Training: In Action
Ken Ramirez
Prerequisite(s): Concept Training: Copycat? Copy Dog! (Learning Session)
Participant notes:
You must have the following prerequisites in order to participate in this Lab:
- A very well socialized dog.
- Dog must be comfortable working in close proximity to another unknown dog—to participate in this Lab, dogs must work side by side with another dog.
- Dog must have the following four behaviors under complete stimulus control (the behavior should not require a target or any type of guidance other than a verbal or visual cue):
- Sit
- Down
- Spin
- Beg (sit with front paws in the air)
In order for this Lab to be successful, it is vital that your dog have mastery of these four behaviors. The Lab depends on participating dogs sharing this repertoire.
In this Lab we will put into practice what we learned about concept training and the basics of teaching an animal a concept as opposed to a specific behavior. You will learn a step-by-step process for how to teach a dog the concept of mimic. The Lab will include one or more exercises including, but not limited to:
- Setting up a mimic training session so that your dog is more likely to learn
- First-step sessions with two dogs working side by side
- Practice for handlers, without their dogs, of the next steps
Course Type: Learning Lab
Experience Level: Advanced
A Panel Discussion
Faculty
Saturday afternoon at ClickerExpo always finds us engaged in a Panel Discussion. Sound boring? Actually, it’s just the opposite! The questions are interesting, the answers are pithy, and the panelists are FUNNY. Put seven top trainers on one stage and you really see how many points of view there are on questions ranging from “What skills make a top trainer?” to “How do you personally work through spots where you seem to plateau?” One attendee described the Panel Discussion as “Better than the Tonight Show—and you don't have to stay up late.” Attendees are invited to submit topics and questions in writing to moderator Aaron Clayton by Saturday morning. Want to get a taste? You can listen to a past Panel Discussion and read the following Panel Discussion-related articles: Sharing the Wealth; Getting to the Core.
Course Type: Plenary Session
Experience Level: All Levels
Day 3: Sunday
Learn More, Earn More: Presenting Karen Pryor Academy
Aaron Clayton
Karen Pryor Academy’s (KPA) Dog Trainer Program combines the convenience of on-line learning and at-home training exercises with the benefit of hands-on workshops with your own practice animal. Workshops are taught by distinguished members of the KPA faculty and offered at multiple locations across the US and Canada.
The Dog Trainer Program gives you a solid, in-depth, working knowledge of our training technology, plus innovative lessons in being a top-flight instructor, including TAGteaching methodology and KPA exercises and program design. The Dog Trainer Program also provides substantial business training to help you make the most of your skills. Finally, post graduate marketing support enables Certified Training Partners to build a successful and financially rewarding dog and pet owner training business.
Learn more about the program from KPCT president Aaron Clayton. This is also an opportunity to ask questions and meet KPA participants and graduates.
Course Type: Plenary Session
Experience Level: All Levels
Dog Toys?: Get Serious!—Sponsored by KONG*
The original KONG has long been used by pet owners for entertaining their pooches, but, increasingly, the training community has been finding broader roles for KONGs and other toys.
Join KONG's Behavior and Training Specialist Mark Hines to learn about some of these varied uses, including how to use dog toys to help solve canine behavioral challenges. Learn how dog toys are used by police and military K-9 trainers to motivate their K-9 partners. Mark will also cover helping you choose a safe dog toy that's the right size. * Note: This Session will be available only in Portland, Oregon
Course Type: Plenary Session
Experience Level: All Levels
The Complete Trainer: A Road Map for Education & Skill Development
Ken Ramirez
Learning to be a great trainer means developing deeps skills in a great variety of areas: stimulus control, marker timing, observational skills, food delivery, shaping strategies, targeting, reinforcement, criteria adjustments, empathy, recordkeeping, dealing with incorrect responses, training plans, and more.
These skills are generally taught as individual topics and skills. As a consequence, it's easy for trainers to lack an understanding of the broader journey or how certain paths intersect and support one another. But like any other journey, you can make a route that works for you if you have a great map. In this Session, Ken Ramirez helps you see the complete training map so that you can make your own way across the training landscape, confident of your your navigation and sure of your destination.
Course Type: Learning Session
Experience Level: All Levels
Teaching Self-Control: A Sit Is Not Enough
Kay Laurence
Related Lab(s)/Session(s):
Self-control may be the most important teaching gift we can give to our dogs and to ourselves. While self-control might save your dog’s life one day, it is also fundamental for cooperative living and enjoyment in your relationship with your dog. Self-control is the skill of ending a range of emotions that can lead both you and your dog into trouble: fear, anxiety, nervousness, excitement, frustration, arousal, etc. It draws on our innate knowledge that these emotions have no use when uncontrolled. Join us to explore the nature and importance of self-control and the essentials of how to teach it.
Your dog’s mind should be compatible with his or her behavior. A controlled “sit” position may be seen as satisfactory and a silent dog may be regarded as a “good” dog, but the sit or the silence can fool you into believing that self-control is at work. It may not be. What you click is what you get, however, so if the mind is still in a high state of arousal or anxiety, that will get reinforced. This is a natural behavior. It is not about removing fun or avoiding exposure to distractions, but about developing a natural skill.
Course Type: Learning Session
Experience Level: All Levels
Bridging the Chasm: How Trainers & Vets Address Behavior Problems
Julie Shaw
Veterinarians are often asked to help owners who have dogs with behavior problems. When a trainer works with the veterinary community, a productive partnership can easily be established, resulting in better outcomes for clients and their dogs. Too often, vets and trainers don’t pursue these collaborative relationships, perhaps due to differences in communication or expectations. This service chasm doesn't help the clients and dogs that are far better served when the professions work well together. So what can we do?
In this Session, Julie Shaw will help trainers understand how veterinarians think about behavior problems and how trainers can use this knowledge to build productive partnerships with veterinarians and veterinary hospitals. Attendees will learn problem-prevention services, the different roles in problem intervention, and professional communication and forms to improve communication. A clear understanding of roles in working with veterinary hospitals will create a foundation of mutual respect. Standardized language pertaining to behavior modification will enhance problem prevention and interventions, and clear communication and documentation will enhance teamwork between the veterinary profession and trainers.
Course Type: Learning Session
Experience Level: Advanced
The Special Sauce!: Creating Stunning Freestyle Routines with Props & Hidden Cues
Michele Pouliot
Participant notes:
You are encouraged to bring one or more props that you may want to work with. The Lab will also have some props on hand that you may use in the Session. This is an Advanced Lab. You must have several (three or more) freestyle behaviors well established (reliably on cue). There is no Session prerequisite for this Lab.
Routines that "wow" the audience and the judges: That's what you want! You've got a solid basic routine and great music selected, but what will really impress your audience? What else do you need? First, the great use of props. Props can add "wow" to a routine and heighten audience enjoyment. Second, cues that are "hidden" in the choreography of the routine—discernible only by the most savvy of onlookers—will give your routine the edge you’re looking for.
This Lab covers the use of props as well as hidden cues. Participants will learn how to select a prop that enhances the routine, train with it, and creatively incorporate it into the routine. Participants will then learn and practice the skill of "hiding" cued behaviors in the choreography—creating what freestylers call choreography cues. Come and discover your own special sauce by working with freestyle champion Michele Pouliot.
Course Type: Learning Lab
Experience Level: Advanced
Metamorphosis!: Facilitating Successful Transitions from Traditional Training
Steve White, Jen White
Participant notes:
This is a Lab where everyone will participate. Dogs will be needed for some portion of the Lab. There is no prerequisite Learning Session for this Lab.
This Lab is designed to interactively explore the process of transitioning from traditional training to clicker training—a group sometimes referred to as "crossover trainers." Anyone who teaches crossover trainers or anyone who IS a crossover trainer will benefit from this Lab with Steve and Jen White, both of whom are crossover trainers.
Participants in the Lab will explore the challenges frequently encountered by crossover trainers. You will establish a framework for your training choices, and focus on developing your own clicker-based training solutions for commonly encountered training issues. The Lab will also explore the issues frequently encountered with, and develop training solutions for, dogs that cross over from traditional training.
Course Type: Learning Lab
Experience Level: All Levels
Click to Calm Unleashed!: A Winning Combination for the Reactive Dog
Emma Parsons
Related Lab(s)/Session(s):
Click to Calm Unleashed combines the award-winning techniques of Emma Parsons's book Click to Calm: Healing the Aggressive Dog and Leslie McDevitt's popular book Control Unleashed. This novel approach will benefit trainers at both Intermediate and Advanced Levels, synthesizing the two books’ symbiotic approaches to creating behavior change and combining the best strategies and exercises from both.
The focus of the Session is teaching handlers strategies and specific exercises they can use to teach the highly stimulated dog to focus on the handler even in the most challenging of environments. Mastering this single skill—a huge challenge for many dogs—will save heartache and angst, and avoid serious injury. Importantly, this capability provides a new kind of freedom for both handler and dog.
Attendees will learn the basic Click to Calm Unleashed approach and become familiar with many of the specific games and exercises used most often in Emma’s teaching and consultations. The Session makes extensive use of video so that attendees can see the exercises in action and observe the results.
Course Type: Learning Session
Experience Level: Intermediate
Gimme Shelters: Create Win-Win-Win-Win Partnerships with Shelters & Rescues
Steve White, Jen White
Local shelters and rescue organizations in your area can become a strong source of new clients. Trainers should take the initiative to develop strong, symbiotic relationships with shelters, rescue groups, and similar organizations in their communities. Too often, good intentions aren’t enough to produce win-win relationships. Steve and Jen White have been working on breaking that pattern in the greater Seattle area through a structured program aimed at producing positive outcomes for the organizations, animals, owners, and trainers.
Come to the Session and learn how to set up a program of your own. You will learn, among other things, four components to a successful program, a simple but effective communications strategy, and key characteristics of organizations that are likely to be receptive.
Course Type: Learning Session
Experience Level: All Levels
The Conditioned Reinforcer Scientifically Explored
Jesús Rosales-Ruiz
In this Session, you will explore current theories of conditioned reinforcement, including original research that both clarifies the theories and tells us more about effective use of conditioned reinforcement during training.
Professor Rosales-Ruiz will introduce the different theories of conditioned reinforcement and their relation to three terms used in animal training: bridge, marker, and keep-going signal. Attendees will also learn about ways to establish a conditioned reinforcer and training procedures that compromise conditioned reinforcers, making them work either less effectively or not at all.
A clearer understanding of both the underlying theory and the benefits and drawbacks of specific training practices will enable trainers to maximize the effects of conditioned reinforcement in your own training.
Course Type: Learning Session
Experience Level: Advanced
Teaching Self-Control: In Action
Kay Laurence
Prerequisite(s): Teaching Self-Control: A Sit Is Not Enough (Learning Session)
Participant notes:
- Handlers: Should meet a minimum criteria of Intermediate, though trainers with Advanced skills will also get a lot out of this Lab.
- Dogs: This Lab can accommodate dogs of a wide range of experience levels. All are welcome and ideally we will have a mix of beginner and experienced dogs.
- Handlers of more experienced dogs should bring a favorite toy or two to the Lab or pick up a new, exciting one at the ClickerExpo Store!
In this Lab, participants will use a variety of exercises to teach their dogs self-control. The Session and exercises will build on one another so that so that participants can progressively add depth to this skill. Along the way, handlers will also learn to evaluate how well they have taught their dogs and gain a deeper understanding of, and appreciation for, self-control.
Course Type: Learning Lab
Experience Level: Intermediate
What a Cue Can Do in Action (Part 2): Cue Comprehension
Kathy Sdao
Related Lab(s)/Session(s):
Prerequisite: What a Cue Can Do: Developing Cueing Skills (Learning Session)
Participant notes:
Dogs should already have a repertoire of at least four behaviors, each at least partially on cue. Handlers should come prepared with a written list of:
- Each behavior the dog knows fluently
- The exact cue or cues for each behavior (words, sounds, gestures, prop cues, etc.)
You may participate with your dog or you may attend as an observer. Observers should not bring their dogs to the Lab. To participate in any Lab, you are expected to attend the prerequisite Learning Session. Observers are exempt from the prerequisite.
Creating and maintaining a comprehensive “dictionary” of cues for each animal you train is a key element of training, as is an awareness of how consistent and precise your cues should be. You also need a strong sense of empathy for why our animals often respond incorrectly to our cues.
This Learning Lab is focused on cue comprehension. We’ll examine how frequently our dogs perceive our cues differently than we intended. And we’ll explore how animals confuse similar cues and what we can do to make cue discrimination easier. Hands-on exercises include: a cue discrimination test, a game for cleaning up cues to make them more precise, and creating new behaviors by combining known cues.
Course Type: Learning Lab
Experience Level: Intermediate
Learn Anything!: An Introduction to TAGteach
Theresa McKeon
TAGteach—Teaching with Acoustical Guidance—puts marker-based positive reinforcement training to work teaching—people! Using the same acoustic marker signal (the clicker), in combination with an advanced coaching methodology, TAGteach dramatically improves learning outcomes and just makes teaching fun again.
In this Session, you'll learn what TAGteach is, see astounding videos of TAGteach in action, and find out how you can get involved. Topics in this Session include: incorporating positive reinforcement into your “people training,” using an audible marker to increase student focus, and turning the spotlight on success instead of stress.
TAGteachers are now working globally with highly diverse populations including competitive athletes, behavioral safety specialists, developmentally disabled children including those diagnosed with autism, and of course, professional dog trainers (who are really people trainers). The benefits of TAGteach are so significant that the program has been fully integrated into the Karen Pryor Academy Dog Trainer Program.
Course Type: Learning Session
Experience Level: All Levels
Loopy Training: Efficiently Teach Complex Behaviors
Alexandra Kurland
We often think of each training step as a single sentence: Cue=>behavior=>click=>reinforcer.
In teaching complex behaviors, this sentence must be presented not just once, but many times. In doing so, we end up training in repeating loops. You can recognize good clicker training by the presence of clean loops. Mix in poisoned cues, and the loops fall apart. Clean loops tell us when we can add new criteria. Tightening up a loop gives you effective strategies for eliminating unwanted behaviors and for creating fast, efficient shaping plans.
Loops are everywhere! Once you learn how to recognize them, you'll see they've always been part of your training. Awareness creates more effective use. Lack of awareness may mean you are inadvertently reinforcing unwanted behaviors and allowing them to become part of larger behavior chains.
Join Alexandra Kurland as she teaches you how to use the loopy training approach to problem-solve more quickly, avoid building unwanted behaviors into chains, clean up sloppy behaviors, and train more efficiently and effectively.
Course Type: Learning Session
Experience Level: Advanced
Simplifying Complex Training Tools
Ken Ramirez
The e-lists about clicker training are riddled with long discussions of particular operant methods that may or may not belong in your toolkit. Examples include the keep-going signal, the no reward marker (NRM), differential reinforcement of incompatible or other behavior (DRI/DRO), the least reinforcing stimulus (LRS), jackpots, timeouts, and a myriad of others. Many of these tools are useful only in very specific circumstances such as highly advanced stimulus-control projects. Casual or incorrect use can be confusing to the learner or, worse, punishing.
Ken Ramirez, highly experienced in the teaching of clicker trainers, takes away the mystery and confusion. Ken will let the audience vote on which four topics are most interesting and will go into depth on those four. Show up and see!
Course Type: Learning Session
Experience Level: Advanced
Click to Calm Unleashed!: In Action
Emma Parsons
Prerequisite(s): Click to Calm Unleashed! A Winning Combination for the Reactive Dog (Learning Session)
Participant notes:
To participate, dogs should already be clicker-wise and handlers should already meet the Intermediate <link to definition> experience level.
Trainers with both Intermediate and Advanced experience levels can participate in and will benefit from this Lab.
This is NOT the place to work with a reactive or aggressive dog. Do not bring reactive or aggressive dogs to ClickerExpo.
Attendees of this Learning Lab will practice the basic Click to Calm Unleashed approach and many of the specific games and exercises used most often in the speaker’s teaching and consultations. Special emphasis will be placed on focus games and how to set up the challenges safely for others so that all participants, no matter what level, will enjoy them.
This Lab will have one or more exercises including but not limited to: parallel running and jumping, off-switch game, car crash game, re-orienting through thresholds and doorways, and “leave it” with no verbal cue. Important aspects of the exercises include helping the dog to maintain focus on the handler despite a very challenging environment, teaching the handler how to maneuver around other dogs safely, and slowly increasing the amount of triggers and distractions in the environment at a rate that the dogs can handle.
Course Type: Learning Lab
Experience Level: Intermediate
Accelerating Success: Data-Driven Training
Helix Fairweather
Participant notes:
Dogs should:
- Already know that watching the bait bag or food hand produces nothing.
- Understand how to offer behavior without being prompted, swooped, lured, or moved.
Handlers should:
- Have fluent clicker training mechanics—keeping the treat hand still and dispensing treats quickly without spilling.
- Dog and handler teams will participate in a number of specific exercises, chosen according to ability.
- Note that there is no prerequisite Learning Session for this Lab.
Top animal-training programs always collect and use data to evaluate and improve their training. All dog trainers should as well. Why? Among other benefits, data-driven training helps you make the most of your training sessions—and look forward to them more than ever before. You will be far more efficient and communicate more effectively with your dog. You’ll spend less time cleaning up training errors. Without data about what your dog is learning, you are often left guessing; with data, you know!
In this Learning Lab, you'll learn what to measure and how to measure it. You’ll develop precise recordkeeping skills that will enhance your training efforts. You'll learn how to count and time training sessions, how and when to raise criteria, and how to be organized and ready before getting your dog out to train.
Hands-on exercises will detail how to take measurements and what they mean once you've taken them. Exercises include: capturing a behavior (target touch) while measuring rate of reinforcement; testing a response to a behavior that should be on cue while measuring success rate and rate of reinforcement; and shaping (short burst training) while delivering a high rate of reinforcement.
Intermediate is the minimal level rating for participating with your dog, though many trainers with Advanced training skills will benefit enormously from this Session.
Course Type: Learning Lab
Experience Level: Intermediate
Conference Highlights!
Karen Pryor, Aaron Clayton
ClickerExpo has fantastic breadth and depth. But that means you can't be everywhere you'd like to be and see everything you'd like to see during the conference. In our final Session, we bring you highlights from the weekend, as well as experiences that faculty members want to share. We'll take some time to summarize the three days and look at what comes next. Join us for this satisfying wrap-up.
PLUS
Expanding the Clicker Universe with Julie Vargas*
Clicker training works because of principles that apply to all species. Julie Skinner Vargas has been at the forefront of behavioral science for decades as both a practitioner and a historian of B.F. Skinner. This talk describes where the principles came from, how they have evolved and how variations of clicker training have already entered into education with impressive results. * Portland, OR only
Chocolate-Covered Coffee Beans Change Lives with Jesse Haas**
Publishers of children’s books frequently warn prospective authors, "No talking-animal stories!" But clicker training is all about a new language we can share across the species boundaries. At last, we can speak with our cat, dog, horse, and fish cousins—and they can speak to us. Imagine their relief—humans actually have some rudimentary intelligence!
The author of over thirty award-winning books for children (including Shaper, a novel about clicker training), Jessie Haas writes about the boundary land where humans and animals fumble at communication. To close out a very special ClickerExpo in Kentucky, Jessie will talk about how clicker training has influenced her writing and horse training, and how a jar of chocolate-covered coffee beans injected hope, positive action, and SEEK emotions into her critique group. The Closing Session will include Q & A about writing and publishing. ** Lexington, KY only
Course Type: Plenary Session
Experience Level: All Levels
Special Events
Dinner and Networking: Friday evening
Make new friends and professional contacts, socialize and enjoy a great meal this evening. We're combining a fun, structured networking event with a terrific meal. Fill your stomachs and your personal organizer at the same time! You'll be exchanging ideas, contacts and more. Don't forget your business cards! Select during registration process.
Course Type: Plenary Session
Experience Level: All Levels
Book and Media Signing: Saturday early evening at the bookstore
Our creative faculty members are the authors of many books, videos, and DVDs on clicker training. Visit the bookstore after the last Saturday afternoon Session to get your books and videos signed by your favorite authors. Autographed books and DVDs make great presents for trainers and other friends!
Course Type: Plenary Session
Experience Level: All Levels
|
