Newcomer Orientation
Aaron Clayton
Note:
This Session is STRONGLY recommended for first-time attendees. It will also be useful for Expo veterans who need a little refresher.
First time here? Welcome to ClickerExpo! Aaron Clayton will help you make the most of your experience in this Session designed specifically for newcomers to ClickerExpo. He will cover topics that include how to maximize your chances of winning the big daily raffle, navigating ClickerExpo with your dog, choosing courses and changing your schedule, and attending special events.
This practical but humorous 30-minute introduction to ClickerExpo is a "must" for those experiencing the magic of ClickerExpo for the first time. The Session is a wonderful refresher for Expo veterans, too!
Attend this Orientation and then follow up with the general Opening Session at 9:00am!
Course Type: General Session
Experience Level: All Levels
The Butterfly Effect: The Wide Reach of Clicker Training
Ken Ramirez and Aaron Clayton
Ken Ramirez teaches animal training and performs behaviour consultations all over the world. In this General Session, Ken will talk about the global state of clicker training and the impact the movement is having. He will also share training challenges and triumphs he has experienced across the globe.
Aaron Clayton has been setting the stage for the ClickerExpo experience since the very first conference in 2003. This year brings the next iteration of ClickerExpo with six full and simultaneous tracks of programming and the expansion of course programming. Aaron will provide guidelines, insights, and even a little inspiration to help you make the most of your ClickerExpo experience.
Newcomers to ClickerExpo should attend both the Orientation Session at 8:00am Friday morning and this General Session.
Course Type: General Session
Experience Level: All Levels
Room with a View: A Training Conversation
Faculty Members
After an evening dinner with colleagues, join a selection of ClickerExpo faculty members for dessert as they argue, banter, reveal their opinions about issues in the forefront of the training world today, and share the experiences that shaped their worldviews. Unscripted, one never knows where this conversation will go because “anything goes!” A “don't miss it” event that brings people back to ClickerExpo year after year.
Course Type: Panel & Event
Experience Level: All Levels
Run, Run...Rundering
Rundering (Swedish: sök) is an exercise used in search-and-rescue, police work and, in the Nordic countries, competitions. In this exercise the dog needs to be fit; rundering is physically challenging as well as challenging to the dog’s ability to find and localize human airborne scent. When the dog finds a person or an object belonging to any person, it must report to the handler either by barking at the find or bringing back a bringsel—a special collar/attachment the dog wears during rundering.
To teach a dog the advanced behaviour of rundering, the exercise is split into four main parts. One part of the exercise, the bringsel report, will be discussed in the Learning Lab that accompanies this Session. In the Session there will be emphasis on how to train all four parts of the exercise: searching in a specific system, localizing finds, report (bark and bringsel), and necessary obedience in the field (for competitors).
Course Type: Learning Session
Experience Level: Advanced
I Object! Training Object Field Search
Cecilie Køste
Object field search (feltsøg) is an exercise used in search-and-rescue, police work, and, in the Nordic countries, in tracking and rundering competitions. In object field search, the dog searches a specified area and localizes objects of different size. Depending on the rules and regulations, the dog either retrieves the objects or marks them by lying down with the object between the dog’s front legs.
This Session will focus on the skills necessary for searching the area and on how to teach the down in respect to the object found.
Course Type: Learning Session
Experience Level: Intermediate Plus
Bringsel Report for Rundering - In Action
Cecilie Køste
In rundering, the dog must report any findings to the handler. The dog can do this by barking at the find or by bringing back a bringsel—a special collar the dog wears during rundering. The latter form of report has been recently approved in Denmark and has been in use in surrounding countries much longer.
This Lab will include a PowerPoint presentation, video demos, and hands-on training exercises with working teams focusing on the component skills for bringsel report. Participating dogs should have at least a reliable hold, preferably a reliable retrieve, and an understanding of Doggie-Zen.
Course Type: Learning Lab
Experience Level: Advanced
Reliability? Thy Name is Back-Chaining
Cecilie Køste
Related Lab: Reliability? Thy Name is Back-chaining. In Action!
In a behavior chain, each behavior is reinforced by the cue for the following behavior. The actualreinforcement is received at the end of the chain. Common chained behaviors in competition sports include retrieving, heeling patterns in obedience competition, agility courses and individual agility obstacles, and many kinds of hunting, tracking, and search and rescue challenges.
Back-chaining refers to building a chain backward from the end behavior toward the beginning. This creates a powerful, complex behavior in which each element remains strong and reliable. Norwegian presenter Cecilie Køste, who trains many top European competitors through clicker training, considers back-chaining to be the single most important tool in creating the high-scoring dog, allowingclicker training to be used at its full potential. With examples, videos, and audience participation, you'll learn the specifics of back-chaining in various dog sports, as well as all of the associated advantages, challenges, and pitfalls of back-chaining.
Course Type: Learning Session
Experience Level: Advanced
Reliability? Thy Name is Back-Chaining - In Action
Cecilie Køste
Prerequisite:
- Reliability? Thy Name is Back-Chianing (Learning Session)
Participant notes:
In this advanced Learning Lab we will have 8 dog/handler teams. 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. To participate in any Lab, you are expected to attend the prerequisite Learning Session. Observers should not bring their dogs to the Lab.
This Learning Lab is designed to practice and illustrate the back-chaining techniques discussed in the Learning session.
Course Type: Learning Lab
Experience Level: Advanced
Give Training Back to the Animals
Chirag Patel
In this Session Chirag Patel will focus on thinking about training from the perspective of the animal, and on looking at the larger context of animal welfare and humane care. The Session will focus on what a trainer should consider before picking up the clicker, including understanding the animal’s natural behaviour, safety, and long-term needs of the animal. Chirag will discuss the importance of teaching the animals to cooperate in their own health care (husbandry behaviours) and how to make that easier for both trainer and animal. The Session will explore benefits of and methods needed to enable an empowered learner. Chirag will demonstrate how he teaches the learner to engage in a signal that cues the trainer that the animal is ready for the training conversation ahead as well as when the learner needs a break. These strategies help increase positive welfare, reduce aggressive behaviour and create learners that are motivated and actively part of the conversation.
Course Type: Learning Session
Experience Level: All
Give Training Back to the Animals - In Action
Chirag Patel
In this Learning Lab Chirag Patel will work with 12 dog-and-handler teams. He will demonstrate practical exercises related to husbandry behaviours, and how to give the animals choice. Lab participants will then work hands-on and practice these exercises while receiving coaching and feedback from Chirag. Observers will be assigned to dog-and-handler teams in order to observe the work closely and get involved where possible.
The Lab exercises will include: teaching yes/no and start/stop signals to the dogs, playing The Bucket Game, and working dogs in protected contact systems.
Course Type: Learning Lab
Experience Level: All
Understanding, Managing, & Modifying Problem Behaviour
Chirag Patel
Clients always call trainers when they are experiencing problem behaviours with their pets. In this Session Chirag Patel will focus on a practical and scientific approach to analysing and resolving problem behaviour. The Session will cover various management tools and techniques, as well as strategies for effecting behaviour change. Going beyond theory, the Session will emphasize how to use these skills as a consultant in areas of work, including taking case histories, working with clients, evaluating motivation, and other practical real-world situations.
As passionate and interested trainers, our approach is sometimes “too much” for a caregiver who just wants to have “this problem behaviour fixed.” Chirag will look at simple, yet ethical and effective, ways to work on various behaviour-management and change exercises.
Course Type: Learning Session
Experience Level: Intermediate
Understanding, Managing, & Modifying Problem behaviour - In Action
Chirag Patel
In this Learning Lab Chirag will work with 12 dog/handler teams to teach, demonstrate, and practice several management techniques for dealing with problem behaviour. He will also work with the handlers to demonstrate how to handle human-to-human interactions as well. In this Lab, participants will learn practical management and behaviour-change techniques, as well as coaching skills for the human animals.
Course Type: Learning Lab
Experience Level: Intermediate
Retrieving for All Occasions
Elsa Blomster & Lena Gunnarsson
Who wouldn’t want a dog that can get you beer from the fridge, find lost car keys, fetch the mail, or perform a top-score obedience retrieve? If you want your dog to retrieve stuff in your everyday life as a fun and mentally stimulating exercise, or if you want your dog to compete in obedience or any other activity where your dog needs to be able to retrieve, it’s a great idea to teach your dog good retrieving foundations.
During this Learning Lab, Elsa and Lena, authors of the book Retrieving for All Occasions, will walk you through the foundations of retrieving, including taking, holding, and delivery to hand. They will teach the dogs to come to them with the objects regardless of what is happening around the dogs. Elsa and Lena will show participants how to make training joyful and easy-going, as well as how to use play with the dogs to get the behaviours wanted. Afterward, they will demonstrate how to add many distractions, and how to split training into small parts that can then be combined to a whole chain—the finished retrieve.
Learning goals:
- Play to inspire foundations for a great retrieve
- Split the retrieve into smaller parts
- Identify what part of the retrieve needs the most training right now
- Add distractions to proof the retrieve
Course Type: Learning Lab
Experience Level: All
Stranger Danger! Dogs That Are Reactive to People
Emma Parsons
Dogs that are reactive or aggressive to people can pose a serious risk, not only to family members, but to the public. Often these dogs are hidden in the home, never exercised for fear of a biting incident. If the dog is aggressive to specific family members, those “questionable” individuals tread carefully. It is not unusual for certain family members to disagree on how to proceed. That disagreement changes the formerly peaceful home into one of frustration and angst.
Emma Parsons’ Click to Calm rehabilitation program is designed to change this unfortunate situation. The goals of the program are:
- Acclimate the dog to the presence of humans in his immediate environment
- Teach the dog to experiment by targeting/touching a particular person
- Introduce the dog to a stranger if he is willing do so
Each of these levels of behaviour is contingent upon the success of the previous level. Safety is paramount! (Teaching a dog to accept a muzzle will also be demonstrated in this Session.)
It is also extremely important that the dog/handler relationship be built on love and trust, not fear and disdain. In the real world, it is the handler’s responsibility to keep the dog safe. The handler must advocate for the dog by making quick decisions on his behalf, in many challenging environments. At the same time, through various clicker trained foundation behaviours, the dog will learn to trust his handler and allow this communication to take place.
Although not every dog will be comfortable meeting strangers, using this particular methodology can greatly increase the quality of the dog’s life (as well as the handler’s or family’s). It can mean the difference between life and death.
Course Type: Learning Session
Experience Level: All Levels
Stranger Danger! In Action
Emma Parsons
One of the biggest reasons why dogs are sensitive to strangers is because of the overwhelming desire for humans to be affectionate with all dogs, even ones that they are not familiar with. Sadly our world teaches that all dogs should be happy and friendly towards all people, all of the time. Images of dogs being hugged and kissed by strangers is apparent everywhere but this fantasy is far from the reality.
In order to rehabilitate dogs that are reactive/aggressive with people, we need to help them understand that we are going to keep them safe as well as provide a structure within which they can meet and greet people, and do so at their own pace.
In this Learning Lab, we will work on the three levels of behavior below that will help dogs who are sensitive with people. These include the following:
- Teaching the dogs to accept the presence of humans in their environments
- Teaching the dogs to target a person
- Teaching the dogs how to appropriately introduce themselves to a person
All of these principles will be demonstrated individually with special care given to discuss safety protocols for each.
Course Type: Learning Lab
Experience Level: All Levels
Register Now! | Already Attending? Sign Up for This Learning Lab
Ready... or Not? Working with Reactive Dogs
Emma Parsons
If you are a dog trainer and are considering adding reactive/aggressive dogs to your list of services, then this Learning Session is for you! No doubt you have been asked to work with dogs that are outside your comfort zone. Maybe you have found yourself in a situation that was more complex than you imagined it would be. From the outside, it can look easy to distinguish which behaviour problems are in your comfort zone and which ones are not. But, it’s not uncommon for the behaviour waters to become much less clear once you have waded in.
In this Session, Emma Parsons will help you figure out if you are ready to work with reactive dogs, and in what capacity. Emma will explore the skills you need, the expectations you must have, and the planning and infrastructure necessary to make an intelligent decision about your readiness and willingness to see this type of problem dog.
Session topics include: safety in the home, skill and experience needed to make effective training recommendations, constructing a detailed training plan, and handling the emotional responses of the client tactfully while always keeping the animals’ interests front and center. When you are dealing with behaviour issues of this magnitude, it is extremely important to communicate your views to the client without getting flustered and/or passing judgment. Many clients with reactive dogs have worked with trainers in the past who were not positive trainers and who punished dogs routinely. Now it is up to you to launch the dog on a safe and successful track. Or, perhaps, not. When you know what’s involved in training reactive dogs, you can opt-out or opt-in based on whether you are “ready...or not.”
Course Type: Learning Session
Experience Level: Intermediate and Above
Line in the Sand: How to Stay Below Threshold
Emma Parsons
It’s common to see and hear teachers and trainers conducting presentations on reactive dogs (including myself) talk about “thresholds”. “Keep your dog just below threshold” “This dog went over his threshold”
It is a challenge in the real world to keep reactive/aggressive dogs below threshold. Life moves on with its sights, sounds, and activities; life pays absolutely no attention to whether we or our dogs are comfortable within particular settings. And, while many dog trainers and pet owners seem to understand the principle of threshold, often the wrong decisions are made in real time.
In this Learning Session, we will explore exactly what a threshold is, why working within its boundaries is so important, and how to help your students (and yourself) stay within those boundaries. A successful training session depends upon your students understanding and implementing this principle in their everyday life. It is up to us, as their teachers, to help them make preparations in their homes and in the public environments that they frequent.
Course Type: Learning Session
Experience Level: Intermediate and Above
Calm, Cool, Collected: At Ease Around Novel Stimuli
Emma Parsons
Participant notes:
We will have 8 dog/handler teams. Dogs in this Lab should be emotionally stable and the handlers should be experienced with clicker training. The dogs should be able to work in close quarters with other dogs. 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.
Students used to ask how to get dogs acclimated to things that appear out of nowhere—the surprise that no one can anticipate. I have found that using a selection of novel stimuli such as remote-controlled cars or animals, and/or the presentation of weird looking objects, can teach the dogs that when something different or unexpected happens, that is the cue to look at the handler. These stimuli also work well for the competition dog that needs to be conditioned to ignore all distractions in the environment.
Novel stimuli can be utilized by students in order to practice their skills clicking and feeding their dogs for looking at a particular challenging item. A dog that lunges and barks at strange dogs on a walk is the same dog that lunges and barks at a remote-controlled poodle! These toys or objects are of great help to students experimenting with their dogs’ threshold and practicing clicker mechanics in the safety of their own homes.
In this Learning Lab, several types of novel stimuli will be presented, and students will work on certain behaviours with their dogs in and around the stimuli. Can you and your dog survive the Novel Stimuli Challenge?!
Course Type: Learning Lab
Experience Level: Intermediate and Above
Register Now! | Already Attending? Sign Up for This Learning Lab
You're in Great Shape: Understanding & Applying Shaping
Eva Bertilsson and Emelie Johnson-Vegh
Related Lab: You’re in Great Shape - In Action
Shaping behaviour by reinforcing small steps toward a future goal is one of the core processes of clicker training and is the key to creative and limitless training. It is often hard for trainers to make the shift from luring, prompting, or leading animals through the desired movements to letting animals discover what works on their own. The benefits of this shift are enormous to both trainer and animal.
Shaping builds the trainer’s observation and mechanical skills, and is the foundation of teaching complex behaviours. Shaping also makes training fun for the animal and strengthens the relationship between animal and trainer. Without an understanding of shaping, trainers will not experience the full power of clicker training.
Shaping depends on good observation and timely use of the clicker as a tool for communicating a movement as it is happening. You’ll learn what shaping is—and isn’t—and how it differs from other ways of “getting behaviour.” Eva and Emelie will demonstrate shaping techniques and discuss how to overcome common obstacles. If you’ve been frustrated in your attempts to try shaping, you’ll be inspired to try again.
This Session will include PowerPoint slides and videos.
Course Type: Learning Session
Experience Level: Foundation
You're in Great Shape: Understanding & Applying Shaping - In Action
Eva Bertilsson and Emelie Johnson-Vegh
Prerequisite:
- You’re in Great Shape! Understanding and Applying Shaping (Learning Session)
Participant notes:
All Levels welcome. In this Learning Lab we will have 6 dog/handler teams. 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. To participate in any Lab, you are expected to attend the prerequisite Learning Session. Observers should not bring their dogs to the Lab.
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 dogs primarily with lure/reward techniques but want to transition from luring to shaping.
In this Lab, you'll learn basic shaping skills, such as how to structure individual shaping sessions. How to choose criteria to ensure success and how to maintain a high rate of reinforcement will be explained. We'll also work on improving observational skills. If needed, we'll explore exercises for “loosening up” dogs that are accustomed to waiting for guidance from their handler rather than offering behaviours.
Training exercises include: establishing routines for the training session, shaping a movement (such as head drop or back up), and shaping an interaction with an object (like a chair, a box, or a mat).
Course Type: Learning Lab
Experience level: Foundation
Animals in Control: The Choice Is Theirs
Eva Bertilsson, Emelie Johnson-Vegh
As positive reinforcement trainers, we work hard at building relationships and creating partnerships with our animals. But there can be a huge difference between simply gaining an animal’s cooperation and giving the animal true choice! Trainers Eva Bertilsson and Emelie Johnson-Vegh have explored this concept in vastly different scenarios and are eager to share with ClickerExpo attendees.
This presentation, which combines lecture, personal examples, and videos, will introduce various techniques designed to help open the conversation with your learners. These techniques have been used successfully with dogs, horses, and many zoo animals in various contexts, including medical behaviours, challenging working scenarios, or any exercise that may give an animal pause. Teaching animals a way to “give you permission” to proceed or indicate that they are “ready” prevents inadvertent cueing behaviour before an animal is prepared or committed to the activity. While all experienced trainers must become skilled at reading their learners’ body language, it is possible to take that skill a step further by teaching the animal to signal or “invite” the trainer to continue. Learn these techniques and you will be able to take another giant step toward the place where you and your animals are full and harmonious participants in a teaching and learning process.
Course Type: Learning Session
Experience Level: Intermediate and Above
Animals in Control - In Action
Eva Bertilsson, Emelie Johnson-Vegh
We all strive to create a good relationship and true partnership with our animals.
This Learning Lab is designed for clicker trainers who want to take their level of communication with their animals one step further.
In this Lab you’ll experiment with creative ways to ask your animal’s opinion. We’ll play around with giving the animal control over pairing procedures, shaping start button behaviours, and learning how to respond consistently to the cues the animal gives you.
Course Type: Learning Lab
Experience Level: Advanced
Clicker Training Principles are for Teaching Humans, Too!
Eva Bertilsson, Emelie Johnson-Vegh
We all try to adhere to clicker training principles when working with animals. But what would that look like with humans?
In this Session, TAGteach Level 3 teachers Eva Bertilsson and Emelie Johnson-Vegh will take you on a journey through concepts familiar to clicker trainers. How often do you think about observable behaviour, stimulus control, setting up for success or counter conditioning when it comes to human learners such as your students or yourself? How about splitting, immediate feedback, or fluency?
This Session is for anyone who ever works with humans, others, or themselves.
Course Type: Learning Session
Experience Level: All
Book & Media Signing
Faculty
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 other media signed by your favorite authors. Autographed books and DVDs make great presents for trainers and other friends, too!
Course Type: Event
Experience Level: N/A
A Moment of Science: Clicker Training 101
Kathy Sdao
Are you new to clicker training? Or are you using it, but are confused by the terminology and the reasons behind what we do? Here's an introductory course on learning theory and the important scientific principles that govern clicker training. The information you'll learn here will inform the many choices you must make as a trainer and will improve your application of clicker training techniques.
Kathy Sdao, associate certified applied animal behaviourist, former marine-mammal trainer, and dog professional, is a gifted teacher who enjoys sparking her students’ interest in the science of animal training. Start your ClickerExpo experience on Friday with this Session 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.
Course Type: Learning Session
Experience Level: Foundation
If You Build it, They Will Come: Training a Reliable Recall
Kathy Sdao
Participant notes:
This Lab will have handlers and their dogs work on beginner, intermediate, and advanced recall exercises. All dogs must be comfortable working near and around other dogs that may be running near them. All dogs will be able to participate in the beginner exercises and probably the intermediate exercises, but only a few dog/handler teams will be able to participate in the more advanced exercises.
Many people struggle with teaching dogs to run to them on cue. Though a relatively simple movement, the recall is also a crucial behavior with several key criteria. This means trainers can easily make mistakes! Yet the power of clicker training is perfectly suited to this task. In this Lab, we’ll practice three specific training exercises (beginning, intermediate, and advanced). As a bonus, we’ll provide a list of 10 practical training tips for your use and to share with your students, if desired.
Course Type: Learning Lab
Experience Level: All Levels
What a Pithy: Making Classes Memorable
Kathy Sdao
“Pithy” means “concisely cogent.” It describes an essential skill of the best training instructors. We work in challenging conditions: teaching two species simultaneously a series of precise physical skills, often in less-than-ideal environments. We must communicate unfamiliar concepts to our human students quickly. Explore creative ways to present this information concisely (i.e., in few words) and cogently (i.e., in a powerfully convincing way).
Summary of Presentation
Part of the job of a pet-dog instructor is to communicate basic learning principles — about reinforcement, timing, criteria, cues, generalization, and more — to novice students. But we are limited in the amount of verbal explanations we can provide. Extended lectures lead to bored and noisy dogs. If we challenge ourselves to be creative, we can devise teaching approaches that are brief, memorable, and effective. Metaphors, analogies, parables, and anecdotes can convey broad or advanced concepts meaningfully. Cartoons can also express ideas succinctly; just think how much impact a political cartoon can have.
This presentation will be an exercise in generative thinking. It will attempt to spark your own ingenuity and give you fresh ideas for classes that may have become stale after years of repetition. Come prepared to learn innovative instructional tools that can bring life to your teaching.
Learning objectives:
- To learn to use language in creative ways to convey jargon and complex training concepts to students
- To become familiar with several forms of narrative devices instructors can use to simplify and clarify their information
This seminar will include a discussion of teaching as performance art, how to be “sticky”, metaphors and analogies, stories and parables, perspective shifts, use of humor, avoiding clichés, and a few examples of concepts we can use as practice.
Course Type: Learning Session
Experience Level: All Levels
It’s a Good Fit! Operant and Classical Conditioning
Kathy Sdao
Some trainers rely heavily on classical conditioning, especially when trying to overcome behavioral difficulties such as fearfulness and fear-caused aggression. Techniques based on classical conditioning can include desensitization, habituation, and counter-conditioning, creating a classically conditioned association between primary reinforcers and the triggers for unwanted behavior.
Other trainers rely heavily on operant conditioning when trying to combat unwanted behaviors or emotional states. Techniques based on operant conditioning include training an incompatible behavior, bringing an unwanted behavior under stimulus control, extinction by removal of reinforcing events maintaining the unwanted behavior, and use of the LRS (“least-reinforcing stimulus”).
In fact, both classical conditioning and operant conditioning are involved in almost all learning situations. While operant conditioning may be uppermost in the trainer’s mind, classically conditioned stimuli from the environment, internal states, and previous learning may all impact the learning. The trainer working solely with classical conditioning may be unnecessarily prolonging a process that could be hastened by the addition of conditioned reinforcers as markers of desirable behavior.
Kathy Sdao will discuss ways of blending both kinds of conditioning to simplify and speed up both the acquisition of new responses and the repair or modification of existing undesirable behavior or emotional states.
Course Type: Learning Session
Experience Level: All Levels
Parameter’s of Premack
Kathy Sdao
To use clicker training effectively, we must thoroughly understand what reinforcement means. Too often, we equate positive reinforcement with a piece of food. This works in many cases, but is useless when an animal is too full, frightened, or aroused to eat.
Many trainers talk about “life rewards,” those everyday goodies (e.g., the opportunity to go outside, sniff a tree or greet an approaching person) that can be used to reinforce desired behaviors. This approach is similar to the Premack Principle, named after researcher David Premack, but doesn’t fully take advantage of this important and under-utilized concept.
Kathy Sdao will explain how this laboratory-derived theory can help you expand your motivational menu for training new behaviors and for managing behavioral problems. Discover novel techniques you can use to tap into the full power of clicker training, while being careful to avoid situations when the Premack Principle might create problems.
Course Type: Learning Session
Experience Level: Intermediate Plus
Hocus Focus: Helping Your Dog Determine What’s Important
Kay Laurence
Participant notes:
Dogs should already understand the click/treat relationship, be comfortable with normal handling, and be able to work in close quarters with other dogs. Handlers should have some experience with shaping and establishing cues. You may participate with your dog or you may attend as an observer. Observers should not bring dogs to the Lab.
People have developed a modern skill: to have a tight focus on specifics that are important in the moment and to filter out the surrounding world. We see texters walking into lampposts, drivers hitting a tree that “suddenly appeared, and a dog that jumped up “out of the blue.”
Dogs are often at the other end of this spectrum, and see everything that is relevant to them at the moment. This is a critical skill for survival: being super-tuned to your environment with the skills to take notice of everything. Dogs begin to sift through the “everything” and file away what may be relevant and what may be irrelevant at any specific time.
When we are training, our minds select what is important to us and dismiss the other stuff as not important -- to be sent into the bin named “a distraction.” A distraction may not be important to us, but that does not mean it is not important to the dog we are training.
Training plans should include the skill of tight focus for an animal that is designed to focus widely. There are conditions, such as approaching prey, when tight focus dominates, but that condition also brings predatory behaviours in the same package. A range of versatile protocols can teach dogs the skill of selecting relevant and non-relevant information through the experience of consequences.
As always, we begin by setting up for success and gradually exposing the learner to the data-sifting process. If we choose specific data that must dominate, then we must make sure the consequence of focusing on that data is worthwhile and stimulating.
Course Type: Learning Lab
Experience Level: Intermediate
(Don’t) Just Do It!
Kay Laurence
My young Gordon setter, like many Gordons, is an extremely enthusiastic greeter. Reinforcing the behaviour of “feet on the floor” is purely focused on the desired outcome, but it may not teach her the skills she needs to achieve that outcome. The perceptive skill of measuring the distance between her and the object of her enthusiasm is a key skill that must be combined with the motor skill of changing her balance and stride as that distance reduces. By teaching these skills through a range of exercises, my Gordon’s ability to greet with her feet on the floor increases. As teacher-trainers, we can enhance learning by building skills, not just building a catalogue of behaviours.
This Session will look at the process of teaching skills to our learners and will examine the skills of trainers. There is a trend to regard trainer skills as mere mechanics. Actually, we should be learning skills that use balance, poise, connection, and perception that all enhance learning. Skills are combinations of motor, perceptive, and cognitive processes.
In this Session we will examine in detail key teaching processes and look at each of the component skills, isolating them, building training sessions based on deep practise, and adding variety to strengthen the skills. Training with target sticks and delivering reinforcers will also come under the skills microscope.
Course Type: Learning Session
Experience Level: Intermediate and Above
Far-Sighted: The Importance of Looking Ahead
Kay Laurence
During training we are all vulnerable to racing to the outcome as quickly as possible. It takes discipline to manage this impulse and see that the longer route may represent the best investment for the learner and the future of this behaviour.
Short cuts are attractive; they reinforce our impulsiveness and they can fool us into believing that deep and lifelong learning has happened. Cheerleading a behaviour to happen faster, or for longer, can achieve the objective for now, but inadvertently it will have built the behaviour with critical scaffolding. When that scaffolding is removed, the behaviour collapses. What we thought we taught is not what was learned.
This presentation will look at the process that ensures the foundation skills and behaviours that we teach will be future-proofed and not just available for now. Avoiding prompts and supports that are not part of the future, and ensuring that learning is lifelong, can underpin all future behaviours solidly.
Course Type: Learning Session
Course Level: All Levels
Cues and Cueing
Kay Laurence
Related Lab(s): Cues & Cueing
For the learner, the real excitement in clicker training is not only the treat, but the opportunity to get you to click—power in the hands of your learner. This is a cue: an opportunity to earn reinforcement. Cues are not commands. A cue doesn’t make the behaviour happen; it gives the animal information about how to get good things to happen. Your learner is seeking cues from the environment (that may be you), that tell the learner how to get you to click and provide more good things.
Understanding cues impacts your training significantly, no matter what your application may be. In this Session, Kay will discuss the nuts and bolts of building sound, clean cues from the very first behaviour you teach. You will learn how to put a behaviour on cue, how to single out the relevant cue from every other stimulus in the environment, and how to add a performance cue when the behaviour is ready for prime time. Learn how to avoid careless and accidental movements that may confuse your animal or override your intended cue. Discover that cues can be powerful reinforcers in their own right, and learn how to make positive use of that fact instead of accidentally rewarding the very behaviours you are trying to avoid. Cues are just as important for good-quality pet training as they are for high-level competition training. Don’t be casual; be responsible with your cues!
This Session is followed by a Learning Lab about cueing to help bring the principles from concept to actual use in your hands. This Session is critical to setting a proper foundation for clicker training skills, but anyone working (or struggling!) with cues and cueing will benefit enormously from this Session.
Course Type: Learning Session
Experience Level: Foundation
Cues and Cueing - In Action
Kay Laurence
Prerequisite:
- Cues and Cueing(Learning Session)
Participant notes:
Dogs should already understand the click/treat relationship, be comfortable with normal handling, and able to work in close quarters with other dogs. Handlers should have some experience with shaping. 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 this Lab, you are expected to attend the prerequisite Learning Session Cues and Cueing.
In this Lab, Kay Laurence will demonstrate and share the principles involved in building clear cues. Exercises will include self observation and examining what the dog selects as the relevant cue. What is the dog really attending to—the wiggle of the eyebrows or the sound from your mouth?
Learn how to build a consistent cue and consistent response. Learning to deliver with reliability will build reliability in response. The more competent we are in these essential communication skills, the higher the chance of success for our dogs. This course is critical to setting a proper foundation for clicker training skills. Trainers who are already experienced with cueing also benefit enormously from practicing these skills from the ground up again.
Course Type: Learning Lab
Experience Level: Foundation
Are You as Smart as a Dog?
Ken Ramirez
For more than a decade, Ken has been sharing his approach to conceptual training at ClickerExpo! These Sessions have helped attendees advance their training by approaching advanced concepts very systematically (modifier cues, adduction, matching to sample, mimicry, and many more!). But the Sessions have also led to some interesting research opportunities for Ken.
Most recently Ken demonstrated how to teach dogs to count! But what started as a basic conceptual project continued to get bigger and more complicated. Various scientists convinced Ken to take the project further and turn it into real research. Ken was blessed to have an enthusiastic dog that seemed to enjoy the process of learning, so he continued the project to new levels. To the best of Ken’s knowledge, he has taken this project further than has been attempted with any dog previously. His research also revealed contradictions and controversy within the child cognitive psychological community. These developments prompted additional questions about what the new information might indicate about a seldom-studied cognitive ability in dogs.
In this Session, Ken will share the various phases of the project, including teaching the concept, the challenges of turning it into research, and how the project evolved over time. In addition, he will reveal some of the data from this project and discuss the implications as he compares that data with research performed with children.
Course Type: Learning Session
Experience Level: Advanced
Love It!: Effective Non-Food Reinforcement
Ken Ramirez
Participant notes:
Dogs should be clicker-savvy, have a robust behavioural repertoire, and regularly and effectively use toys or play as a reinforcer already.
The effective use of non-food reinforcers is a critical skill that all trainers will likely use or need at some point in their training career. Being able to use non-food reinforcers is extremely useful, but requires an understanding of their role in training and a well-thought-out training approach. This stand-alone Lab focuses on two main practical aspects of using non-food reinforcers: how novel stimuli, like clapping and verbal praise, become reinforcers; and how to maximize the use of play and toys.
Dog/handler teams will have the opportunity to start training novel stimuli as reinforcers and gain valuable insight from Ken about how to maintain the strength of these unique reinforcers. In the latter half of the Lab, the focus will be on using play and toys as reinforcers — demonstrating their use with participating dogs, as well as maintaining and evaluating their effectiveness.
Observers and dog/handler teams will all get valuable tips and strategies for making non-food reinforcers more effective. The Lab will include some brief video examples and a step-by-step demonstration of how to teach new reinforcers to an animal.
Join Ken Ramirez for this important Lab. You'll "Love It!"
Course Type: Learning Lab
Experience Level: All Levels
Full House? Working & Living with Multiple Animals
Ken Ramirez
Often we teach training by focusing on working one-on-one. But how do we train and work with multiple animals at the same time? In this Session Ken will share techniques and knowledge he gained from working in the zoological community, where working with groups of animals was the daily norm. He will translate that knowledge to working with animals of any type.
Some of the key concepts that Ken will focus on include stationing, fairness, clicker use, and new animal introductions (a new puppy, shelter dog, a cat to a dog, or any species of animal). The first half of this Session will include helpful information for trainers at all levels, but the Session will progress to an advanced case study during the second half.
From 2013 through 2015, Ken was involved in a project where he and his team adopted several very aggressive and reactive dogs. The goal was to use the same techniques Ken has taught to his students for introducing animals (techniques that will be covered during the first half of this Session) with the problematic dogs rescued from a shelter. Ken will share the step-by-step process in a detailed case study of this special project!
Course type: Learning Session
Experience level: Advanced
Are You as Smart as A Dog? Concept Training - In Action
Ken Ramirez
Participant notes:
In this unique lab approximately 6 dog/handler teams will be introduced to the first steps of teaching your dog to participate in concept training exercises. Dogs should already understand the click/treat relationship, be comfortable with normal handling, and be able to work in close quarters with other dogs. Dogs should be fluent in cueing, be comfortable staying on a mat, and know how to touch/target a variety of objects with their nose when cued. 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 this Lab, you are expected to attend the prerequisite Learning Session Are You as Smart as Your Dog?
In this session Ken will guide dog/handler teams through various basic exercises required to teach more advanced concepts such as Matching to Sample and Counting. Although the exercises are basic, the lab is designed for experienced dogs and advanced handlers who want to get started teaching conceptual learning. The lab will focus on how to set your dog up for success when training matching to sample, cue transference (fading), and the basics for starting to teach your dog to count (or demonstrate quantity recognition). This lab will be focused on tools needed for advanced conceptual learning, but because of the advanced nature of the task, participants will only be able to participate in the first steps of each exercise, which will set them up to continue the work and succeed when they return home.
Course type: Learning Lab
Experience level: Advanced
Simplifying Complex Tools - An Interactive Session!
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 behaviour (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
X Marks the Sport: Getting Ready to Compete
This Lab will accommodate 6 dog/handler teams. Dogs should already understand the click/treat relationship, be comfortable with normal handling, and be able to work in close quarters with other dogs. You may participate with your dog or you may attend as an observer. Observers should not bring their dogs to the Lab.
If you are thinking about competing in a sport with your dog, or looking for some fresh ideas for teaching sports classes, this Learning Lab is for you! Whether you’re interested in agility, obedience, Treibball, or any other sport, there are some core concepts that all canine athletes should understand.
We’ll play some fun games that delve into some of the key foundation skills needed to participate in any dog sport successfully. Attendees will learn how to shape confidence on moving/uneven surfaces, build your dog’s body awareness, and use various objects as targets to create a partner who understands the concepts long before he ever touches a piece of equipment.
Hands-on exercises may include: using targets for teaching dogs to work at a distance, shaping on wobble boards and discs, teaching rear-end awareness, playing games to teach recall to front, using everyday objects to teach directionals, and more. Whether you are just thinking about trying a sport or are an instructor, you'll walk away with some new ideas on how to approach dog sports foundation skills.
Type: Learning Lab
Level: All levels
Teaching & Training at the Next Level: Karen Pryor Academy
Lori Chamberland
No matter how long you’ve been training, there is always room to improve!
Perhaps you’re an experienced trainer who is looking to “kick it up a notch” by becoming an expert in concepts such as fluency, using cues as reinforcers, and constructing solid behaviour chains. Maybe you’re looking to grow your training business, or become part of a global network of certified trainers.
Maybe you want to add or improve puppy socialization classes using a top-notch curriculum, learn the sport of Canine Freestyle with ClickerExpo’s own Michele Pouliot, or improve the training and enrichment program in your local shelter. Or, perhaps you’re rather new to clicker training and would like to find an online course that brings all the basics together for you in one place.
Wherever you are in your training, this Session will show you how Karen Pryor Academy (KPA) can help. KPA Director Lori Chamberland will give you a taste of content from KPA’s seven courses and discuss the benefits of a KPA education. There will be plenty of time for you to ask questions as well!
Type: Learning Session
Level: All Levels
Blind Trust: The Next Level of Partnership with Your Dog
Michele Pouliot
Participant notes:
In this 90-minute Learning Lab we will have 6 dog/handler teams. Dogs should already understand the click/treat relationship and should be able to work in close proximity to other dogs and distractions. Handlers and dogs should have previous clicker training experience. You may participate with your dog or you may attend as an observer. Observers should not bring their dogs to the Lab.
The featured Lab topic will be Training Targeting behaviours as a Blind Handler.
In 2006, Guide Dogs for the Blind expanded their adoption of clicker training techniques to their blind clients. Teaching blind clients how to clicker train their guide dog enables blind handlers to be independent in teaching his or her own guide dog new targeting skills. Location targeting skills teach the guide dog what destinations to precisely locate for their blind handler (i.e., mailbox, pedestrian crosswalk buttons, empty chairs, etc.).
In this Learning Lab, handlers will learn the challenging skill of clicker training without the use of vision. Working handlers will be blindfolded during training sessions and will learn how to use their senses of touch and sound to clicker train their dog effectively.
Sighted trainers can expand their own skills by learning the nuances of “training blind.” This Lab can enlighten you about several aspects of training, such as:
- Avoiding body movements that block the power in the click
- The challenges blind handlers face clicker training their dogs
- The tactical use of back-chaining for target training
- The significance and efficacy of verbal directions for a blind handler-instructee
- Building solid targeting behaviours through shaping, click withholding, and successive approximation
Course Type: Learning Lab
Experience Level: Intermediate and Above
Collar Cues: Communicating through Touch
Michele Pouliot
Related Lab: Collar Cues - In Action
Collar cues are valuable communication and training tools that are applicable for any service-dog work or dog-sport training. Clicker training your dog how to move via directional collar cues opens a gateway to faster, more efficient training, and provides an additional communication tool when training new behaviours or improving existing behaviours. Training young puppies how to respond to collar cues can provide a powerful foundation skill that supports many other goals.
Join internationally renowned guide-dog trainer and multi-time world champion freestyler Michele Pouliot as she shows you how clicker trained collar cue behaviours can become powerful training tools to add to your toolbox.
This Session is recommended for anyone starting to train a new puppy, training service dogs of any type, competing in canine sports, or simply desiring an easily managed dog on leash.
Course Type: Learning Session
Experience Level: Intermediate and Above
Collar Cues - In Action
Michele Pouliot
Prerequisites:
- Collar Cues: Communicating through Touch
Participant notes:
In this 90-minute Learning Lab we will have 6 dog/handler teams. Dogs should already understand the click/treat relationship and should be able to work in the same room as other dogs. Handlers and dogs should have previous clicker training experience. You may participate with your dog or you may attend as an observer. Observers should not bring their dogs to the Lab.
Collar Cues are valuable communication and training tools applicable for general dog training, service-dog work, or dog-sport training.
This Learning Lab will demonstrate how to clicker train dogs to move with directional collar cues. Collar cue behaviour provides an additional communication tool for training new behaviours or improving existing behaviours. Join top guide-dog trainer and multi-time world champion freestyler Michele Pouliot as she shows you how collar cues, trained via the clicker, can give you just the right touch.
Course Type: Learning Lab
Experience Level: Intermediate and Above
The Sound of Silence: Accessing the Power of a Withheld Click
Michele Pouliot
Some important characteristics of effective clicker training include high rates of reinforcement, well-timed clicks, and valuable reinforcement delivered strategically.
What about the space of time when there are no clicks? Is the trainer waiting for a desired behaviour or is the absence of a click a deliberate tool to change the dog’s present behaviour?
In this Session, Michele Pouliot will address how to use the absence, or withholding, of the click most effectively. Trainers make decisions constantly in every training session. The focus in planning a training session is often about the timing of when to administer clicks.
This Learning Session will show how thoughtful decisions regarding when to “not click” result in powerful communication to the dog. Michele will also discuss the prerequisites that the dog must know before the trainer can expand the intentional use of withheld clicks.
This Session will include a PowerPoint presentation and video demonstrations.
Course Type: Learning Session
Experience Level: All Levels
Curtain Up! Unlock the Secrets to Top Ring Performance
Michele Pouliot
This course is a Learning Session and Lab combination, mixing lecture with hands-on work for the participants.
Participant notes:
This 2-hour combination Session/Lab will have approximately 6 working dog/handler teams. Working participant dogs should be ready to compete in a dog sport, meaning that the dog skills for their sport have been trained. Dogs should be experienced with clicker training, be comfortable working in auditorium environments, and be able to work in close quarters with other dogs. Handlers should have some experience with shaping. You may participate with your dog or you may attend as an observer. Observers should not bring their dogs to this Session/Lab.
Performance day is here. You are excited and nervous. Your dog seems a bit distracted, making you even more nervous. You enter the ring with your dog. It's time to start and yet... it feels like you have a different dog by your side, one that is not looking ready to perform. Oh my, what to do?
In this combination Session/Lab, Michele Pouliot will share secrets to top ring performance. She will discuss and demonstrate the art of preparing your dog to start each ring performance with enthusiasm and with readiness to take the first cue. Also covered will be how to end ring performances in ways that prevent problems from developing in future performances.
Michele will give you tools to take your ring performance to a higher level than you've ever experienced before. Included in the Session/Lab is information about identifying environmental cues that affect performance and training, so that those cues help performance instead of hinder it. You'll acquire tools to structure your competition-day performance, with a road map for getting in and out of the ring. Most of the examples in this Session/Lab will be from the sports of canine freestyle, competitive obedience, and agility.
This Session/Lab will include a PowerPoint presentation, video demos, and hands-on training exercises with working teams.
Course Type: Learning Lab & Session Combination
Experience Level: Advanced
Effectiveness Is Not Enough: The Ethical Intervention
Susan G. Friedman, Ph.D.
Many forces conspire to make effectiveness the sole measure of a training program’s success. Factors like clients’ desperation, the animal’s quality of life, and even the dynamics of a professional work-for-pay relationship create the pressure-cooker that fosters an exclusive “eye on the prize” or “as long as it works” focus for many professionals.
In this Session, we will go beyond effectiveness by adding another measure to the success criteria: the process by which we achieve effectiveness. This second criterion is embraced in the concept “most positive, least intrusive” effective intervention, which has protected children in special education programs for almost 35 years, and is also referred in law and medicine.
By implementing this standard, we will become more thoughtful about the path we take to effective training outcomes, increasing the likelihood that we will be maximally effective and humane.
Course Type: Learning Session
Experience Level: All Levels
Bridge Over Troubled Waters: Critical Client-Conversation Skills
Susan G. Friedman, Ph.D.
“The problem is not the animals, it’s the people!”
That is the behaviour consultant’s lament! Although we value treating people with the same respect we teach them to have for their animals, we often lack the full skill set to meet this high standard.
Come to this Session ready to pack your interpersonal toolbox with critical new skills. You will learn to stay in dialogue and achieve desired outcomes even in the face of disagreement, high stakes, and strong emotions.
Course Type: Learning Session
Experience Level: All Levels
The Rat Is Never Wrong: Understanding Errorless Learning
Susan G. Friedman, Ph.D.
We all know the saying, “We learn from our mistakes.” But, mistakes resulting from poorly designed training can be costly. Learners practice errors, which can make correct response less likely, and learners can become frustrated as a result of the low rate of reinforcement. These costs led researchers and practitioners to ask, “Are errors really necessary for learning to occur?”
Errorless learning is a term used to describe a teaching approach that limits incorrect responses, something that has been very effective with children with autism. In this presentation, the basic elements of designing an errorless learning environment and considerations for using errors to improve your training plans will be discussed.
Course Type: Learning Session
Experience Level: Intermediate and Above
Functional Analysis: The Sexy Side of ABC
Susan G. Friedman, Ph.D.
Functional (ABC) assessment allows us to hypothesize the relations between environmental variables (antecedents and consequences) as well as the behaviour being assessed. Functional analysis is the formal test of those hypotheses. Most often, assessing the ABCs of problem behaviours tells us what we need to know to replace the problem behaviour and teach new skills. However, when a behaviour is complex or high stakes, i.e., dangerous to the learner or the caregivers, functional analysis may be necessary. Conducting a functional analysis requires training and research skills, because the strategy is defined by arranging situations to produce the problem behaviour. Functional analysis is the most precise, rigorous, and controlled method for demonstrating unambiguously the functional relationship between behaviour and environment. That’s sexy!
Course Type: Learning Session
Experience Level: Advanced
Dog Is Love: How Affection, Not Cognition, Is What Makes a Dog a Dog
Dr. Clive Wynne
For years now scientists have been trying to prove that dogs are smart. Dogs go where people point. They sniff out explosives. One or two dogs can even understand hundreds of spoken words. But the truth is, the secret to dogs’ success is not their intelligence, it is their ability to make friends. Dogs have an unprecedented—in fact quite abnormal—enthusiasm for forming emotional bonds. It is dogs’ ability to get people to care about them, and not their really quite pedestrian intelligence, that has made them the most widespread mammal on the surface of this planet.
Course Type: General Session
Experience Level: All Levels
Pavlov Lives! Taking Dogs Seriously in Behavioral Science
Dr. Clive Wynne
Although the study of animal behavior began with dogs more than 100 years ago in St. Petersburg, most of the development of animal behavior science since then has focused on smaller animals, those more readily suited to laboratory studies. In recent years, my students and I have been taking behavioral science to dogs where they live. We have been seeing how the principles of conditioning can help dogs in shelters get adopted, and help dogs with behavioral problems get along with their humans better. Although Pavlov wasn’t particularly interested in helping dogs when he made his discoveries, we are excited that we can use his, and others’, insights to improve dogs’ lives with us.
Course Type: Keynote
Experience Level: All Levels
