Trainer Interviews

Morten Egtvedt and Cecilie Køste, two of the newest ClickerExpo faculty members, are a married training team from Norway. The pair were early adopters of clicker training and are Scandinavia's leading authors on this technology. Morten and Cecilie have been top European competitors in obedience, tracking, and agility. Their clicker training school focuses on using clicker training to win in competition; teachers and students from their school are not just top clicker trainers, but also top-notch competitors in European dog-related sports. Morten and Cecilie edit and publish a full-color magazine on dog training, and publish and sell Don't Shoot the Dog, as well as many other clicker titles in Norwegian, Danish, Swedish, and Finnish. Recently we spoke with Morten and Cecilie about their background and success.

The first dog I trained was my own dog 22 years ago. I attended a traditional training class, which I tagged "yank and thank." We waited for the dog to "get it wrong," then yanked on its choke collar and promptly "thanked him" (praised him). It makes as little sense to me today as it did then, but at the time I knew of no other options.

Michele Pouliot has trained dogs for more than three decades. Since first joining Guide Dogs for the Blind in 1974, she contributed to the organization in many different ways, and today is the director of research and development. Michele is also a champion in canine musical freestyle and participates in equestrian combined driving events. This year, we're proud to welcome Michele to the ClickerExpo faculty. We recently spoke to Michele about her breadth of experience and success.

Steve Benjamin, CPDT, is a faculty member of Karen Pryor Academy for Animal Training & Behavior, our brand-new institute for clicker trainers. We spoke to Steve recently about his career as a dog trainer, and how his 28 years with the FBI were, surprisingly, an excellent foundation for clicker training.