ClickerExpo Session Details 2014 - Bromley Cross, Lancashire

We are the Ch-ampions Obedience Skills in Competition
Cecilie Koste

Clicker training is THE way to train a high-scoring obedience competition dog. Done right, clicker training develops a canine partner that performs just as well in competition as in training. Join Norwegian presenter Cecilie Køste, co-founder of a chain of European clicker training schools that concentrate on developing top-flight competitors, as she shows you how to apply the clicker training you know in innovative ways to achieve extraordinary results.

In this Session, you'll gain new and exciting insights into how clicker training can make obedience training easier and increase your precision and reliability. Using revealing and instructive video, you will learn how to break advanced exercises down into manageable units, to identify the basic skills needed in the obedience exercises, and to walk away with the essentials for training those skills.

People at all levels of obedience competition will benefit enormously from this Session, but the Session will be aimed at those with a solid grasp of clicker training principles and techniques and solid experience in competition obedience.

Hold It,Get It,Bring It, Give It The Multi-Purpose Clicked Retrieve
Michele Pouliot

• Hold It,Get It,Bring It, Give It: The Multi-Purpose Clicked Retrieve In Action

The “retrieve” behavior is impressive to watch and useful to train. But training even a basic retrieve can be very challenging for a number of dogs and their trainers. Many trainers can teach a basic retrieve, but are challenged developing a solid delivery to hand or other target. On top of that, some trainers still insist that a clicker trained retrieve is not reliable.

This Session challenges that belief. Michele Pouliot will demonstrate the advantages of the clicker trained retrieve, provide the steps to move forward with your dog, and offer tools to use to move forward with other animals. You’ll see how the clicker trained retrieve becomes a highly useful, flexible skill in your dog’s repertoire. Whether your retrieve goals are for competitive obedience, for service dog work, or just for fun, this Session is for you.

In this Session, attendees will learn:

• Two different approaches to clicker training a retrieve that allow for options with dogs of varying temperaments
• How to increase a dog’s desire to retrieve (even a dog that has no natural inclination to retrieve)
• Detailed steps for training an effective retrieve that has duration-hold behavior
• Handler timing and location for presenting the article to be retrieved

This Session will include video demonstrations of all steps, video of challenging responses during the training process, and even video of horses retrieving. You’ll learn each step in creating a happy and reliable retrieve.

Prior to 2001, Michele used traditional methods to train the retrieve, personally training more than 350 guide dogs and several pets to retrieve via traditional methods, including three Obedience Trial Champions. In 2001, Michele trained her first clicker retrieve and never looked back. After training five horses to retrieve, she realized just how reliable a clicker retrieve could be. Michele’s clicker retrieve training has been applied successfully to guide dogs, service dogs, and dozens of dogs in the competitive sports of canine freestyle and competitive obedience.

Training Thoughtfully
Kay Laurence

In this Session Kay will replace myths and superstitions with the underlying ethics, philosophy, and principles of modern training. Thoughtful training benefits every animal you interact with, whether you are breeding, competing at the highest level, house-training a new pup, or helping your elderly dog get in the car. We will examine the core of your beliefs, and how those beliefs affect your interaction, communication, planning what you teach, and the application and maintenance of long-term behavior. The height of thoughtful training is learning how to stay with your ethics when surrounded by differing opinions. Learn to respect your own lifetime contract with your dog, instead of responding to the opinion of passing strangers. Kay will present some very logical processes that will enable you to journey "with new eyes."

Hooking Up! Chaining Behaviors
Cecilie Koste

A behavior chain is an event in which two or more behaviors occur in sequence, linked together by cues. If you are training in competition or in any high-performance setting, understanding chaining is essential. Many types of competition and performance work are based on and trained with a deep use of behavior chains, including service work, search and rescue, agility, obedience, tracking, freestyle, and field trials, to name a few. Simple chains can develop accidentally in daily life as well, often leading to unwanted behavior.

Behavior chains can vary from simple two-step chains linked closely in time to complex chains of multiple behaviors with long duration, such as in search and rescue work. A well-executed chain is a thrill to watch as the animal performs a multipart skill without introducing errors or correction.

While there are many concepts to grasp in chaining behaviors, a foundation concept is the role of cues.

Attendees in this Session should already have a solid understanding of cues and cueing.

Join Cecilie Køste for a complete grounding in chaining. Through extensive video examples, Cecilie will cover chaining in-depth including:

• The vital role of cues in chaining and creating a "continuous behavior"
• Why and how cues become the information equivalent of a click — a conditioned reinforcer
• The process of linking multiple behaviors together with cues
• Adjusting for fixed sequence (A–B-C) vs. variable sequence (C-B-A or B-C-A) challenges
• The key role of back-chaining in building reliable chains more quickly
• How to avoid building accidental chains
• Why chains "break" and what to do about it

When you understand chains — how to build and repair them, how to interrupt them, and how to avoid breaking them by accident — you have an essential and powerful training toolkit in your repertoire. You many never think of building any set of behaviors quite the same way again — and that's exactly right.

The Joy of Training
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.

Why does clicker training have such a joyous impact on learning? How does puzzle-solving become a joy in itself? This Learning Lab will help you to set up your training to build your dog’s personal sense of enjoyment through achievement—and yours, too! You will learn how to set up both your learner and yourself for success.

Exercises in thoughtful training can happen even at the simplest level, such as targeting, finding locations, interacting with objects, or creating body awareness. We practice fine slicing, taking very small steps forward to make the learning actually progress faster, while avoiding confusion and frustration that diminishes the learning experience. While the experience level for this Lab is rated Intermediate, it would be exciting and useful for advanced trainers and competition dogs as well.