"You know the challenge. If you teach people to handle, train, or compete with their dogs (or horses), it’s only natural to focus on the furry, four-legged half of the team. Of course, you have studied their behaviors and know when they are ready for action or need a break. You plan carefully for their learning with successive approximations and plenty of reinforcement. But what about the human?
Do you know that humans display displacement behaviors and calming signals? Do you know that they learn best with brief instructions, repetition to fluency, and positive reinforcement? How can you develop a well-educated, confident human that will ensure the success of the human/animal team? First, you have to look away from the dog.
During this working Lab/lecture, we will discuss how to observe and acknowledge human behavior; we will practice using that information to provide a fun and efficient learning environment for everyone.
- Find motivation to focus on the human
- Identify human behavior that can influence learning, including displacement behaviors and calming signals
- Discover reinforcement for the human student
- Create effective 1-minute, human-only training sessions
- Human or animal partner—who should learn which skill first?
- Practice the logistics of separating the humans from their animal partners in a class scenario
