Taming The Wild Side: ClickerExpo 2011

Last weekend I attended Karen Pryor's ClickerExpo in Newport Beach California. Karen Pryor is is the CEO of Karen Pryor Clickertraining and Karen Pryor Academy. Karen is a great spokesperson and teacher of force-free training. She transformed animal training through her work with dolphins and layed the groundwork for force-free training methods based on operant conditioning and the conditioned reinforcer. I attended some great seminars and met several well known, accomplished clicker trainers. I learned many new training techniques that I can't wait to use in our classes and private sessions.

I had the pleasure of attending a session with Kathy Sdao, a certified applied animal behaviorist, who trained marine mammals to detect mines for the US Navy. This session explained the difference between cues and commands. Commands are threats that imply "do it or else", signaling opportunity to avoid punishment. Cues are "go signals", green lights for specific behaviors, signaling opportunity to gain reinforcement. At "Taming the Wild Side" we will only use cues so that your dog is always willing to offer you behavior and training is viewed by your dog as fun and a new game! Some other points that Kathy brought out, were how to make a cue leap out from background distractions and how to deliver cues clearly and consistently.

Another session I attended was with Ken Ramirez, Vice President of Animal Training at the Shedd Aquarium in Chicago. Ken discussed aggression treatment and context and this was one of the sessions where I learned the most! He outlined several approaches to treating dog aggression, such as Counter Conditioning, Constructional Aggression Treatment (CAT), Click to Calm, Behavioral Adjustment Training (BAT), the "Look at That" game (LAT) and many others. He highlighted the pros and cons of using each technique. His explanation of the various techniques has given me more insight into developing a training plan for dogs that need behavior modification.

Emma Parsons, author of the book "Click to Calm", combined her session with Leslie McDevitt's "Control Unleashed". Her session focused on teaching a dog how to control himself, and continue to be in control, when they are exposed to a chaotic environment. These techniques included massage, working within the threshold, letting the dog look at the object of distraction, foundation behaviors and games to help gain control. "Taming the Wild Side" will offer a course utilizing these techniques to help manage reactive dogs.

Eva Bertilsson and Emelie Johnson Vegh, Swedish authorities on agility training, and authors of the book, "Agility Right From the Start", had an awesome session about building confidence with Noise and Movement. Using noise and movement as the marker for reinforcing a behavior is a new technique to me. Basically, this means that noise and movement predicts the appearance of great stuff. I am excited about this training because I can see how this can be beneficial for sound sensitive dogs and possibly be used in our therapy dog class.

Julie Shaw, an animal behaviorist at Purdue University, conducted a session that was my absolute favorite! This session focused on reactive dogs and their triggers. Some dogs may have a trigger that is controlled. Controlled triggers give you a starting point allowing you to desensitize them to the trigger that is causing the behavior issue. Triggers in the environment that you cannot control are more difficult because the dog is in a constant state of arousal and their anxiety level must be brought down through medication before the dog will be relaxed enough to focus on training. I loved this session because Julie worked with reactive dogs and showed us that dogs that appeared to be well behaved were actually shut down because their anxiety level was so high that they could not react to anything. It was amazing to see the small changes in body language that indicate that a dog is completely fearful of his environment instead of being just a well behaved dog. For example, one dog that was used was observed laying quietly by his owner, didn't mind being petted by strangers and seemed to be a very confident dog. Two days later in the training lab, when we worked with him one on one, we realized his good behavior was a symptom of the anxiety he felt due to loud noises, other dogs and fast moving objects. This is a dog that would require medication in order to begin his training. Determing if the trigger is controlled or uncontrolled is a key step in behavior modification.

I also had the chance to meet and visit with Victoria Stilwell, from Animal Planet's "It's Me or the Dog". Victoria has a true passion for dogs and her goal is to do what she can to make their lives better. She was delightful, funny and took her commitment to enhancing the lives of dogs very seriously.

Come join us at "Taming the Wild Side"! Your dogs are going to have a blast!!