Upcoming courses

This course is dedicated to getting the highest level of fluency in our behaviors by getting geeky and diving deep into each training session.

How do we do that?

The short answer is: We focus on behavior. Both ours, and our learnes behavior.

We are going to analyze everything in the session, both from the handlers position and timing, to everything the dogs does.

So I will emphasize,- this course is geeky, and it is a good thing, if you are prepared to use quite a lot of time, of practicing using the schedules, and being comfortable with just focusing on behavior.

You will, as a premium participant, be asked to fill out quite a few schedules ad homework, to get comfortable with them.

Analyzing our sessions to this degree can be slightly scary and seem overwhelming in the beginning.

Luckily, as with anything else, the more we practice doing it the right way, the more fluent in behavior we become.

And what we leave this course with, is very fine-tuned observation skills, that will help us in the future. Both when we want to improve our own sessions, and also if we are helping someone else.

Having practiced your observational skills, takes you a big step towards being a favorite training partner.

In this course, we will work on a few specific behaviors that you would like to have perfected. You can chose some, or I can suggest some. This course is not about teaching as many behaviors as possible – that is the “Off cue- off control” course. Here, we dive much deeper into fewer behaviors.
We work with the learner offering the behavior off cue and perfecting it, till we have the behaviors freakishly fluent.

This is a course where there is going to be a significant amount of work, taking data, and reviewing the videos from every session, again and again.
We use a lot of benchmarking schedules to track the progress, and you will learn how to take your training to the next level with this tool.

This course covers:

• Introduction to what fluency is and how we get it
• The science and definitions behind it
• Benchmarking schedules on the following topics
  • Timing
  • Criteria
  • Reinforcement
  • Off cue behaviors
  • Stimulus control
  • Chaining
  • Training focus
  • Mechanical skills

When this course finishes, the goal is for you to have ninja skills in clicker training, and have freakishly fluent behaviors!

Self-study course! Auditors only! (No premium spots in this course)

Positive reinforcement training is about setting up for success and making sure desired behaviors are followed by reinforcers, which strengthen the behavior in the future. In this course you get to join the Swedish duo Eva and Emelie as they zoom in on the small but important details that make up a training session, from one reward to the next. What happens right after each reward? What happens within your reward procedure? And why does it matter?

In “Seamlessness – from one reward to the next” you will learn learn how to work deliberately with small but significant details, paying attention to all the parts of the training loop and using them to create seamless training sessions. The material in this course will help you develop your own training sessions further.  Your planning will get better, your training will become smoother, and both you and your learner will enjoy the process even more than before!

Course syllabus:

Week 1
Lesson 1 – Introduction to the course
Lesson 2 – The underpinnings
Lesson 3 – From one reward to the next – overview
Week 2
Lesson 4 – Training session fundamentals
Lesson 5 – The reward ends
Week 3
Lesson 6 – Criteria
Lesson 7 – Mark
Week 4
Lesson 8 – The reward appears
Lesson 9 – Take the reward
Lesson 10 – During the reward
Week 5
Lesson 11 – The reward ends (again)
Lesson 12 – Criteria not met
Week 6
Lesson 13 – Putting behavior together
Lesson 14 – Flowcharting your training session
Lesson 15 – Summarizing seamlessness

This is a 6 week self-study course. New lessons will be presented each week  (a total of 15 lessons) and you will have continued access to the material after the course finishes.

We have so much material we wish to share with you on this topic – in this course, we put it together in a comprehensive yet extensive form. Our goal is to provide you with a lot of information and ideas from which you can extrapolate the aspects you currently wish to work with in your own training.

The course is auditors only,  allowing you to digest the material at your own pace and consider how it relates to your own training.  There will be follow-up courses with practical training and feedback from us, we just wish to have everyone on the same page first…   There are so many aspects to consider – it literally takes us six weeks to get from one reward to the next!

This is the continuation of the course Off cue- off control vol. 1

This is suitable for everyone who has started working with “off cue” behavior, and wants to keep practicing the skills, to get even better.

In this extension of the topic, e we will continue to work with breaking down all the things you would like your learner to able to do, into single behaviors. We focus on developing multiple of the skills you and your learner need, to teach them exactly what you dream off. This time, we will take them a bit further, and practice getting more fluency.

We will also look at other variations of the behaviors, than we did in the first course.

We will also still have all the content from vol.1 for you to brush up on. That being said, vol 2 is for you, if you have already taken vol 1, or already have experience in structuring your sessions like this.

We do this, as always,  by shaping and capturing behaviors, and we work with them off cue, to make sure we get the exact behavior.

We will in this vol. 2 put a bit extra focus on setting the environment up for the behavior to happen.

The focus of this course is to get the learner started on offering behaviors. We will try to build a big repetoire of behaviors, so that our learners get creative and become an very active part of our training.

If you want to start all the behaviors this course covers, there is going to be quite a lot of work – so be prepared for that.

The behaviors we will cover and work more with, in this course are:

• Focus
• Targeting
• Sit
• Backing
• Heel position
• Recall
• Heeling
• Down
• Stand
• Stay
• Doggie-zen
• Hold it
• Release
• Bark
• Jump
• Search

Under each behavior box, there are several behaviors. We will go through a few of them, and you are always free to chose which behaviors you would like to focus on.

We will also discuss the topics of:

• Off cue
• Fluency
• Doggie-zen
• Cues

This course focus will be working without treats in hand and helping as little as possible, without leaving your animal frustrated.

We give the learner the highest rage of choice we can, and teach the learner to actively take part in the training.

I cant wait to get to learn with you 🙂

This course is dedicated to making you an expert in backchaining.

You will leave this course with a desire to back chain everything you can, and have gotten very comfortable with splitting everything into behaviors to perfect.

Some sessions are dedicated to the topic of cues, where we will look deep at, why some cues are like shooting an arrow, and others are more like pushing a car, up hill. We will also discuss the topic of off cue behaviors, having fluency, and very good stimulus control.

Backchaining is one of those things, that be, and seem very simple. But only when you dive a bit deeper into the subject and start realizing what it actually is that happens, and how every single thing we do in the process effects the chain, we will get the full advantages of using it.

We will:

• go through the pros and cons of backchaining
• Briefly touch base on forward chaining – but we are not going to spend a lot of time on that
• Have lessons on off cue behaviors, and if thats a good thing to have
• Go through the process of adding cues to already fluent behaviors
• Make the cue a green light for performing the behavior.
• Dissect the cues, if there are learning history that gives slower responses
• Find out what is brutally exposed, when we’re backchaining.
• Figure what the glue is, that make chains so strong
• Dive into the double effect of each behavior (R+ for previous cue AND green light to the next)
• Exercise backchaining in everything we do
• Discuss the optional response to a mistake in a chain
• Go through the testing phase
• Discuss the difficult job that is, being the handler
• Practice without dogs too

This course is most suited for teams that already have good solid fluency behavior and also at least 3 reliable cues, that has been learned  with positive reinforcement.

You can participate if you want to work with fun chains that you can use around your house, with tricks or with competition exercises. The most important thing is, that youre willing to spend 6 weeks of your life, learning about backchaining.

You struggle to groom your dog without having him mouth the brush ?

You can’t cut his nails ?

Your dog is running away as soon as you pronounce “shower” ?

Your dog stresses out so much at the clinic or at the groomer that he trembles, shuts down or tries to escape ?

You have to care for your dog and it’s complicated to do it alone at home ?

Your dog doesn’t like to put the collar, harness, muzzle or cone ?

You want your dog to be stressfree and cooperate with him in all sorts of care procedures ?

You want to improve the communication with your dog, develop a trusting relationship and give him more choice opportunities and control on his life ?

If you see yourself in one of this situations, this class is made for you !

Cooperative husbandry training aims to teach animal to assist in their own care.

It’s an ethical and pratical choice. It is used in most of zoological parcs to care for wild animals avoiding restrain, anesthesia and reducing stress. Husbandry training is part of daily enrichment programs. Through this training we give the animal the skills and the opportunities to give his consent. Giving them choice and control over their environnement improves their general welfare.

If we can draw blood from a girafe or an orca without using force…why not do the same with our pets ?

Empowering our dogs in their own care not only make it easier, but also enrich our life together.

Some of the topics covered in this course :

• Understanding and using science basics in husbandry training.
• Teaching consent positions.
• Empowerment : Understanding importance of choice and control.
• Behavior, consequences and functions : how to use them to converse with animals.
• Teaching your dog the consent concept.
• How to train your dog through various daily procedures such as : handling, grooming, bathing, nails care, ears and eyes care, teeth brushing, muzzle training…
• What to do when our dog is not ready and you have to do it. Consequences.

A second level course will be focusing on training the dog to third party care such as the vet, the groomer, the osteopath.

You struggle to groom your dog without having him mouth the brush ?

You can’t cut his nails ?

Your dog is running away as soon as you pronounce “shower” ?

Your dog stresses out so much at the clinic or at the groomer that he trembles, shuts down or tries to escape ?

You have to care for your dog and it’s complicated to do it alone at home ?

Your dog doesn’t like to put the collar, harness, muzzle or cone ?

You want your dog to be stressfree and cooperate with him in all sorts of care procedures ?

You want to improve the communication with your dog, develop a trusting relationship and give him more choice opportunities and control on his life ?

If you see yourself in one of this situations, this class is made for you !

Cooperative husbandry training aims to teach animal to assist in their own care.

It’s an ethical and pratical choice. It is used in most of zoological parcs to care for wild animals avoiding restrain, anesthesia and reducing stress. Husbandry training is part of daily enrichment programs. Through this training we give the animal the skills and the opportunities to give his consent. Giving them choice and control over their environnement improves their general welfare.

If we can draw blood from a girafe or an orca without using force…why not do the same with our pets ?

Empowering our dogs in their own care not only make it easier, but also enrich our life together.

Some of the topics covered in this course :

• Understanding and using science basics in husbandry training.
• Teaching consent positions.
• Empowerment : Understanding importance of choice and control.
• Behavior, consequences and functions : how to use them to converse with animals.
• Teaching your dog the consent concept.
• How to train your dog through various daily procedures such as : handling, grooming, bathing, nails care, ears and eyes care, teeth brushing, muzzle training…
• What to do when our dog is not ready and you have to do it. Consequences.

A second level course will be focusing on training the dog to third party care such as the vet, the groomer, the osteopath.

This is a course for you, if you want to work with your dog on getting a large behaviors repertoire, and rely on as little helping tools as possible.

In this course we will work with breaking down all the things you would like your learner to able to do, into single behaviors. We focus on developing multiple of the skills you and your learner need, to teach them exactly what you dream off.

We do this by shaping and capturing behaviors, and we work with them off cue, to make sure we get the exact behavior.

The focus of this course is to get the learner started on offering behaviors. We will try to build a big repetoire of behaviors, so that our learners get creative and become an very active part of our training.

If you want to start all the behaviors this course covers, there is going to be quite a lot of work – so be prepared for that.

The behaviors we will cover in this course are:

• Focus
• Targeting
• Sit
• Backing
• Heel position
• Recall
• Heeling
• Down
• Stand
• Stay
• Doggie-zen
• Hold it
• Release
• Bark
• Jump
• Search

Under each behavior box, there are several behaviors. We will go through a few of them, and you are always free to chose which behaviors you would like to focus on.

We will also discuss the topics of:

• Off cue
• Fluency
• Doggie-zen
• Cues

Pocket it! This course focus will be working without treats in hand and helping as little as possible, without leaving your animal frusrated.

We give the learner the highest rage of choice we can, and teach the learner to actively take part in the training.

This will be part 1, where you get introduced to all of the behaviors, and then select 1 to work with from every box.  In vol. 2, we will work more on fluency and adding variations to the behaviors.

This course is suitable for you, if you would like your dog to offer you more behaviors and like to shape them in the direction you want. If you already have all the above behaviors off cue, part 2 would be a suitable option for you.

(more…)

Dogs’ olfactory abilities amaze us and what they manage to do with their noses is truly astounding.
Nosework is a sport that uses most natural, amazing dog’s abilities and develops them into perfection.

Nosework is one of the greatest dog sports, making its way to the top most popular canine activities. Inspired by working detection dogs searching for narcotics, explosives, nosework makes it available for everyone. Dogs are searching for essential oils hidden in vehicles, interiors, water, exteriors, and containers and they love it!

“No limitations”
This sport is for everyone! It is a perfect activity for old, retired, or disabled dogs who want to stay in shape but can’t be physically challenged. Aggressive dogs are welcome too!
Pure breed, crossbreed, old, young, slow, fast – it doesn’t matter what type your dog is!

During the course we focus on:

• what is nosework; rules reading
• classically conditioning odors
• building solid alert behavior using clicker training
• introducing discrimination between hot and cold objects
• introducing various odor holders
• introducing cardboard boxes
• generalization

Course syllabus:

Week 1:
Lesson 1 – Welcome and Introductions
Lesson 2 – What is nosework?
Lesson 3 – Nosework International and methods we use
Lesson 4 – Samples preparation and handling odor
Lesson 5 – Cocktail or not to cocktail?
Lesson 6 – Classical conditioning of odor
Lesson 7 – Hand touch

Week 2:
Lesson 8 – Tic-tac!
Lesson 9 – Precision
Lesson 10 – Duration

Week 3:
Lesson 11 – Cue for alert behavior
Lesson 12 – Handler’s movement

Week 4:
Lesson 13 – Competing stimulus
Lesson 14 – Various holders

Week 5:
Lesson 15 – Location of the holder – variations
Lesson 16 – Discrimination

Week 6:
Lesson 17 – New locations
Lesson 18 – New locations
Lesson 19 – Cue for the search

There are 3 more nosework course stages.

Control Is An Illusion Pt. 2 – Applying Skills & Deepening Understanding

Now that you’ve learned to re-frame the concept of impulse control in terms of stimulus control, and have practiced some core skills with your dogs, it’s time to fade-in more complex environmental stimuli and challenges.

The goal of this class will be to provide graduates of Pt. 1 with the opportunity to deepen their understanding of stimulus control and errorless teaching. Curriculum will be centered around the development of independent projects, but participants may also opt. to use their coaching time to complete or expand upon exercises from Pt. 1 as well, such as:

• Three Act Training Structure with Brave Learning Self-Review
• Bread-crumb Trail Teaching Progressions
• Clarifying Contexts: When to Offer Behavior and When to Wait for Cues
• Zen Bowl Games
• Advanced Shopping
• Joyous “Wait There” Applied to Real Life
• Fade in Protocol

This class will have a lot less reading and step by step guidelines, and a lot more doing it for yourselves! Come prepared to set some actionable goals, to design your own training plans, and to dive headfirst into the cycle of performance—feedback—revision.

Let the brave learning begin!

NOTE: The prerequisite for Pt. 2 is Control Is An Illusion Pt. 1. Auditors of Pt. 1 are welcome to join if you were able to keep up with the material, and feel like you and you dogs are ready for increased challenges. You can also use Pt. 2 to continue to work on Pt. 1 exercises in a more targeted way. Mastery is not required!

This course is designed to create the necessary building blocks for effective communication between you and your dog.    It will teach you how to train your canine companion a repertoire of core behaviours.  Along with the skills of how to then effectively apply and progress them.  On completion of working through the exercises and lessons you will have a strong, solid base to progress you and your learners training from.

Essential Foundation Behaviours is suitable for dogs of any age, stage and can be an important refresher to assist overcoming any training glitches you may encounter.   These foundation behaviours form the basis of a successful training future.  Also, are required to be solid in order to accomplishing desired results.   You will learn how to apply behaviour theory in a practical manner through positive reinforcement methods to build a stock of functional behaviours.

Use this course as the first stage of your training journey, or a review of your current situation to reinforce the foundations you have already began.  Plus, you will learn the ability to review and improve on the work you carry out with your canine companion.

Course Content

Everyone and their dog will benefit from participating in this course.  Over the 6 weeks you will be learning how to teach ethically the following useful exercises:

• Training Mechanics – practical and theoretical information on assessment and development of trainer skills, to facilitate improvement and progression.
• Attention – This is the required essential foundation behaviour to enable your learner to choose to engage and work with you.
• Touch – one of the most useful foundation behaviours, as it provides the basis for so many targeting behaviours.
• Mat/Bed/Crate – an extremely useful targeting and stationing exercise.
• Down – this behaviour will enable you to be able to station your canine companion in a comfortable position.
• Settle – a fantastic life skill of how to rest and physically relax on cue.
• Follow me – working as a team, moving together in unison.
• Recall – teach your dog to return to you reliably when cued.
• Drop – a potentially life saving behaviour, helping our dogs to eject objects from their mouth.
• Feed retreat – train your canine companion to comfortably retreat from a situation.

Obedience; distance control exercise, position changes with front anchored.

Position changes are one of my favorite exercises from the obedience ring. Starting in class 1 all the way to Elite class (class 3) there is always something we can focus on when doing position changes. This exercise is a perfect combination of precision and speed which equals fluency! Distance control is also a perfect exercise for behavior/precision nerd like myself! There is a lot of focus on those micro-movements, tiny weight shifts that change the whole process of learning.

The course will cover:

✔️ front anchored positions

– sit from stand

– sit from down

– stand from down

– stand from sit

– down from sit

– down from stand

✔️ building precision in each movement

✔️ adding distance

✔️ adding cues

✔️ adding duration

✔️ trial variations

Rear anchored positions will be covered in different courses.

Prerequisites:

– clicker training foundations.

Special summer edition!

Self-study course, auditors only (no premium spots in this course),
with extensive material including step-by-step exercises for you to practice with your learner!

Through start button behaviors, we can give our learning partners control over various procedures by having them tell us when to go ahead and when to stop. This course will serve as an introduction to understanding and working with start button contingencies. You will learn how to structure your training sessions to include clear yes and no opportunities, and we will dive into the concepts of choice and control and begin incorporating start button behaviors in various settings. Learn these techniques and you’ll be able to take another giant step towards a place where you and your animal are true partners in the training process!

Course syllabus – these are the lessons we’ll go through in this six week course:

1. Welcome to the start button course
2. Start button behavior – what and why?
3. Getting started – pairing procedure with a twist
4. Let a start button behavior emerge
5. What if my learner doesn’t say ”yes”?
6. Shaping meets start buttons
7. Adding behavior between the presentation and the reward
8. Working with ongoing stimuli
9. Duration behavior as continuous start button
10. Predictability
11. Further options for starting and stopping
12. Summarizing start button work
13. Some final inspiration
14. Goodbye!

Start button behaviors are behaviors that learners perform, and that functions as cues for the teacher to make the next move. If the learner doesn’t do the start button behavior, the teacher doesn’t progress.

Through start button behaviors we as teachers get information about how we are doing in our training.  If the package that we present after the start button behavior is functioning as a reinforcer, then there will be short latency and high persistance in the start button behavior. If, on the other hand, we see latency, or the start button behavior doesn’t occur or is interrupted – then we know that the package we have presented contingent upon that start button behavior isn’t reinforcing enough – which is super valuable information to us, because then we  get the opportunity to instantly make adjustments and improvements in our training.

So it’s never about the specific start button behavior as such – that behavior is just a tool for clearer communication!  It is as if the learner is pressing a start button which makes the trainer continue to the next step.  From the trainer’s perspective: In a certain situation, if I see this response (the start button behavior), I present my stimulus (object, movement, noise, cue or whatever it is that you start) which is followed (instantly, or after a sorter or longer sequence) by a reinforcer (treat, toy, belly rub, or what the maintaining reinforcer might be). From the learner’s perspective in turn: In a certain situation, if I do this response (the start button behavior), then that stimulus will occur which in turn is followed by a reinforcer either directly or after I have done some more behavior(s).

Having the learner be in control provides us with a good way to be able to listen, making sure that we’re not pushing the pace of the training or moving in the wrong the direction all together. Thus, start button work is a tool for us as trainers to help us become even better partners for our learners!

To learn more about where we’re coming from with this subject and find a variety of other resources, please check out www.animalsincontrol.com

Welcome to the course! //E&E

This course is very sentimental for me. My dog didn’t tug at all. He didn’t like to take things into his mouth but I really wanted to play Frisbee so we started learning how to tug. At that time I knew very little and our journey was full of frustration. That wasn’t a fun experience for any of us.

We were working hard (I’m pretty stubborn so I kept trying) and after a year we managed to bring tugging to the level where I can call that a reinforcement. Was it hard? Definitely… Would it be easier to do if I had known as much as I know now? It would!

So what is “Iron Jaws”? It’s a compendium of knowledge which I hope I have known when I started. I know that I am not the only one who struggled with this behavior. It’s harder than most people think and that’s why I wrote this course.

The goal is to teach you to tug and give you a clear view on what to do BUT “what” is not enough for me. With a little help of science I will show you why does it work. Tugging is not magic. It’s a behavior like a sit or lie down and shares the same principles of learning. It’s also one of the best ways for creating strong and happy relationship with your dog AND it’s so fun to do!

Lessons you can expect can be divided into three major categories:

1. Basics of learning- We will introduce simple concepts like ABC’s, primary and secondary reinforcer, motivation and operationalising behaviors we want to teach. It will be our scientific core for understanding why we teach the way we do.
2. Myths- common knowledge and misunderstandings about tugging. We will dig deep into why things happen and we will question what we know.
3. Tugging- Pure practice and mechanics of the game. How to do it right. Meaning what to do to be safe and have a blast together.

If your dog doesn’t “like” to tug this course is for you!

This course is very sentimental for me. My dog didn’t tug at all. He didn’t like to take things into his mouth but I really wanted to play Frisbee so we started learning how to tug. At that time I knew very little and our journey was full of frustration. That wasn’t a fun experience for any of us.

We were working hard (I’m pretty stubborn so I kept trying) and after a year we managed to bring tugging to the level where I can call that a reinforcement. Was it hard? Definitely… Would it be easier to do if I had known as much as I know now? It would!

So what is “Iron Jaws”? It’s a compendium of knowledge which I hope I have known when I started. I know that I am not the only one who struggled with this behavior. It’s harder than most people think and that’s why I wrote this course.

The goal is to teach you to tug and give you a clear view on what to do BUT “what” is not enough for me. With a little help of science I will show you why does it work. Tugging is not magic. It’s a behavior like a sit or lie down and shares the same principles of learning. It’s also one of the best ways for creating strong and happy relationship with your dog AND it’s so fun to do!

Lessons you can expect can be divided into three major categories:

1. Basics of learning- We will introduce simple concepts like ABC’s, primary and secondary reinforcer, motivation and operationalising behaviors we want to teach. It will be our scientific core for understanding why we teach the way we do.
2. Myths- common knowledge and misunderstandings about tugging. We will dig deep into why things happen and we will question what we know.
3. Tugging- Pure practice and mechanics of the game. How to do it right. Meaning what to do to be safe and have a blast together.

If your dog doesn’t “like” to tug this course is for you!

This course is very sentimental for me. My dog didn’t tug at all. He didn’t like to take things into his mouth but I really wanted to play Frisbee so we started learning how to tug. At that time I knew very little and our journey was full of frustration. That wasn’t a fun experience for any of us.

We were working hard (I’m pretty stubborn so I kept trying) and after a year we managed to bring tugging to the level where I can call that a reinforcement. Was it hard? Definitely… Would it be easier to do if I had known as much as I know now? It would!

So what is “Iron Jaws”? It’s a compendium of knowledge which I hope I have known when I started. I know that I am not the only one who struggled with this behavior. It’s harder than most people think and that’s why I wrote this course.

The goal is to teach you to tug and give you a clear view on what to do BUT “what” is not enough for me. With a little help of science I will show you why does it work. Tugging is not magic. It’s a behavior like a sit or lie down and shares the same principles of learning. It’s also one of the best ways for creating strong and happy relationship with your dog AND it’s so fun to do!

Lessons you can expect can be divided into three major categories:

1. Basics of learning- We will introduce simple concepts like ABC’s, primary and secondary reinforcer, motivation and operationalising behaviors we want to teach. It will be our scientific core for understanding why we teach the way we do.
2. Myths- common knowledge and misunderstandings about tugging. We will dig deep into why things happen and we will question what we know.
3. Tugging- Pure practice and mechanics of the game. How to do it right. Meaning what to do to be safe and have a blast together.

If your dog doesn’t “like” to tug this course is for you!

Are you a right fit for this course?

Is your dog willing to play? Your session might be messy and unorganized but if the willingness for interaction is there it’s definitely enough!

If you answered “no” and you want to learn how to teach to enjoy toy play please check out my other course “Iron Jaws”.

What will you learn?

In short we “teach rewards”. It’s a collection of tug based games that teach a dog all those minor things that we don’t appreciate when they are there but we can get very frustrated when they aren’t. This is a core for the effectiveness of any future toy based training session.

Exercises with a dog:

1. Quality tug- how to do is right? How to make a great reinforcer and strength exercise out of it.
2. Catch the rat- introduction to chasing. Teaches a dog how to execute effective catch on moving target. How to control its body and judging the distance between him/her and a toy.
3. Drop – if you teach your dog to drop by grabbing its color you are doing it wrong. You will learn four different dropping games. Your dog will think “how can I make this human monkey to ask me to drop”.
4. Exchange work- swiftly switching from playing with one toy to another. Imagine cool looking freestyle routine. Would it be equally cool if a dog had no idea when to refocus from one frisbee to another. It’s also often used reinforcement procedure.
5. Follow me- base for fetch is a dog that wants to come back and share a toy with you. That’s what we are teaching here.
6. Tossing toys- it’s combined catch a rat with following.

You will receive one exercise per week. On top of that additional lectures covering more specific aspects and topics.

“Preparation for Frisbee” series

Preparation for Frisbee is a series of four courses  that are meant to turn newbie dogfrisbee adept into a team with good foundations that allow them to have fun with flying plastic safely. This course contains references to this sport and how all we do apply to our future play.

Remember that Frisbee is just another toy so the foundation for effective interaction and understanding between you and your dog are the key for further success. It’s a first step to getting great at my beloved sport Dogfrisbee!

Don’t worry if you are not interested in dogfrisbee. All skills and lessons apply to any toy based training.

Are you a right fit for this course?

Is your dog willing to play? Your session might be messy and unorganized but if the willingness for interaction is there it’s definitely enough!

If you answered “no” and you want to learn how to teach to enjoy toy play please check out my other course “Iron Jaws”.

What will you learn?

In short we “teach rewards”. It’s a collection of tug based games that teach a dog all those minor things that we don’t appreciate when they are there but we can get very frustrated when they aren’t. This is a core for the effectiveness of any future toy based training session.

Exercises with a dog:

1. Quality tug- how to do is right? How to make a great reinforcer and strength exercise out of it.
2. Catch the rat- introduction to chasing. Teaches a dog how to execute effective catch on moving target. How to control its body and judging the distance between him/her and a toy.
3. Drop – if you teach your dog to drop by grabbing its color you are doing it wrong. You will learn four different dropping games. Your dog will think “how can I make this human monkey to ask me to drop”.
4. Exchange work- swiftly switching from playing with one toy to another. Imagine cool looking freestyle routine. Would it be equally cool if a dog had no idea when to refocus from one frisbee to another. It’s also often used reinforcement procedure.
5. Follow me- base for fetch is a dog that wants to come back and share a toy with you. That’s what we are teaching here.
6. Tossing toys- it’s combined catch a rat with following.

You will receive one exercise per week. On top of that additional lectures covering more specific aspects and topics.

“Preparation for Frisbee” series

Preparation for Frisbee is a series of four courses  that are meant to turn newbie dogfrisbee adept into a team with good foundations that allow them to have fun with flying plastic safely. This course contains references to this sport and how all we do apply to our future play.

Remember that Frisbee is just another toy so the foundation for effective interaction and understanding between you and your dog are the key for further success. It’s a first step to getting great at my beloved sport Dogfrisbee!

Don’t worry if you are not interested in dogfrisbee. All skills and lessons apply to any toy based training.

Are you a right fit for this course?

Is your dog willing to play? Your session might be messy and unorganized but if the willingness for interaction is there it’s definitely enough!

If you answered “no” and you want to learn how to teach to enjoy toy play please check out my other course “Iron Jaws”.

What will you learn?

In short we “teach rewards”. It’s a collection of tug based games that teach a dog all those minor things that we don’t appreciate when they are there but we can get very frustrated when they aren’t. This is a core for the effectiveness of any future toy based training session.

Exercises with a dog:

1. Quality tug- how to do is right? How to make a great reinforcer and strength exercise out of it.
2. Catch the rat- introduction to chasing. Teaches a dog how to execute effective catch on moving target. How to control its body and judging the distance between him/her and a toy.
3. Drop – if you teach your dog to drop by grabbing its color you are doing it wrong. You will learn four different dropping games. Your dog will think “how can I make this human monkey to ask me to drop”.
4. Exchange work- swiftly switching from playing with one toy to another. Imagine cool looking freestyle routine. Would it be equally cool if a dog had no idea when to refocus from one frisbee to another. It’s also often used reinforcement procedure.
5. Follow me- base for fetch is a dog that wants to come back and share a toy with you. That’s what we are teaching here.
6. Tossing toys- it’s combined catch a rat with following.

You will receive one exercise per week. On top of that additional lectures covering more specific aspects and topics.

“Preparation for Frisbee” series

Preparation for Frisbee is a series of four courses  that are meant to turn newbie dogfrisbee adept into a team with good foundations that allow them to have fun with flying plastic safely. This course contains references to this sport and how all we do apply to our future play.

Remember that Frisbee is just another toy so the foundation for effective interaction and understanding between you and your dog are the key for further success. It’s a first step to getting great at my beloved sport Dogfrisbee!

Don’t worry if you are not interested in dogfrisbee. All skills and lessons apply to any toy based training.

The arrival of a new baby is a huge lifestyle change for humans….and also for the dogs we live with. In the UK behavioural problems related to the addition of a new baby to a family is one of the top 3 reasons that dogs are surrendered for rehoming.

But some preparation and simple training before the baby’s birth can prevent problems arising and set everyone in the family – human and canine – up for success.

Over the course of 6 weeks we’ll discuss a range of issues including –

• Body language: how to become more dog observant and understand the signs that your dog is becoming stressed
• Lifestyle changes: what is likely to change for your dog and how can you make these transitions easier
• Baby Incompatible Behaviours: are there things that are acceptable now but won’t be acceptable with a baby in the home?
• (Baby) Proofing Behaviours: to create rock solid behaviours under new conditions
• Supervision: what it is and what it isn’t
• New Things: familiarising your dog with new sounds, scents, equipment etc
• Homecoming & First Meetings: what to do and what not to do

The course will include practical exercises and assignments each week.

This course is for you if you are an expectant parent (or grandparent) with a dog, or are living with dogs & young babies or are a professional trainer working with family dogs.

Preparation in advance – more success, less stress!

Welcome to Positive Puppy Preschool.  The course is aimed at the new puppy owner and is about the early learning for your puppy, from 8 – 16 weeks that forms a crucial part of the socialisation period.

For those of you who have had dogs before, you may notice some changes in the early learning encouraged for young puppies.  These changes have been developed through research by several prominent universities and uses applied behaviour analysis (ABA) to underpin the learning.

What to expect

• Six weekly lessons with written information and video(s)
• Homework tasks both written, online and videoed practical training
• Daily feedback (6 days per week) for Premium Members

What is covered

• Socialisation & habituation
• Introduction to the science of learning
• The mechanics of clicker training
• Capturing, shaping & luring
• Adding cues
• Introduction to canine body language
• Exploring the environment
• Handling with consent
• Creative feeding
• Puppy play
• Planning effective training sessions
• Foundation training
  • Settle
  • Managing puppy mouthing
  • Walking on a lead
  • Coming back when called
  • Leave
  • Drop/give up items
  • Four paws on the floor (an alternative to jumping up)

Welcome to Positive Puppy Preschool.  The course is aimed at the new puppy owner and is about the early learning for your puppy, from 8 – 16 weeks that forms a crucial part of the socialisation period.

For those of you who have had dogs before, you may notice some changes in the early learning encouraged for young puppies.  These changes have been developed through research by several prominent universities and uses applied behaviour analysis (ABA) to underpin the learning.

What to expect

• Six weekly lessons with written information and video(s)
• Homework tasks both written, online and videoed practical training
• Daily feedback (6 days per week) for Premium Members

What is covered

• Socialisation & habituation
• Introduction to the science of learning
• The mechanics of clicker training
• Capturing, shaping & luring
• Adding cues
• Introduction to canine body language
• Exploring the environment
• Handling with consent
• Creative feeding
• Puppy play
• Planning effective training sessions
• Foundation training
  • Settle
  • Managing puppy mouthing
  • Walking on a lead
  • Coming back when called
  • Leave
  • Drop/give up items
  • Four paws on the floor (an alternative to jumping up)

Building upon skills we covered in stage one, we will continue our preparation for exams. ORTs and first trials. Our primary focus will always be precise and clear training loop and clarity in search criteria.

We will start where we left with stage 1 and focus on:

• start line routine
• introducing search patterns
• duration of search behavior
• handling
• building clarity in cues during search pattern
• generalization of locations
• task analysis of searches
• basics of scent theory
• increasing complexity of puzzles
• planning your own training

Course syllabus:

Week 1
Lesson 1 – Welcome and Introductions
Lesson 2 – Baseline
Lesson 3 – Chains in nosework
Lesson 4 – ABCs of the search
Lesson 5 – Start line routine
Lesson 6 – Our variables
Lesson 7 – Aging
Lesson 8 – Introducing search

Week 2
Lesson 9 – Introduction to scent theory
Lesson 10 – Inaccessible v. accessible
Lesson 11 – Introducing exteriors – boxes on the road 
Lesson 12 – Introducing exteriors – single hides
Lesson 13 – Duration of the search

Week 3
Lesson 14 – Handler’s job
Lesson 15 – Vehicles – introduction
Lesson 16 – Adding complexity to the search
Lesson 17 – Change of behavior
Lesson 18 – No visual cues

Week 4
Lesson 19 – Vehicles – cold vehicle
Lesson 20 – Exterior Progression
Lesson 21 – Vehicles – handling
Lesson 22 – Cues in nosework

Week 5
Lesson 23 – Duration of the search part 2
Lesson 24 – Crazy handler
Lesson 25 – Adding complexity to the search part 2

Week 6
Lesson 26 – Reducing the strength of the odor
Lesson 27 – Panning
Lesson 28 – What if?