Upcoming courses

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.

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!

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.

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.

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!

Preparation for frisbee is a series of four courses  that are meant to turn newbie dog frisbee adept into a team with good foundations that allow them to have fun with flying plastic safely. 

What is a Foundation? 

It’s a group of skills and behaviors. Whenever we think about where to start we should consider where do we want to end up. What our dog will be doing few years from now? 

In most general terms dogfrisbee is a game where dogs chase, jump and catch. So our plan should contain:

1. Physical preparation- conditioning muscles, joints, ligaments and tendons for all those taxing, flashy behaviors.
2. Skills- dog will need to keep track of what it’s body while traveling with high speed. Be able to follow flying discs and adjust it’s behavior accordingly, showcase tremendous coordination of entire body
3. Behaviors- there is simply a lot of stuff that our dog needs to do. We can throw him into deep water and hope that it will be fine… Disclaimer usually it ends with” my dog is bad a frisbee”. Or we can teach what to do instead. Your choice. 

Do we doing part one? 

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. 

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- swiftly changing 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. 

In order to to take maximal benefit out of this course you and your dog should be able to tug “happily” for around 30 seconds. If you struggle with it you should check out my course “Iron Jaws” before signing up for preparation for frisbee.

Preparation for frisbee is a series of four courses  that are meant to turn newbie dog frisbee adept into a team with good foundations that allow them to have fun with flying plastic safely. 

What is a Foundation? 

It’s a group of skills and behaviors. Whenever we think about where to start we should consider where do we want to end up. What our dog will be doing few years from now? 

In most general terms dogfrisbee is a game where dogs chase, jump and catch. So our plan should contain:

1. Physical preparation- conditioning muscles, joints, ligaments and tendons for all those taxing, flashy behaviors.
2. Skills- dog will need to keep track of what it’s body while traveling with high speed. Be able to follow flying discs and adjust it’s behavior accordingly, showcase tremendous coordination of entire body
3. Behaviors- there is simply a lot of stuff that our dog needs to do. We can throw him into deep water and hope that it will be fine… Disclaimer usually it ends with” my dog is bad a frisbee”. Or we can teach what to do instead. Your choice. 

Do we doing part one? 

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. 

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- swiftly changing 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. 

In order to to take maximal benefit out of this course you and your dog should be able to tug “happily” for around 30 seconds. If you struggle with it you should check out my course “Iron Jaws” before signing up for preparation for frisbee.

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?

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!

T

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.