Wow. What an amazing experience for me, and I hope for the 250 participants in the Madison Seminar. We spent the weekend immersed in hot-off-the-press research on canine behavior, (I was worried it would be too wonky but apparently I'm not the only one starved for intellectual stimulation about dog behavior!), and Ken Ramirez's inspiring wisdom about training, well illustrated by compelling videos and stories. You just can't listen to this man talk and not be a better trainer for it. We were even honored by the presence of David Wroblewski, the author of the deservedly best-selling and instant American Classic, The Story of Edgar Sawtelle. I'm basically brain dead today, able only to mumble monosyllabic nonsense, but I'm looking forward to lots of posts inspired by the weekend, from Read More
Early Bird Seminar Registration Almost Over
My eagle-eyed conference coordinator, Katie, asked me to remind you all the early bird pricing (about 10% off) for the Madison Seminar on October 29 and 30th is over at midnight on Friday, September 30th. The host hotel also has a special conference rate that expires on Friday too, and space for the seminar is limited (and registrations are pouring in, wheee!) so if you are thinking about coming, now's the time to act. As always, if you are a blog reader please, please come up and say hi. I always love to meet readers in person. I also should mention that you can get up to 20% for groups of 10 and over, 10% off for 5 to 9. I'm having a ball getting back to working on the seminar now that we are back from Scotland. Have I mentioned how much great research has been done on dog behavior Read More
The Value of Basic Training Skills
Here's one of the great lessons Ken Ramirez had for us at the Clicker Expo in Chicago last weekend: The basics aren't really all that basic after all. In his experience, one of the most common mistakes he sees in even experienced trainers is forgetting the importance of some of the basics. Here are some of the reminders he shared, and believe me, I am taking them all to heart. Precision: Yes, we all know it, timing is everything, but no matter how obvious it is, it is often forgotten. This is relevant whether you are using a marker (like a clicker or 'yes') or not, often because we don't do the following: Clean Delivery: Ken reminded us that dropping the treat on the ground or fumbling the delivery can be very aversive to our dogs. Say we are on a roll, clicking and treating at a Read More
Seminar Registration Open!
With virtually no objectivity what so ever, I'm excited to announce that registration is open for a completely new seminar, to be held in Madison, WI on October 29th & 30th. I'll be working much of the summer on creating an up-to-the-minute summary of what we know about canine behavior and cognition for Saturday, and Ken Ramirez, simply the best animal trainer I know, will knock your socks off with his presentation on Sunday about how to solve training problems and use reinforcements in a way you've probably never thought of before. Last summer I left his seminar motivated to train anything that breathed before I could get home to Willie. (I can report that it does not work on TV remote controls in hotel rooms, and okay, granted, remote controls can't breathe, but I was unable to stop Read More
Save the Date! Oct 29-30 Madison WI 2011
Oh boy oh boy. We've just finalized arrangements to hold a seminar in Madison Wisconsin on October 29-30, 2011. Inspired by the seminar I did in New Zealand, I'm going to give a completely updated version of Advanced Canine Behavior on Saturday. The day will include state of the art research on cognition, play and development, and its practical implications to owners and trainers. Ken Ramirez of the Shedd Acquarium will present on Sunday, and will focus on raising the bar on your training techniques. I heard him give this talk in Massachusetts last summer, and left so inspired that I began attempting to train my pencil. Seriously, this man is fantastic. We are totally jazzed about this seminar, and will have details about registration up on the website soon. We're just finalizing some Read More