Oh boy, what fun. As many of you know, I’m not doing many more full day seminars anymore, but I couldn’t resist pairing up with the Steve White for a two-day seminar outside of Chicago, Illinois on August 10th and 11th of this year. Thanks to a Facebook reader who jumped in with dozens of others with ideas for a title, we are calling the seminar Sense(s) and Sensibility. Thank you Mairi and kisses to your lovely dog, Layla!
On Saturday, I’ll be doing an updated and expanded version of “Lost in Translation,” or How Dogs use Sight, Sound, Smell and Touch to Communicate. As usual, I’ll take a comparative approach, looking at the way our sensory systems (notice the focus on vision?!) affect the behavior of the animals at both ends of the leash. The day will be full of slides, videos and demonstrations, including the role of smell in dog-dog interactions, the power of touch (both positive and negative), how to use your voicemost effectively when communicating with your dog, and how to improve your ability to “read” visual signals given by dogs.
On Sunday, the incomparable Steve White will present “What’s the Problem, Five Simple Steps to Fixing Any Behavior or Performance Problem.” Steve’s presentation will build on Saturday’s material, and is sure to send you off inspired to go home and work with your dog. Steve will argue that most behavioral problems are actually skill deficits, and will present fun, and effective training paradigms that change “failure” into reliability.
Special Sunday Lunch: At lunch on Sunday, Steve and I will talk about the many routes to becoming an animal behaviorist and/or professional dog trainer. We’ll keep it casual and will be happy to answer any questions of the participants as best we can.
The first 100 people to sign up will be entered into a drawing, two of whom will get $100 off their registration. In addition, signing up five or more people results in a 15% discount on the ticket price. And please, please, if you are a blog reader, come up and say hi!
We picked the location because it is easy to both drive or fly to. It is close to Chicago’s O’Hare airport and at the confluence of several highways in Itasca, Illinois. The hotel is dog friendly and has a shuttle service from the airport to the hotel. Hey… we’ve gone to a LOT of seminars, so we are doing all we can to make this one as accessible and enjoyable as possible.
I’m not foolish enough to guarantee that this will be my last full-day seminar in the US, (never say never, right?) but there won’t be many more, so I hope you can come to this one. I’m loving doing evening fund raisers for shelters now, and am focusing on doing more of those in the year(s) to come. But I simply couldn’t resist pairing up with Steve White. I always learn from him, I love his sense of humor and I can barely wait to get home and work my dog at the end of one of his seminars. Steve has a long career with working dogs; he’s the cop you hope shows up when you need one, and has dedicated his life to promoting positive reinforcement in police dog training and to helping people like us find fun and benevolent solutions to canine behavior problems. We are going to have a ball… be there, or be square!
MEANWHILE, back on the blog: Our IT prince has fixed the bugs, so you shouldn’t see any text cut off anymore. We also redesigned the right hand column and added (as requested) the number of comments for all the recent posts listed. Thanks for all your feedback, you’ve been great!) By the way, if you are having the same problems (text cut off, for example), clear your web cache in whatever server you are using (not the one for your entire computer!) and you’ll see the new version.
Barb Stanek says
Have a great seminar with Steve. I’m so sorry that I’ll be traveling! Maybe there will be another one. Here’s hoping!
glauber says
Bummer, if you had called it “Pride and Prejudice”, you could have started the description with “It is a truth universally acknowledged, that people and dogs don’t always speak the same language.” 🙂
Rose C says
I’ve made a decision to attend all your seminars held within the Chicagoland area but when I saw that this will be one of your last few full day seminars before you go into a dotage, I said no way I’m going to miss this one for anything. Also, hadn’t heard of Steve White prior to the announcement of this seminar but when I saw that it will be a full day of learning simple yet effective ways to fix many dog behavior problems, I said what is there to lose? My dogs and I could all benefit from it. I can’t wait to attend the seminars.
I also wanted to share this: Where I grew up, we typically do not train our puppies to be good dogs. We just let them be and hope they don’t turn out to be ‘bad dogs’ (or at the very least, not dogs who bite). We simply either ended up ‘lucky’ to have a good dog or ‘unlucky’ to have a bad dog.
My experience with dogs was limited to this: “I think dogs are so cute and I just love them all”.
So when I got my first own dog (first dog I was going to raise) almost 2.5 years ago, I found myself in the same dilemma many first time puppy owners find themselves in: lost and totally without control. At that time, my lack of success in the area of potty-training was becoming my biggest frustration. I was applying patience, perseverance, consistency, and more patience but I felt that the root of the problem was that our (my pup’s and mine) communication lines were misaligned. Then one day, at 22 weeks of age, it suddenly clicked in her where I wanted her to potty and from that time on, I felt I can gain control of many puppy- or dog-related situations if only I can learn how to effectively communicate with my dog (emphasis on ‘effectively’). This started my interest in learning what exactly goes on in a dog’s mind, their thought process, what triggers certain reactions and responses from them, and so on.
These seminars are going to be valuable in helping me see things from a dog’s perspective so that I may better understand what dogs need as well as equip myself with strategies to manage issues and situations in ways that go along with their natural tendencies rather than against them.
Lumi says
Glauber, that was a good one! 🙂 If the seminar had been about my Chihuahua Mix, it should have definately been called Pride and Prejudice.
JJ says
Thanks for adding the number of comments! Much appreciated.
Nee says
Yes indeed they will be fun :)! I’ve always enjoyed watching Trisha’s DVDs (I have almost all of of them!), and learnt a lot. Nothing like being there though! Trisha – would you like to do a couple of seminars for shelters here in Singapore :)? The dog-owner, dog-training, dog-rescue, dog-fostering communities here would benefit greatly learning from you – to balance the other side of the scale.
Francoise says
Two thoughts from a French dog-lover:
1) Are you going to film this seminar and market it on DVD? I’d love to have it!
2) Would you consider coming over to old Europe (I mean France, of course!) some day? I know you’re a lot info fund-raising for shelters these days but we absolutely have to get French people interested in dog behavior and positive training. I have a 16 months old Aussie and 80 per cent of dogs her age are on shock collars, which saddens me no end. Lots of people here think that learning about dog behavior is unbelievably boring – and useless (!??). I guess it would take someone with your kind of sense of humour to get them to change their minds.
Gabby says
I’ve never attended a dog training seminar before…are you supposed to/allowed to bring your own dog? Regardless, this seminar sounds AMAZING. I know that I need help figuring out what my pup is saying…doesn’t help that she’s severely ataxic due to some kind of cerebellar hypoplasia type thing; whether congenital or acquired, we have no idea. Loves people, but super nervous around other dogs.
carla karr says
I have attended many of Trish’s seminars and have enjoyed and learned much at each one. I hope to join the fun in Chicago.
Nee says
In the 2012 version of “Lost In Translation”, Trisha mentioned that as trainers, we need to help owners understand more about their dog’s body language, and that in classes, we should include a section on that. I hope you’d be happy to know that since I started training in 2008, I have been doing just that – my first session always includes a run-through using DreamDog Production’s “Family Dog Cheat Sheet” to guide owners in noticing stress signals in their dogs, and yes, they are often surprised when they realize that they have indeed been seeing them in their dogs. But that’s always a good first step in the right direction, because if we can start opening little windows for curious inquiry, we can change attitudes, bit by bit, one person at a time.