First 'official' day of ClickerExpo:
Early Morning session: Reaching the Animal Mind: Opening Plenary Session
Introduction by Aaron Clayton: 46 states represented; Several countries;Human Societies and Shelters sending multiple staff members!! Amazing to see so many different people from different backgrounds. Conference was SOLD OUT!
Late morning session: Smart Reinforcement with Ken Ramirez: All about reinforcement options, and how to use reinforcement schedules and introduce new reinforcers.
I'm all about new reinforcers- seeing as I work with a breed that is "difficult to train"; "stubborn"; etc. Its not that they are difficult to train, or stubborn (o.k., well- they are but that isn't really a training issue) Based on my training experiences, it boils down to this: it is difficult to find reinforcers that they are crazy about consistently. Sure, food works some of the time..and toys some of the time- but my biggest challenge with training Oscar past the basics was finding novel ways to reinforce him. One seminar that I went to said to essentially remove EVERYTHING from the dogs environment that they found reinforcing (including access to other dogs) and use these to reinforce behaviors you want. I thought about this, and while it makes sense- I did not want to become the center of my dogs universe. Yes, this is the point to an extent while moving into more complex behaviors and competition- However the reality is that its not practical- I'm not with my dog 24/7 although I'd like to be. I also PERSONALLY don't think it is fair to my dog. I then went to a seminar by Kathy Sdao which went over introducing new reinforcers and how she spents just as much time introducing new reinforcers as she does training new behaviors! This got me really thinking- I don't have to remove all reinforcers- just make new ones that only come from me!!!
Ken is an amazing speaker, and an amazing trainer. I love that he gets really excited about training (if you've ever seen videos of him working with his dog- you'll know what I mean). He LOVES to train, and it comes across when he speaks. He talked about how to introduce new reinforcers, how to evaluate reinforcers (the key thing they use to evaluate this is focus...ha ha I'm toast with ANY reinforcer with Oscar LOL), and examples of how conditioned reinforcers have been helpful in dealing with some of the animals at the Shedd Aquarium.
Tuesday, March 30, 2010
Monday, March 29, 2010
ClickerExpo KY 2010 Day One (Thursday)
Oscar, Sprocket and I made the 7+ hour trip in the car to go to Clicker Expo in Lexington, KY http://clickertraining.com/clickerexpo/ . We left Thursday morning (March 18th) and got to Lexington at around 1:30 in the afternoon.
Susan Sarubin from Pawsitive Fit, was gracious enough to allow Oscar, Sprocket and I to room with her, so I called Susan to help me lug the car full of dog stuff I'd brought with me.
To any of you who met us at ClickerExpo- you can't forget meeting me, or at least my dogs. I'm the one with the two French Bulldogs (the only French Bulldogs) in tow- one being a ridiculously cute puppy who EVERYONE wanted to pet and play with :) You may have noticed I seemed a little uptight and anxious about my dog Oscar- the adult French Bulldog- running up to other dogs/people or other dogs in his space. He is great with other dogs- but we left from Clicker Expo on Sunday to drive 12 hours for him to get a laser disk ablation spinal procedure done. He ruptured a disk in his back on Christmas Eve, and had to have emergency surgery on his spine- or he would have likely been paralyzed. The only reason you can't really "tell" he had the spinal surgery is that we have been going to rehabilitation once a week since the incident (and actually before the incident but that is another story). If he had ANY back pain AT ALL, we would have to cancel the trip for the procedure- not to mention jumping around and getting excited could cause him to reinjure his back. TECHNICALLY he was not even over the 3 month recovery period for the spinal surgery. Why take the risk? Well, Oscar has been on crate rest since the beginning of December and is stir crazy- not to mention we had already signed up for CE before the incident. I thought CE would be a good place to bring him where people had their dogs under control. I didn't account for the people with dogs who were at the hotel who weren't with CE; or the sometimes nasty looks I got when I picked up Oscar and moved him to a carpeted area, or held his harness on his back so he wouldn't jump around.
Yes, I know picking him up/holding him isn't TEACHING him anything, and yes I can get him to move on his own even when he is aroused, he is a very well-behaved dog- but when he is excited and scrambling all over the floor- the slippery marble floor- I'm not going to even RISK him hurting his back. So, before you judge someone for how they handle their dog, maybe think about why they are doing what they are doing. Also realize, he hasn't been out in public other than to the vet and rehab therapist for THREE and a HALF months!
Overall, he did great and it was good for him to get out and about and use his brain some.
The hotel was gorgeous, the room was a little small though- and we had to pay $20 extra for a refrigerator. Wi-Fi was also not available in the rooms- and internet cost $13/day.
Susan Sarubin from Pawsitive Fit, was gracious enough to allow Oscar, Sprocket and I to room with her, so I called Susan to help me lug the car full of dog stuff I'd brought with me.
To any of you who met us at ClickerExpo- you can't forget meeting me, or at least my dogs. I'm the one with the two French Bulldogs (the only French Bulldogs) in tow- one being a ridiculously cute puppy who EVERYONE wanted to pet and play with :) You may have noticed I seemed a little uptight and anxious about my dog Oscar- the adult French Bulldog- running up to other dogs/people or other dogs in his space. He is great with other dogs- but we left from Clicker Expo on Sunday to drive 12 hours for him to get a laser disk ablation spinal procedure done. He ruptured a disk in his back on Christmas Eve, and had to have emergency surgery on his spine- or he would have likely been paralyzed. The only reason you can't really "tell" he had the spinal surgery is that we have been going to rehabilitation once a week since the incident (and actually before the incident but that is another story). If he had ANY back pain AT ALL, we would have to cancel the trip for the procedure- not to mention jumping around and getting excited could cause him to reinjure his back. TECHNICALLY he was not even over the 3 month recovery period for the spinal surgery. Why take the risk? Well, Oscar has been on crate rest since the beginning of December and is stir crazy- not to mention we had already signed up for CE before the incident. I thought CE would be a good place to bring him where people had their dogs under control. I didn't account for the people with dogs who were at the hotel who weren't with CE; or the sometimes nasty looks I got when I picked up Oscar and moved him to a carpeted area, or held his harness on his back so he wouldn't jump around.
Yes, I know picking him up/holding him isn't TEACHING him anything, and yes I can get him to move on his own even when he is aroused, he is a very well-behaved dog- but when he is excited and scrambling all over the floor- the slippery marble floor- I'm not going to even RISK him hurting his back. So, before you judge someone for how they handle their dog, maybe think about why they are doing what they are doing. Also realize, he hasn't been out in public other than to the vet and rehab therapist for THREE and a HALF months!
Overall, he did great and it was good for him to get out and about and use his brain some.
The hotel was gorgeous, the room was a little small though- and we had to pay $20 extra for a refrigerator. Wi-Fi was also not available in the rooms- and internet cost $13/day.
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