SIX LESSON SUPPORTIVE MATERIALS
For the first week, you’ll be teaching your animal how to look at you (or towards you) and to touch a target. Your animal will learn at least two things during this time:
- Hearing a “click” (marker signal) means a reward is coming! (Classical Conditioning)
- I made the marker signal (“click”) happen by doing something! (Operant Conditioning)
We also hope your animal will learn:
- I can trust my human to help me learn – in other words, if I don’t understand, my human will make things easier so I don’t feel any pressure.
- My human is starting to understand my language – he/she is slowing down when I ask (with a head turn for example) and seeing that I communicate with my body much more than with my vocal cords!
You will be learning a lot! You’ll learn:
Clarity in your training is important for your animal’s learning — so, when teaching your animal something new, it’s important to:
- Choose a good “classroom” for teaching (quiet, low distraction to enhance learning)
- Be clear and concise in your teaching –
- hands in neutral position while your animal figures out what you want
- clear cueing (your target should be presented in the same way to start so your animal has the best chance of learning how to touch with his/her nose)
- clear start and finish to the training session
- Give your dog time to think! Make sure there is space between marking the behavior (ie: a click) and treating/rewarding your dog. You want to give your dog a chance to process why the marker signal happened. So, think this way:
- Click when your dog does something you want
- WAIT a second – let your dog process why you clicked (marked)
- Reach for a treat and reward your dog
- Short training sessions with lots of reinforcement build confidence and performance in your animal.
- Your animal is always communicating with you – and you’ll start to recognize the subtle signs of stress or calming signals as you’re training. For example, if you present the target and your dog gives you a “head turn” – this means you presented it in a way that was too stressful. So, you learn to maybe take it out slower and lower – and if you do it right, you won’t see any calming signals from your dog!
____________________________________________________
So, why do we only teach two behaviors during the first week?
Because, as you can see, there’s much to practice and learn – your own training skills, your own observation skills, and your animal’s training, observation and confidence will all be building during this first week!
Here are two videos for review:
Beginning Name Game
Teaching Touch a Target
Finally, a quote from Ken Ramirez (the head trainer in our certification program) as to how we can build better relationships with our animals – and be proud that you are on the right track!
The best trainers achieve a good relationship with their animals through the use of reinforcement and the absence of coercion. Relationships improve when we are able to read and respond to an animal’s body language and engage in a dialogue with the animal. It is only when we listen and adapt to animals that we can give them freedom to choose; a combination of a solid reinforcement history, a strong relationship, and clear communication gives learners the feeling of having choice.
Enjoy and let us know if you have any questions!