Course Details
Is your dog reliable and fluent with their verbal cues? We will be practicing fun fluency games to build your dog’s reliability with cues. We will work on opposite cues and similar sounding cues to build fluency. We will also do some fun games to build reliability in new situations and in new environments. We will be focusing on errorless learning with our fluency games.
Simon says class will also go over cue clarity and how to put a behavior on cue. Putting a behavior on cue whether it was lured, shaped or captured and getting a behavior on a verbal cue and off of a hand signal or body motion will be included in class. We will go over how to change a cue, such as changing a cue from a verbal to a signal or from one verbal cue to a different cue. We will take a look at the mechanics of your cue or signal and make sure that the dog thinks the cue is what we intend the cue to be.
Gold students can choose which cues or tricks they want to build reliability and fluency with and they are not limited to the skills covered in the class.
Registration
Registration will begin at 9:30 am PDT.
There are no scheduled sessions for this class at this time. We update our schedule frequently, so please
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Syllabus
Week 1-
- What is a cue? What prevents cues from being understood by the dog?
- What does the dog think the cue is? Putting a captured behavior on cue.
- Fluency games: Can you do the cues in any location in the house and from any handler position?
- Is your cue clear and fair to the dog? Do your cues rhyme or look the same? Does one cue have multiple meanings?
- Creating clarity with context, environmental and hand signal cues
- Teaching sit, down, release cue, spin left and spin right.
Week 2-
- Putting a lured, shaped or captured behavior on cue
- Fluency games: Can you do the cues in the yard, in the car and in familiar training locations?
- Can you do the cues if the handler cues it in a high tone of voice and in a low tone of voice?
- Can you do the cues if the handler has a happy facial expression, sad facial expression or a goofy facial expression?
- Teaching line up on handler's left and right side. Teaching line up between handler's feet.
Week 3-
- How to change a cue from a verbal cue to a signal cue or vice versa.
- Fluency games:
- Building fluency with opposite cues (side, close, between and down, sit, release cue), and similar sounding cues.
- Can you do the cues on, in, behind or off of an object?
- Can you do the cues behind a barrier?
- Stimulus control. What is it and why do I need it? How to put a behavior on stimulus control.
- Utility signals. Stand to down, down to sit, stand to sit on hand signals.
- Teaching a hand touch and back up.
Week 4-
- How can we help a dog generalize a skill to all environments while still maintaining a high success rate?
- Fluency games:
- Can you do the cues while you hear unusual sounds playing from the computer?
- Can you do the cues while you are near an agility tunnel or near a jump or near a platform or near weave poles?
- Can you do the cues if the handler is looking at the ground or the ceiling?
- Teaching wave with left and right paw
Week 5-
- How to build and maintain criteria for more duration cues such as sit pretty, sustained hand touch, heeling, etc.
- Can you do the cues if the handler is facing a different direction?
- Can you do the cues if the handler is wearing funny clothes (hat, sunglasses, etc.)?
- Can you do the cues if the handler is luring an opposite behavior
- Teaching sit pretty and cross your paws while in a down
Week 6-
- Discussing duration, distractions, distance, different locations, and handler motion.
- Can you do the cues at a distance from the handler?
- Can you do the cues if the handler is out of sight?
- Can you do the cues while there are weird things on the floor (wet spots, dirt, pieces of white paper, chalk, etc.)?
- Teaching side legs on a wall
Prerequisites and Equipment
Use of markers or clickers will be prevalent in this course. Handlers should already be using markers in their training and dogs should have an understanding of the click/treat relationship.
Handlers should understand the process of "shaping" or marking and rewarding small increments of behavior toward building the end result.
Testimonials
BRAND NEW CLASS FOR THE APRIL 2017 SESSION
