This class is about how to use high-energy training and high-energy reinforcers. It’s for dogs who already love to play in the Crazy zone. I’ve had well-trained Good dogs who could not rise to their potential without adding some Crazy. And I’ve had well-trained Crazy dogs who could not rise to their potential without adding some Good. What about your dog?
This is a class for dogs 6 months and older who tend to work high and/or stress up. This class can help prevent frustration in adolescent dogs. It can also help adult dogs make sense of high-energy training and active reinforcement procedures. It's not a class for aggression problems! FDSA offers reactivity classes in the School of Behavior. This class is about foundation training in self-control for high-energy dogs. Whether your dog shows tendencies that you'd like to channel early on or whether your dog has had arousal problems for years, this class can make a difference.
Structure plays a big part in effective training, and structuring your sessions becomes even more important when we want to train Crazy. This class will help you remain clear and clean with the structure of your training.
If you are thinking, “Finally I get to let my dog be crazy while we train!” well, yes and no to that thought! We will know what we are doing and why. We’ll study what keeps your dog in their pre-frontal cortex and how to help them get back there when we let the limbic system take over. We will not be afraid of arousal. We’ll look at how important high arousal is when we want the utmost from speed and power tasks which are already trained to the muscle memory stage. We will use and enjoy and respect and work with arousal in different ways. And there will be structure and clean mechanics all over the place.
I promise you a fun learning experience, some new games, and some new twists on games you might already know. I will do my best to offer you the inspiration and the tools to design useful games for your own personal situation.
Curious? This might be just the class you need!
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Syllabus
CRAZY GOOD - Self Control Games for the Wild Child
SYLLABUS
WEEK 1
What Color is your Crazy
Mats and Stations - Gotta Love Them!
Reward Delivery Markers - Stay Put vs Chase
How and Why to be Slow and Fast
Hand Target Games
Multi-Tasking: Reinforcers in Motion
Creating Reinforcement Zones
WEEK 2
Teach what Annoys You
The Gimme A Break Game (Leslie McD)
How to Use a Flirt Pole for Arousal Modulation
Reverse Luring is a Required Skill
Cue the Station
Wait vs Stay
WEEK 3
Premack and Panksepp
Using Environmental Reinforcers
Hand Target to Station Pattern Game
I’m so Chill, Kick the Ball Game
The Line-Up Game Part 1
Vacuuming: Calm Response to Noise
WEEK 4
Water Games
Cueing Arousal UP in the Reinforcement Loop
Dogs Cueing Trainers with Stations
Reward Delivery Markers: Catch vs Dish
Line-Up Game Part 2
Bikes! Yikes! Calm Response to Motion
WEEK 5
Moving Sit and Down
Displacing to a Toy While Watching
Multi-Tasking: Magic Hand Game (Absolute Dogs)
Line-Up Game Part 3
Throw Your Food Game
From Vacuuming to Weed-Whacking: Calm Responses
WEEK 6
How to Create and Use Positive Transfer
Toy in the Middle and Fading the Station
Nose Bops from Tuck Sit
Chin Rest with Side Stepping
Using Cookie Bowl Games
From Bikes to Cars: Calm Responses
Prerequisites & Supplies
There are no prerequisites! Handlers and dogs who have a basic working familiarity with clicker training will be able to jump right in.
Sample Lecture
How and Why to be Slow and Fast, by Julie Daniels
Slow is not automatically Calm, and Fast is not automatically Confident. Many dogs feel frustrated when we make them slow down. Frustration is not calm. And many dogs feel anxious when we let them go fast. Anxiety is not confident. It's not necessarily that the dogs don't want to use their bodies in those ways. It's more about the mental conflict they have attached to the effort. That internal conflict is not a good feeling. It may be a process throughout this course, but our goal is to be able to cue our dog's energy up and down without losing the Calm or the Confident.
The Stir Crazy Game
This week we'll begin with how to introduce some Slow without causing frustration. In subsequent weeks we'll be adding some Fast without causing anxiety.
For this class I've chosen a game which will work whether your dog has a lot of training or just a little bit. Can your Crazy Good dog sit on cue? Then you can play. If your dog knows both Sit and Down on cue, then you can use both. For the most advanced students, does your dog REALLY have Sit and Down under stimulus control? This game will challenge you!
Koolaid is going to demonstrate the game at the highest level, with both Sit and Down under stimulus control. But this game will work just as well with only a basic Sit. Use only the positions which are easy for your dog to perform. Adding the delay of reinforcement will be challenge enough, and that is the real purpose of our game!
The game consists of a Spoon - the major player! - and a container of food. I use leftovers from human dinner, but any sort of soft spoonable food will do. The game does not include a clicker. Use your voice to praise calmly. You may also use your "stay put" Reward Delivery Marker if you have trained that. Don't use that delivery cue unless your dog has already learned it.
Here's how to play: Cue the Sit. Now reach for the container of food. Hold the container in one hand and the spoon in the other hand. Put a bit of food on the spoon and deliver it to your dog, who gets to lick the food from the spoon while maintaining the Sit position. If your Crazy Good dog is just learning about duration and patience, then this is enough challenge for your first session. One rep, put the food container back on the counter or table, stand up, and release your dog and play with them. Why play? Because it's active and it will be just the relief that they need and it will include you in the celebration. Enjoy, and congratulations!
Here is Koolaid to demonstrate the stimulus control version. We love this game! A nice mix of silly, challenging, and high-value reinforcement. Can you count the ways I have added extra challenges to her session in this video? Please, if you are playing with a dog who is just beginning - which is most of you! - then do not take so long as I do before you deliver the food. You can begin with the container of food in your hand if your dog is not familiar with delay of reinforcement. We want to build up the challenge without causing frustration!
Koolaid Stir Crazy Game with Sit and Down Under Stimulus Control
Let's talk in detail about this video and what I am trying to show you. Koolaid is calm and she knows that she is in the correct position when she responds to each cue. She does not second-guess herself. She does not offer other behaviors when the reinforcement is late. She is not stressed or frustrated. In this session I am being clumsy and slow on purpose. But Koolaid has perfect faith that she is on her path to reinforcement and she knows that it will come.
By the way, please do not feel bad for my Sport, who is waiting on the station in this video. Sport is a pro, and to him this is just another game of "Skip Your Turn." He was paid well with several spoonfulls in a row after Koolaid's session was over.
Julie Daniels
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Testimonials
A sampling of what prior students have said about this course ...
I cannot thank you enough or express enough gratitude for offering this course - and I hope you will continue to! I was so disappointed when I wasn't fast enough to get into the "gold" group - but the FDSA told me you were phenomenal with the silver students and they were absolutely right! The change in my pup in not even 6 weeks has been nothing short of remarkable, and I feel I have tools and strategies to continue to work on in order to continue to take steps forward. Challenges that I have not been able to overcome in the year that I've had her I've solved in less than 6 weeks! And most importantly, neighbours of mine (part of why I'm taking this course as my pup would have a mini-tantrum each time she saw their dog and couldn't play with him) - actually asked me today if I'd been doing a board and train because they could not believe how much better behaved she's been recently. I told them all about this course (and the FDSA) and they're going to look into it next with their new pup. And there we all were - with all of our dogs out in our adjoining yards and I was playing with the flirt pole and the "give me a break game" and Artemis was so well behaved she was getting complements. I've had so many scenarios over the last 6 weeks where I've had a "Crazy Good" dog - and does that ever feel good!! We needed this course to overcome the plateau we had reached in our training. Thank you for your additional suggestions in other posts of mine - I'm already gearing up to register for the next set! - K.E.
Julie, herself!!
Kind to students and dogs alike, and gets the very best out of humans and canines.
What a fabulous 6 weeks, I can't say how much I admire your teaching - Go Julie!!!! - V.J.
From the bottom of my heart - thank you from Artemis and me!
Registration
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