Teaching tricks can lead to huge and long- lasting benefits for your competition work.  Far from being silly and inconsequential, tricks can be the building blocks for more advanced work.  Trick training helps you form a strong and mutually enjoyable working relationship with your dog.  Teaching tricks gives you valuable training practice.  It allows you to practice a variety of training techniques (shaping, luring and targeting),  improve your timing, and set criteria appropriately.  And most importantly, trick training is fun!

The tricks we will focus on in this class will have direct application to competition training and showing.  Left and right spins, hand touches, backing up, weaving between your legs, sitting up, paw touches, chin rest, take a nap,  go to bed, and play dead are some of the tricks we will work on.  In addition to teaching these tricks we will talk about how they can help improve your dog's focus, lower his stress level, and make teaching competition behaviors much easier.

Students will work at their own level and their own pace.  If your dog already knows the basic trick behavior we will add more challenges and work on distraction and stimulus control.  Appropriate for dogs of all ages (puppies through seniors) and at all levels of training.

This self-study option is a series of three recorded webinars that work together. There are no written lectures.

Does your dog drive you bananas on those indoor winter days? Do you have a small space that just doesn't seem big enough to occupy your dog? Then join us as we discuss some fun ways to burn off both mental and physical energy and learn skills you and your dog will need once you spring rolls around and you can practice your sport!

Science has done much to bring our training techniques for companion animals out of the dark ages. Scientists greatly expanded our knowledge of humane and effective training techniques. They have given us a framework for training that is thorough, evidence-based, kind and replicable. It is now commonplace to teach our animals behaviors with the use of a clicker and a pile of cookies. We have motivated animals who understand the training process, and we can create desired behaviors with amazing speed and accuracy.

Cats! We love our cats, but rarely try to train them. There's a pervasive myth that cats cannot be trained, but of course, they can. This myth is likely due, at least in part, to attempts at training with coercive methods. Most creatures respond poorly to these techniques and cats are no exception. However, any animal can be trained if you have and control effective reinforcers and if you have an understanding of learning theory.

Training with Remote Reinforcement