Advanced Agility Seminar Cato, NY

Please join us for a 4 day seminar with Gary Wilkes!

Dates: March 19th – March 22nd 2015, 9:00 am – 5:00 pm
Location: Confident K9 Training, Santa Cruz, CA

This seminar will introduce you to real clicker training – the first practical and humane application of operant conditioning for dogs, from its creator.  You will gain first-hand knowledge of how to shape and control behaviors with precision and maintain great performance. You will also learn how to stop behaviors on a dime. No, this isn’t that namby-pamby “all-treats” stuff. You will learn to use the full spectrum of behavioral tools at your disposal. Rather than a simplistic single-minded view, Gary Wilkes provides a balanced and broad perspective on controlling your dog’s behavior.  From competitive obedience to working dogs, dogs with neurological disorders or just dealing with a rowdy pet, this information will sharpen and polish your knowledge of dog behavior and allow you to realize your dog’s full potential. Come to this hands-on seminar and find out how to use the solutions from one discipline to solve problems in another. Broad Band Click & Treat® Training will show you how to teach accurate and reliable behaviors without losing your dog’s spirit.

Continue reading →

Whether you like it or not, the deal-breakers for most dog owners revolve around ending an unacceptable behavior. If you can stop it, the owner will be more likely to deal with lesser, nuisance behaviors and regain their desire to keep the dog. EG: The mother who worked extra hours to buy new shoes for her kid isn’t going to laugh off the dog ripping them to shreds. If next week it’s a huge hole in the couch and then the dog knocks over a neighbor-kid it’s likely to kill her patience. If the dog goes to a shelter there is an 80% chance it will kill the dog, too. Modern dog people and behavior experts are cold to this. Continue reading →

The ancient Romans had a saying that behavioral scientists and modern dog trainers don’t seem to get. Abusus non tollit usum – the abuse of a tool is not an argument against its proper use. To truly compare reinforcement and punishment means you examine both tools used correctly. That is rarely done. Instead, a biased and illogical perspective is presented that confuses people and blocks treatment known to be effective while fostering treatment known to cause problems. Meaning most “all positive” behaviorists talk out of both sides of their mouths. Here’s how that happens…
Continue reading →

As I ended Part 5, I said this –

“The real problem is the use of one effect, positive reinforcement, to increase behaviors and the complete absence of punishment – the effect that stops behaviors.” So, now, take a look at these people. They have something in common.

     At this stage in the conversation I am going to assume that if you are still on board, that point is inarguable. When you put an organism on a life-road that is always rosy you get problems. First, as positive reinforcement cannot inhibit or stop behaviors any behavior is capable of becoming exaggerated to the point of disaster. I will give you some examples of people who at some point in their life never heard the word “NO” or suffered any tangible punishment. Here’s our first irony. Any reference to punishment in public almost always includes the word ‘suffer’ – even though the real suffering is caused by a lack of punishment. So, here goes – my rogues gallery of people who lived in an “all positive” world.
Continue reading →

Clicker training is “all positive”. Lose weight without exercise or dieting. Our phone psychics are “certified”. Painless Dentistry. The check is in the mail. I never, ever, had sex with that woman, Miss Lewinski. “
Continue reading →