First ClickerExpo a smash hit
ClickerExpo
Central in Chicago was a smash
educational success. Over 200 people
attended three days (of three tracks) of
sessions, all on some aspect of clicker
training. They brought about a hundred
dogs with them: calm, sweet,
well-behaved dogs, and quite a few were
fresh from shelters and rescue
organizations. They all brought an aura
of positiveness, of acceptance,
friendliness and interest, that wowed
all of us-staff, volunteers, and
speakers alike. Everyone at the
conference, including dogs, seemed to
embody the principles of good clicker
training: respond to what you like,
ignore what you don't like, reinforce
improvement, stay open to new
challenges, and have fun.
On the Chicago evaluation forms, a
whopping 92% said the program met or
exceeded expectations ("That you
met expectations means a lot," one
trainer wrote, "because my
expectations were high.") One in
four checked "WOW." Read
comments
Perhaps the biggest dilemma people
face at ClickerExpo is that the program
is so rich in learning opportunities
that you want to go to everything-and
you can't be in two or three places at
once! Luckily, we can all learn from
each other. In debriefing attendees
after the Chicago program I was
interested to discover they had picked
up a lot of accurate new information
from sessions they had NOT attended,
through talking with other attendees.
That's a benefit from these clicker
gatherings that you can only get by
being there.
One of the amazing and to me humbling
aspects of ClickerExpo Chicago was the
number of people who came to help as
volunteers. Janece Rollet, who is
conference chair for the Assoc. of Pet
Dog Trainers conferences, came on her
own and brought experienced people with
her to serve as room monitors, man the
registration desk, support the speakers,
back up the AV system, help people with
dog problems, and much more. Janice is a
clicker trainer and an authority on
training dogs for the deaf. She hails
from Kentucky where she has her own
training school www.dogsday.net.
Graduate students from Rutgers
University Veterinary School and the
University of North Texas provided help
in the bookstore and the session rooms.
In Berkeley our student volunteers will
come from the University of California
Veterinary School. Thank you to all.
Upcoming
Expos: Take Note!
ClickerExpo
West, in Berkeley,
California January 23,
24, 25, has
room for a few more
registrants.
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Program
Information. Great
news! If you were
waitlisted for a
session, chances are you
are now in! If you do
find when that you get
waitlisted for some
sessions, do not be
discouraged, it might
very well be a great
opportunity.. See Beyond
Canines, below |
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ClickerExpo
East, near
Philadelphia, PA March
26, 27 ,28 is
filling fast. |
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The Early
Bird discount is
available through
January 4th. Program
Information |
In both programs, you can
register for one day or two if
you can't make all three. You
are welcome to bring a dog, but
you don't need to have one, to
have a terrific learning
experience. Do think about
joining us, if you can. This is
a rare chance to get a wide
overview of all of clicker
training, and to enjoy this
intensive three days with warm,
welcoming, and like-minded
people.
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A Learning Environment
Now that the first ClickerExpo is over
and I've had time to reflect a bit, I
thought you'd like to know some of the
highlights both as I experienced them
and as reported to me by others.
Many people remarked on how
accessible the faculty was. The speakers
hung around between their sessions, and
were willing to go on teaching and
answering questions in the halls and
even at meals. Well you bet we were,
because clicker-oriented people are such
a joy to be with! Click! Furthermore, at
ClickerExpo speakers have a great time
meeting each other and going to each
other's sessions. We all have a lot to
learn and share; and coming from such
widely varied worlds-from horse training
to rehabbing shelter dogs to teaching
sports skills to children, all with the
clicker-we don't normally get a chance
to meet. One of our volunteers, graduate
student Nicole Dorey, remarked that she
goes to a lot of conferences, but
Chicago was the first one where the
presenters were constantly quoting new
ideas from each other. Faculty
Bios
Beyond Canines: The
Interdisciplinary Opportunity
ClickerExpo also provides a unique
opportunity to learn from clicker
trainers who are tops in their fields,
in applications OTHER than dogs. In
planning these programs, we understood
that many people would be focusing on
training their own dogs, and we created
plenty of sessions for them, from
entry-level programs to advanced topics.
But by focusing on a single area of
interest, one can get a little closed
in; it's the mix of disciplines that
creates the opportunity for big leaps in
learning.
As a writer, a publisher, a
scientist, and a trainer, I have worked
with a lot of 'outside the dog world'
clicker experts. The work they do is
often very sophisticated; they have a
lot to teach us. At ClickerExpo, I'm
proud to say we offer you some of the
best. It was no surprise to me that many
people at the Chicago event found that
the most important new information they
learned came from speakers who were
talking about clicker training, but not
necessarily dogs.
Angi
Millwood, for example, from the Fort
Worth Zoo, gave an intensive workshop in
developing training plans for new
behavior, and in structuring a framework
of planning, record keeping, and
communication so that groups of trainers
can work together effectively. You don't
want to miss this if you are teaching
classes with assistants, or working in a
veterinary clinic, shelter, or volunteer
organization. Angi, who herself was
trained at Disney's Wild Kingdom, will
also be teaching at Berkeley and at
Pennsylvania.
Joan
Orr and Theresa
McKeon wowed their audiences with
video and details of using clicker
techniques to teach athletic skills to
children: to shape improved gymnastics
performance for example, in just a few
clicks, a vast improvement over the
usual hours and weeks of nagging and
correction. The quickness of their
shaping was a lesson for all of us;
coming from a tradition of teaching by
control, luring, and repetition, dog
trainers don't always take advantage of
the speed with which the clicker can
communicate what the learner should be
doing. Joan and Theresa will be
presenting again at ClickerExpo
East in March.
Ken
Ramirez, head trainer from Chicago's
huge Shedd Aquarium, showed glamorous
videos of training medical procedures in
whales, teaching sharks (yes) to come
when called for feeding, handling (yes)
and medical care, leading sea otters
around the halls with a target stick,
and much more. Ken came to give one talk
and stayed three days, sharing his
expertise with everyone. For example his
trainers (more than 30 of them)
routinely teach descriptive cues:
left/right, far/near, fast/slow. You can
teach these in pairs, reinforcing both
alternatives (British clicker trainer Kay
Laurence is one dog trainer who
teaches these techniques.) Ken pointed
out that when the animal has learned
three pairs, it 'gets' the idea of
alternatives, and can learn subsequent
pairs in just a few clicks, a great
shortcut to teaching your dog new cues.
Descriptive cues can give you awesome
control at a distance, for example with
search and rescue dogs.
In Berkeley our invited speaker from
the top ranks of oceanarium and zoo
professionals will be Gary
Priest, Curator of Behavior for the
San Diego Zoo and Wild Animal Park. In
Pennsylvania it will be Thad
Lacinak, head trainer for all of the
Sea World/Busch Garden theme parks. You
want to know how to train mine-sweeping
dolphins? How to use the clicker to
handle a murderous bull elephant safely?
Go to their sessions; or ask them in the
halls. You'll look with new eyes at the
problem of a dog that runs away or won't
let you clip its nails.
>From the academic world, Jesus
Rosales-Ruiz, Ph.D., a pioneering
clicker researcher from the University
of North Texas, came to Chicago and will
be coming again to Philadelphia. Jesus
brought four graduate students with him,
to talk about their research projects,
such as two fast ways to trailer load
difficult horses with the clicker (one
uses targeting; the other, just a
clicker-trained cue.) Jesus enriched all
of us, not just through the sessions he
taught but through the wisdom he
imparted all day every day, on subjects
ranging from fading prompts to avoiding
superstitious behavior when handing out
treats.
In Berkeley, from the academic and
scientific world we are looking forward
to hearing from Lynn Loar, Ph.D., and
Barbara Boat, PhD., will talk about
their S.H.I.P. program in the Bay area
and in Cincinnati. This multi-agency
project teaches children and parents to
clicker-train shelter dogs, and uses
this process to strengthen family ties
and teach empathy. It's another
"Boy, I'm glad I went to that
session!" opportunity at
ClickerExpo: a dramatic use of clicker
training, with lessons for all of us on
internalizing the principles and helping
them apply to our own growth. And if
that's an area in which you've had
personal experience, follow it up with
Kathy Sdao's session, "Positive
reinforcement: the life impact of
becoming a clicker trainer."
Choosing your sessions
Many of the sessions taught by the core
faculty-Steve White, Kathy Sdao, and
myself, have specific audience skills in
mind - some beginner, some intermediate,
some advanced, some for everyone.
For example, Kathy Sdao's
introductory program, A
Moment of Science, provides everyone
who comes the vocabulary and the basis
of clicker training. New to clicker
training? Definitely start with this
entertaining but useful lecture. But
it's not just for beginners. In fact,
many attendees who did not consider
themselves beginners were so thankful
they took the session because it gave
them the FULL foundation and allowed
them to make the most of the rest of
their three days.
In Chicago, Kathy's Clicking
with Class attracted over 100 people
who are already teaching training
classes to the general public. Kathy's
guidance ranges from the practical (no
more than eight dogs, and each beginner
dog needs 150 sq. feet of space) to the
personal: Learn to get your treats ready
before you click, instead of dipping
into your bait bag every single time.
Steve White's scent
workshop was a hit. In Berkley and
Philadelphia Steve's going to increase
the skill level even higher. This is
definitely an advanced workshop!
Emma
Parsons' session on using clicker
training to manage and calm
dogs with aggression issues is great
for all levels and provides very
specific steps you can take to use
clicker training to help turn around
aggressive behavior.
Melissa
Alexander, founder of the Clicker
Solutions list, teaches popular 'intermediate'sessions
such as "Clicker
Solutions to Everyday Problems".
Melissa will be at Berkeley, where she's
looking forward to meeting many members
of her list. In Philadelphia these
topics will be presented by Virginia
Broitman and Sherri
Lippman, creators of the popular BowWow
video series. Virginia and Sherri
are superb clicker teachers. In Chicago
they were extremely popular as coaches,
teaching the hands-on exercises in
Melissa's sessions and in two of my
sessions, Get
a Cue and Speed
Shaping.
In many sessions, if you registered
to work with their dogs, you'll sit in
the front two rows and get special
attention during exercises. But, space
permitting, everyone in the room who
brought a dog can try the exercises too,
on their own. (For example, in Speed
Shaping, "Teach your dog to bump
each fist with its nose twice, for a
click." Or, in Get a Cue,
"Teach a new behavior by
reinforcing with the cue for a known
behavior, instead of the click."
This is a good one to try out at home.).
Learning While Playing: The
Clicker Challenge
One of the most educational parts of
ClickerExpo is the Clicker
Challenge, the team event we hold at
lunch time all three days. I know some
people are skeptical when they hear
about it: "I'm not going all that
way just to watch some game." But
the Challenge is a lot more than that.
Right before the lunch break we
announce the Challenges for the day. For
example in Chicago one of the Challenges
was this: "A dog must run three
times through a rolling hoop."
If you have less than an hour to
train brand-new behavior, it helps to
know where to start-for example NOT by
baiting or luring the dog through a
moving hoop, but by clicking a dog
through a hoop that someone else is
holding perfectly still. (Then you move
the hoop slowly and a short distance
between two people, then faster and
farther, while the dog learns to gauge
the speed, distance and direction for
himself.) Starting with the end behavior
leads to a lot of collisions and missed
hoops; if you know how to make and use a
shaping plan, a lively dog can get the
point and get good at the job in a few
minutes.
Breaking an untried behavior down
into little steps and figuring out where
to start is a new mental skill for many.
It's a fundamental part of clicker
training and the Clicker Challenge is a
wonderful way to teach it. In Berkeley
and Pennsylvania, we're adding a Pro-Am
feature to the Clicker Challenge. Each
team will have one of the speakers
assigned as Coach, to help them devise
their training plans to make maximum use
of the time available. Spectators will
be encouraged to pick a team, listen to
the coaching, and watch the shaping (and
cheer for their team, of course.) You
don't have to compete to relish the
experience; just watching is a painless
way to learn more about free-shaping and
how to develop shaping plans.
And the dogs themselves do the
teaching. Many people come to
ClickerExpo with a background in
lure-and-reward training. Watching the
Clicker Challenge one can really see the
difference in attitude, speed, and just
plain brain-power, between clicker-wise
dogs and dogs trained with treats alone.
One Trainer's Comments:
"I am currently a dog trainer
who has been using strictly lure-based
training. I have a great business but
can't even imagine how much more
successful I will be when I learn to
be a clicker trainer. My single
mission is to help the dog(s) to be a
happy member of the family, not just
"obedient." I am just blown
away by clicker training…I see that
you truly do have communication and a
real relationship with your dog using
a clicker."
~ JM.
Rethink What's Possible
So there's a lot to learn at Clicker
Expo. We learned enough so that we think
Berkeley and Philadelphia will be even
more exciting. We've invited Kay
Laurence to join us for the Berkeley
ClickerExpo-a great opportunity to meet
this wonderful clicker teacher. Alexandra
Kurland, the authority on clicker
training for horses, will be teaching at
Berkeley only. Helix
Fairweather will give a session on
clicker agility, at Berkeley. Emma
Parsons will continue to offer her
extremely helpful courses to those new
to clicker training. Kathy, Steve White,
and I will be presenting some
increasingly complex topics in our
advanced sessions. We're also adding
some evening functions and
get-togethers, increasing your
opportunities to meet the speakers and
each other.
PS. Keep an eye out for the next
What's News letter and the new 'content'
we put on the website each month. We
have some AMAZING stories about new
clicker applications coming in January.
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