Drinking From the Toilet: Real dogs, Real training

We talk about classical conditioning in dog training circles a lot, and I've been hearing the term CER more and more frequently in larger conversations, which is AWESOME. Most people know that classical conditioning is one form of associative learning that makes up part of what we call learning theory. And most recognize the name Pavlov, and know that he did some experiments a long time ago that i...

We've all seen and experienced displacement behavior... but what does that mean? Displacement behavior is most likely to be exhibited when you (or your dog) are faced with tough choices... conflicting sources of motivation. Should I stay or should I go? If it's an easy decision... maybe staying is super amazing and going is very sad, no problem! But if both decisions are fairly equivalent (on eith...

#15 - "Force Lite" with Shade Whitesel by Hannah Branigan

If you've ever been guilty of overthinking your training, struggling with ring nerves, or generally freaking out about dog stuff… you'll definitely be interested in our guest this week - Andrea Harrison! Andrea describes herself as an educator who is passionate about all species, including both dogs AND humans! Having lived with dogs her whole life, Andrea was an early convert to positive training...

Have you heard that positive reinforcement doesn't work? WAIT what? Of course, positive reinforcement works. It's pretty damn effective and we have decades of scientific evidence behind the concept. Positive Reinforcement isn't even a technique, it's a naturally occurring process. It's a naturally occurring process, like gravity. Operant conditioning is just a way of describing what is naturally o...

This week we are talking with Theresa Mckeon from TAGteach International. If you are in the dog training world, either professionally or as a hobby, and aren't familiar with TagTeach, you should definitely check it out. TagTeach is a really cool way of looking at teaching and learning. It's an approach that applies clicker training philosophy to teaching human learners. Like clicker training with...

Have you ever been trying to train a behavior, or maybe UNtrain a problem behavior, and after making a certain amount of progress... get totally stuck where you can't seem to move forward to the next step? Happens to me all the time. Well, hopefully not as often as it used to. But it definitely comes up. In this podcast, we talk about a strategy to apply when you find yourself stuck while training...

I've been spending some time lately pondering on how my use of language has changed… or even evolved somewhat in the area of dog training. It sounds like splitting hairs, but I do think the specific words that I use to talk about my training or to my students about their training… makes a difference. One of the words I've spent some time thinking about is "ignore" and how my use of the word has ch...

This week we spend some time hanging out with Amy Cook, PhD. Amy is a fast-talking, tap-dancing, ultra-cool dog geek who teaches with me at the Fenzi Dog Sports Academy. Amy has been training dogs for over 20 years. She earned a PhD in Psychology from UC Berkeley. Her research focused on the dog-human relationship and its effect on the problem-solving strategies dogs employ. She is a Certified Dog...

In this episode, I consider the term "distraction proofing", what it means, how I feel about it, and some considerations we should have when training with or for distractions. Before I started this episode, I didn't like the term "proofing", mostly because it's something I associate with errors and punishment. Ick. Not my thing. I prefer to focus on *building* behavior and keeping the success rate...

Shade has the exceptional qualification of being one of the only trainers out there training and competing successfully in the sport at high levels and with excellent scores, all without using physical corrections! She has a creative, yet practical, approach to training, always keeping in mind what's best for the dog and for the relationship. We talked about: :: The challenges of training a tradit...

Did you know Laurie Luck was my instructor when I went through the Karen Pryor Academy as a student? She was! In fact, she is largely to blame for my current situation, particularly my existence on social media and even this blog! Even after graduation, she just couldn't shake me. And here we are several years later, sharing a drink and talking about dogs. An entrepreneur and social media enthusia...

This week we talk about why I consider myself a clicker trainer, what that even means, and what I do when I'm not actually clicking. http://www.wonderpupstraining.com

Today's topic is frustration. The inspiration for today's topic is brought to you by a combination of my personal life experience and a Dr. Susan Friedman of BehaviorWorks. In one of her excellent presentations at Clicker Expo, she mentioned: Happiness is a function of positive reinforcement Depression is a function of punishment and FRUSTRATION is a function of extinction. The first two are inter...

Leslie McDevitt is a Certified Dog Behavior Consultant (CDBC) famous for her popular and powerful program Control Unleashed (often abbreviated as "CU"). Through her classes, seminars, books, and DVDs, Leslie helps dog owners and training instructors turn stress into confidence, and distraction into focus, using methods that are entirely based on positive reinforcement. Her Control Unleashed progra...

So I got sucked in by some people who were Wrong on the Internet. Shaping is a training subject near and dear to my heart, so I can get a little worked up when falsehoods or misrepresentations get slung around. This episode is a bit of a soapbox yes, but also contains (I think) a few helpful tips. If you've struggled with shaping, maybe this will help. http://www.wonderpupstraining.com/podcast

In our pilot episode of Drinking From the Toilet, I introduce myself and explain the goals for this podcast. It's short and sweet. Want to reinforce me for effort? (please?) Head over to iTunes and leave a review... preferably 5 stars. Thank you! Drinking From the Toilet A podcast by Hannah Branigan Episode 01 - Who am I? What am I doing? Why am I in this handbasket? In our pilot episode of Drinki...