Comments on: Kay Laurence: Assessing Your Animal Training Skills

By: hellows

hellows — Sat, 27 Feb 2010 20:31:52 +0000

i hate your !@#$%^ and your!@#$%^^%$#%##()&^% .

By: hellows

hellows — Sat, 27 Feb 2010 20:30:12 +0000

i like your two brown horses

By: Mary Hunter

Mary Hunter — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 04:38:34 +0000

Great analogy.

One of the speakers at the conference (forget who, now!) used a similar analogy involving google maps.

Their point was that if you don't know where you're starting, it's hard to have a clear plan about where you're going!

Which reminds me, I could do a better job about writing shaping plans and having clear criteria. Something I want to work on this year.

Mary

By: Mary Hunter

Mary Hunter — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 04:36:10 +0000

Good question!

Maybe a good topic for some sort of survey or discussion–I'd be interested to hear how others keep records as well.

By: Mary Hunter

Mary Hunter — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 04:34:59 +0000

Neat Emma!

I love watching video clips of Kay and her students. Very good trainers and very good understanding of how to train. I have one of her books which I've enjoyed, I'm tempted to buy some of her DVDs as well!

I'd love to hear more about what you've learned from her materials sometime.

Mary

By: Mary Hunter

Mary Hunter — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 04:32:57 +0000

Exactly Debbie!

And so many times trainers punish or scold when the animal misunderstands.

By: arklady

arklady — Mon, 15 Feb 2010 15:48:54 +0000

One of the difficulties in managing animals when you have different trainers is the lack of consistency between criteria and skill levels.

When working with ethograms I also got into nuances for the training log/daily log but found most people did not pay close enough attention.

The lack of forward progress with some behaviors was directly due to the lack of clear measurable criteria.

I call it the trainer roadmap--how are you going to get where you are going if you have not defined the road to the destination AND clearly define the road signs along the way?

By: Bookends Farm

Bookends Farm — Sat, 13 Feb 2010 17:33:42 +0000

Another wonderful post Mary! I'd love to hear how other trainers keep training records….

By: Emma&Star

Emma&Star — Sat, 13 Feb 2010 12:33:43 +0000

Another great write up and much appreciated.

I can totally recommend Kay's stuff. I am working through her Perfect Foundation clicker course with my dogs and it is excellent. It is what she bases her CAP on, and is a very well written and explained course for anyone wanting to start clicker. Even though I've been using clicker a while, it is certainly refining my skills and understanding.

By: debbiedavidson

debbiedavidson — Sat, 13 Feb 2010 00:50:06 +0000

“4. The Teacher Takes Responsibility
The good trainer will take responsibility for what her students (animal or human) have or have not learned. Sharon Foley says this nicely: “If the horse knew what I wanted and believed he was able to do it, he’d BE doing it.” If the dog (or horse or human) knew what you wanted, understood how to do it and was motivated to carry out the request, he or she would be doing it!”

Yes, so often a dog doesn't “obey” 'cause it doesn't understand what to do. When Athena, my GS bitch doesn't understand what I want her to do, she jumps on me in frustration. I learned very early not to scold her for jumping, or correcting: that's her way of saying “I don't understand”. It's the only time she jumps.