Improve your "I-Cue": Learn the Science of Signals
A workshop with 
Kathy Sdao MA, CAAB (associate)

• April 12 & 13, 2008 in Urbandale, IA  - Thank you for a great seminar!

Instructors, trainers and owners want compliance. They want their dog to respond to “commands” accurately and quickly. People often attribute a dog’s failures to do this to dominance, stupidity or stubbornness. It’s more likely that these mistakes result from confusion (or insufficient motivation); the dog doesn’t know what the trainer wants because the cues are unfamiliar, inconsistent or unclear.

Understanding the basic science of cueing will help you improve the process by which you choose, add, change and maintain cues. You will be able to minimize the amount of static in the signals you send your dog, providing a clearer channel of communication. An understanding of behavioral cues will also pave the way for the creation of conceptual cues that go beyond eliciting simple movements.

This hands-on workshop combines lecture, video examples and several exercises with your dog. It will walk you through the steps to build strong meaningful cues whether you are a pet-dog instructor, competition- or working-dog trainer or an owner who wants a more reliable and responsive dog.

Tentative Schedule 

Day 1

Welcome & Intro

Make the whale jump: What a cue can do

Is “cue” just a nicer way to say “command”?

Exercise 1: Cue discrimination test

“Good enough” syndrome

Maximizing clarity: Cue types, salience, distinctiveness

Exercise 2: “Prove It” game

Clever Hans

Changing cues using classical conditioning

Exercise 3: Cues shift

Adding cues: Prompt fading vs. temporal conditioning

Exercise 4: Get a Cue, Part One

Day 2

Exercise 5: Get a Cue, Part Two

Trumping Cues

Concept Cues

Keep-going signals

Adduction

Exercise 6: Cues Fuse

Cueing adducted behaviors

Questions & Wrap up

STUDENT FEEDBACK (similar workshop):  

"The entire lecture was full of gems. Every seminar with Kathy has many "ah ha" moments that I don't expect even in review materials." DP, Oxford, PA 2007

"This greatly enhanced my understanding and knowledge of cues." DM, Littleton, MA 2007

"O.M.G. I did not know I did not know so much. It more than met my expectations." KM, Oxford, PA 2007

What did you like best? "Working on exercises to see the flaws in my own training."  CT, Littleton, MA 2007

WAYS TO PARTICIPATE:

Dog Training for Working Participants (limited - 36) 

Working Participants must sign-up for both days.

You and your dog will be paired with another handler/dog team during training exercises on cues and behavior chains. You and your training partner will take turns alternating working the dogs. We suggest only bringing one dog as the training sessions build on each other. There will be multiple training sessions each day.  

You may request a working and/or lab assistant partner or we will randomly assign you. All team requests must be requested NO LATER than 14 days before the workshop.

Requirement for working participants - Dogs should be at an intermediate training level or higher, not total beginners. Dogs of all ages welcome as long as they have a repertoire of 5 - 6 behaviors, at least partially on cue (without food lure). Some experience with shaping with or without a lure is helpful and suggested.

Dogs must be able to stay quietly in a crate or ex-pen out of owners sight and must be tolerant of people and dogs working in close proximity. No reactive dogs.

Lab Assistants/Auditors (unlimited spaces)

If your dog does not meet the requirements, or you prefer to observe, come and watch the dogs and handlers work through the progressions. Auditors will be assigned a working team to participate/assist on the exercises. You may request a specific team to be on or we will randomly assign you. All team requests must be requested NO LATER than 14 days before the workshop.

Auditors, please leave your dogs at home or in the car if appropriate and they can be quiet.

13 CEUs for CPDT's expected
12 CEU's for IAABC expected

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Early bird registration is available according to location. Registration ends 5 days prior to the event.

Click on the location links at the top of this page or below to get specific information, including tuition, for the location of your choice.

You may pay for tuition by:

• Personal or Bank Check

• Paypal - using your account or opening a new account

• Visa, MasterCard or Discover - through our secure payment information page or by contacting the office by phone or fax and providing your credit card information

Complete payment information will come up on the screen after you complete registration. General Payment Information

If the seminar does not meet the minimum (35 participants) and must be cancelled, currently registered participants will be refunded the full amount without penalty. Please familiarize yourself with the Registration/ Refund Policy and the Waiver before signing up.

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As a graduate student at the University of Hawaii in the 1980's, Kathy was part of a team that trained dolphins to solve complex cognitive puzzles. These dolphin "mind games" were part of intensive research into how animals think and process language. After receiving a master's degree in experimental psychology, she was hired by the U.S. Navy to train dolphins for applied open-ocean tasks.

Kathy Sdao has earned a living as a full-time animal trainer for the past 21 years, first with marine mammals and now with dogs and their people. Kathy was a marine mammal trainer at the Point Defiance Zoo & Aquarium in Tacoma, Washington. There she expanded her training skills by working with beluga whales, walruses, sea lions, polar bears and otters. Years later, Kathy and another zookeeper left their jobs to create Tacoma's first dog daycare facility, Puget Hound Daycare. This is where Kathy began teaching group classes for pet owners. 

Since leaving Puget Hound in January 1999, Kathy has been lecturing nationally on operant conditioning, sharing her passion for the science of training, and the awesome power of clicker training she has experienced with so many species. She is a dynamic instructor with infectious enthusiasm that will keep you on the edge of your seat! In 2004, her speaking engagements include presenting “Know Way, Know How,” a three-day workshop hosted by Dogs of Course, Karen Pryor’s “ClickerExpos” and the Association of Pet Dog Trainers annual conference.

At home in Tacoma, WA, Bright Spot Dog Training’s services include: teaching private lessons to dogs and their owners, consulting with families about their “difficult” dogs, coaching novices and professionals to cross-over to clicker training and chaperoning doggie field trips to local parks. She also has trained animal actors, written for The Clicker Journal and the APDT Newsletter, served as a subject matter expert for the Delta Society's Service Dog Education System, conducted rat-training camp for Terry Ryan's DogSense, instructed at Dogs of Course’s Instructor Training Course and appeared as the "Way Cool Scientist" on an episode of Bill Nye the Science Guy! 

As a Certified Applied Animal Behaviorist, Kathy is available for private lessons and classes, day and evening workshops, coaching for instructors who want to bring clicker training to their students, and consultations for behavior issues through her business, Bright Spot Dog Training.

Kathy lives with her two rescue dogs; Effie, a sweet and intense foxhound and Nick, an Aussie-cross that came to her with serious aggression issues.

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Please see training requirements for dogs attending the workshop explained above.

Only dogs registered in the workshop will be allowed to attend the weekend unless special permission has been given by Dana Crevling.

Working dogs must be: 

• tolerant of both dogs and people in fairly close working situations

• quiet in a crate or ex-pen across the room (away from owner) or in another room when he/she is not working with the owner. 

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