Know Way, Know How:
The Science and Art of Clicker Training 
A Workshop with Kathy Sdao, MA, ACAAB

This hands-on workshop, with or without your dog, is an in-depth journey into studying the science and practicing the art of clicker training. Clicker/marker based training goes far beyond using the box or word. Learn the finer points of training, expand your repertoire, increase results and improve clarity so your dog (or students' dogs) learns with speed, accuracy and  less stress. 

18.5 CEUs for CPDTs expected. CEUs for IAABC are pending.

Kathy balances lecture, training experiments, demonstrations, student participation, and dog training for an exciting integrated workshop. Learn the "Science" with lecture and discussion and then practice the "Art" by training/experimenting with people & dogs.

Tentative Schedule (Subject to adjustment depending on the participants needs and flow of the workshop.)

Saturday
A Moment of Science: Learning Theory in a Nutshell
Getting Geared Up: Leashes, Treats, Clickers and Posture
Timing is Everything (people and dogs)
A Moment of Science: Ivan vs. Burris Fred
Behavior, Get It! 
Shaping (dogs and people)

Sunday
Homework Review and Questions
Shaping (dogs)
Shaping as a Foundation Skill
Reinforcement, You Rate It (dogs)
What Criterion? (dogs)
Cues Control: Name or Refrain
Putting it Together (dogs)

Monday
Questions
More on Cues: Tertiary Reinforcers & Chains
Stimulus Control (dogs)
Behavior Chains
Chained Behaviors (dogs)
Are You Sure You Should Lure?
Increasing Behavioral Variability
One Way, No Way; homework review
Questions

You can attend as either a working participant with your dog or as a "Lab Assistant". Working participants will join us all three days. Dogs should be conditioned to a clicker. Dogs and puppies at all levels of training are welcome. Lab assistant attendance is flexible. Lab assistants will participate in all the human exercises and assist the dog trainers by collecting data, observing and offering insight during the dog training exercises. Participants will be partnered - two dogs and their owners, and one or two lab assistants. You may request your partners on the registration form.

Participants review the workshop:

• “Kathy is contagious. She makes me want to go home to train & look forward to my classes & students.”

• “Kathy takes subject material that could be boring and brings it ALIVE!”

• “Everything was clear and exciting…Kathy’s is wonderful and has a dynamic way of presenting…It was one of the best seminars I have attended.”

• “Kathy is very knowledgeable but is able to keep her discussions in “layman’s” terms….Her enthusiasm keeps the seminar fresh and engaging.”

• “ At the end of each day I was totally exhausted…the next morning I was ready to go again because I could not wait to see what I was going to learn today.”

• “ As a Certified Pet Dog Trainer and dog sport competitor, who has been in the industry for over 18 years, I was thrilled to pick up a number of “gems” of information that further solidified and deepened my understanding of my profession and hobby. I highly recommend this workshop for the beginner through the advanced professional. Kathy has something to offer for all of us who strive to be the best trainers possible. Her enthusiasm is a joy to behold.”

• “Kathy’s passion is infectious!!! Even if I didn’t understand all the concepts, yet, I am so on this boat she launched….Thank you Kathy for doing so much to “shape” a better world for us all…one person at a time!”

• “The demo with the Aussie puppy brought tears to my eyes.”

• "Kathy breaks things up nicely. She makes the environment seem like a safe place to learn and make mistakes."

• "The same principles I learned here I can apply to people."

• "As I told you (speaking to Kathy) at the end of the workshop, you really have changed my life, but more importantly you've changed the life of my dogs." - DC 2006

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

Click on the location links below to get specific information, including tuition, for the location of your choice.

If the seminar does not meet the minimum and must be cancelled, currently registered participants will be refunded the full amount without penalty.

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Kathy Sdao is an associate certified applied animal behaviorist (ACAAB) (http://www.certifiedanimalbehaviorist.com/) who has spent the past 25 years as a full-time animal trainer, first with marine mammals and now with dogs and their people. As a graduate student at the University of Hawaii in the 1980's, she was part of a team that trained dolphins to solve complex cognitive puzzles. She received a master’s degree in experimental psychology, and was then hired by the United States Navy (Department of Defense) to train dolphins for applied open-ocean tasks. Kathy next spent five years as 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, porpoises, sea lions, otters and polar bears. After leaving the zoo world, Kathy and a colleague created Tacoma's first dog-daycare facility, Puget Hound Daycare. This is where Kathy began teaching clicker-training classes for pet owners.

Since selling Puget Hound ten years ago, Kathy has traveled across the United States, Canada, Scandinavia and Mexico teaching students about the science of animal training. She enjoys sharing her passion for the incredible power of clicker training, which she has experienced while working with so many species. Kathy currently owns and manages Bright Spot Dog Training; services include consulting with families about their difficult dogs, teaching private lessons to dogs and their owners, and coaching novices and professionals to cross over to positive training. In addition, she has trained animal actors, written for The Clicker Journal and www.dogcentral.msn.com, consulted with Guide Dogs for the Blind and Susquehanna Service Dogs,served as a subject-matter expert for the Delta Society’s “Service Dog Education System,” 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. She is proud to be one of the original faculty members for Karen Pryor’s long-running ClickerExpos.

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.

www.kathysdao.com

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Participation is flexible for lab assistants (auditors). Working teams will work all three days.

Only dogs registered in the workshop will be allowed to attend the weekend due to space considerations.

The dog training exercises progress during the weekend so we suggest only working one dog.

Working dogs must be: 

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

• quiet in a crate or ex-pen when he/she is not working with the owner. (In Yorba Linda the dogs will be crated outside in the agility ring and may be away from you during lecture times.)

• conditioned to a clicker

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