My Day at the ClickerExpo: Friday

I’ve just finished day 2 of the ClickerExpo and it is impossible to relate everything I’ve learned or the amazingness of the experience. The information is fantastic – but more than that – the sense of renewed excitement, motivation, and anticipation is almost more than I can take! It’s really hard to leave feeling so excited and ready to dedicate yourself and then return to real life with a job, a kid, dishes, laundry . . . but that’s a problem for next week. And one I plan to weather.

Though I can’t possibly cover it all – I’ll try and list each session chronologically and some extremely high level thoughts, especially of anything new that I learned or insights made.

Friday started with an introductory session. Each speaker was introduced and the amount of collective experience and breadth of experience was amazing. However, for me the highlight was that I just happened to sit down next to someone from Austin. When we really looked at each other – we realized that we recognized each other from agility though we didn’t really know each other. We talked about how things were going in agility with our most recent dogs and then out of the blue she asked if I wanted to meet at the front desk before lunch and walk over. From that moment, we spent meals and breaks together and generally palled around like we were best friends attending the expo together. It was just one of those time where you just click. However, our clicker experience was very different – so we had NO sessions together

My first ‘real’ session was “A Moment of Science: Clicker training 101 – Part 1” with Kathy Sdao. In this first session (and many of those to follow), I realized I knew more than I realized. Though I don’t have much experience, I have alot of knowledge. When I got Gitta, I devoured books and videos. About the fifth time the scientific terms were explained, I had finally caught on to the terminology. So, most of this was review. But after about 2 mins, I didn’t care at all. Kathy was the most unbelievable speaker I’d ever heard. She was so dynamic, and exciting, and funny, and hilarious, and full of great stories, and fantastic metaphors, and spoke in a way that had you nodding in agreement like a gospel church. Thank god she doesn’t run a cult – because she has uncanny speaking skills. Though I guess some COULD consider clicker trainers a bit cultish. I’m guessing it won’t take long for my husband to get tired of me saying “and Kathy said this, and Kathy said that”. She’s going on my list of people whose seminars I will go to if it’s anywhere close by – pretty much no matter the particular topic.

As for new things I learned, one thing I thought was very interesting was an addition she made to the standard reinforcement/punishment grid. I’m not going to explain the grid here (this is for the well versed trainers in my readership, not for the guys at work that I sometimes push into reading my blog), but what she added that can really help understand what this means for the dog is emotional correlates.

The other piece of information of note is her explanation that you can only extinguish behaviors you’ve fueled. Meaning (I think) that you can used extinction (ignoring behavior till it goes away) on barking if you have reinforced it (perhaps by giving the dog negative attention). But extinction will not work if you didn’t create the problem (like for self-rewarding barking, barking at the door, etc). A good distinction to make since it’s awfully easy to try and ignore bad behavior and claim you are using the scientific method of extinction

After an extremely underwhelming lunch (my only gripe about the expo was the substandard (for the cost) lunches), I went to the Shaping lecture with Helix Fairweather and Joan Orr. This was not a lab session and I had been leaving Gitta in the room – planning on bringing her only to the labs. Helix had mentioned during our first CyberAgility course that maybe she could use Gitta as a demo dog during the Shaping session. I certainly thought it would be great to see that – but I wasn’t sure how she’d do for the rest of the lecture. I decided not to bring her and headed to the session. Helix asked if I had Gitta and I told her I wasn’t bringing her to the lecture sessions. Helix seemed disappointed and a few minutes later I heard her tell Joan Orr that she ‘lost her rottie pup’ for demos. Well – if they were definitely going to use her I was going to bring her! So I told Helix I was going to get her and if she couldn’t make it through the whole time – I’d just step out for a bit and put her up after the demo. I RAN to the room, grabbed Gitta, 2 frozen kongs, 2 rawhides and RAN back. I gave her a kong and a rawhide and she just settled in, sprawled out, and happily chewed her treats. When Helix and Joan played their first video (which included some clicking), Gitta stopped dead on the first clicker and jerked her head up. I heard the folks behind me laughing at her – she was just too adorable!!! Helix did use her as a demo dog, shaping her to knock over a cone and put her nose in. The shaping was definitely interesting, but I was even more excited about how Gitta reacted to it. She’s on a tiny stage – only a few feet off the ground. There are people and dogs all around and she’s working with a completely new person. And I never saw a single indication of stress. As soon as she got a click and treat from Helix she happily worked for her for the 5 minute demo. She was enthusiastic, happy, and stayed on the stage (except to get a treat that fell off the edge). She was REMARKABLY unfazed by it all. And she was the perfect demo dog. Clearly she was familiar with clicker training, but at the same time, she knows so little, she’s a blank slate. It really showed the science and practice of it, without any ‘tricks up your sleeve’ or cooking show type demonstrations (like where you see what it looks like in the beginning and then they pull out a second finished cake they had already made).

Again, I felt like I had absorbed most of the information in my reading (and even more so in just one week of CyberAgility), but it was a great presentation, with videos of animals of other species as well (a cat and a fish) which really drove home how amazingly powerful this type of training is.

Lastly I had my first lab session: “Out of the Gate: Practice for New Handlers and Dogs“ with Emma Parsons. Once again, I felt like it was a little basic. It wasn’t really for people who are relatively new (that’s me) – it was for people that are ACTUALLY new – like never done clicker training before. Still – once again it was a great refresher. Plus it forced me to do some things that all the books and videos tell you to do – but I never made myself work on. And that is the mechanics of clicking and treating. The mechanics of timing, and of getting a treat only after the click (with NO hand movement by the treating hand before the click). Once again, I credit CyberAgility with preparing me for this. I honestly feel like I just bought into quick treat delivery with CyberAgility and I was rewarded (clicked if you will!) by having one of the assistants comment on how still I was with my treat hand and how good my mechanics were. And even though it was pretty much review – it can be good to be forced into practicing your clicker skills on something you aren’t invested in. When I’m at home – I want to train the behaviors I need. Agility behaviors, obedience behaviors, husbandry, etc. That can make you frustrated when you don’t make progress, or cut corners. This working session let me really concentrate on my clicker skills since I wasn’t as concerned about the behavior I was teaching! It actually led to better clicker work, and (not coincidentally), a better, more productive session for Gitta.

All in all, this first day was all about getting energized and excited. And also about learning more about Gitta’s temperament and personality. That part was truly exciting. I’ve had so many people come up and talk about how good she did, and how amazing it is that she’s so at ease. And it is amazing. She was truly unbelievable and she is turning into everything I wanted, and everything I didn’t even know I wanted. She’s had dogs growl or bark at her when she got too close (the quarters are small), or even take her bone when she tossed it around and it landed by them. Never once has she shown the slightest aggressive or fearful behavior. She is just all puppy exuberance and good spirit.

Coming soon (though probably not tonight): day 2.