I'm sitting in the Atlanta airport after a wildly successful Karen Pryor Academy (KPA) for Animal Training and Behavior workshop, thinking about how far the students have come since they started.
All Academy students start at the beginning, regardless of experience. KPA leaves nothing to chance, teaching the basics of dog training and behavior first, then moving into progressively more complex concepts.
In this third weekend, the students showed off their training success — they taught their dogs modifier cues. What's a modifier cue? It's teaching their dog the difference between left and right; high and low; large and small.
They also taught their dogs the names of objects, such as ball, leash, and phone. So not only could their dog go pick out the leash in a pile of objects, but they could even put several of the same objects in the pile and tell them to get the BALL on the LEFT.
You may not have any need to teach your dog such complex behavior, but isn't it cool to know that your dog is capable of learning such amazing skills?!
I'm looking very forward to our next workshop in May where the students will wow me again with their training accomplishments. Their dogs have a blast at the workshops, too, tails waggling enthusiastically the entire time they're working.
It's definitely poetry in motion.
I do love clicker training and KPA!
So the next time you think something's too complicated to teach your dog, think again! Get in there and see just how much you can teach your dog — it's so much fun!
Very cool. Dogs are much smarter than the average owner gives them credit for–perfectly capable of learning advanced tasks such as modifier cues and even concepts. (such as some of the copy cat work Ken Ramirez has been doing).
One question though–how much proofing or testing, if any, do you all do to test and see if the cue the student is giving is actually what’s controlling the behavior? (rather than a clever hans type effect)
Hi Mary,
Good question about the cues. Cueing is a big part of the Academy curriculum. We ask the trainer what the cue is before they start. Then we watch the demo. And we watch the trainer. We’re able to observe if the handler is giving extraneous cues. By this time in the course, the trainer’s know themselves better than ever before and have become aware of what their cues actually are. Some are amazed to find that it’s more than just the word. It’s the word, the trainer’s position, the trainer’s body motion, etc. *I* was surprised to find out just how many cues *I* used! So many more than what I thought I was using… Videotape is very often my friend!
What a teaser post! I love Clicker Training and Karen Pryor (along with her fellow geniuses like Ian Dunbar, Sophia Yin, Patricia McConnell…the list could go on!). Such important work that they do to bring around the idea that force is not only unnecessary but slows learning. Force doesn’t allow for communication – it allows for a reaction – some of which are somewhat desirable, some of which are not (submission vs. attack).
So, are you going to detail teaching modifier cues in a post or how to go about teaching “left” and “right”?