02/13/13

Kamal Fernandez Seminars in SA

Do you strive for peak performance in your dog? Then this seminar is not to be missed, whatever sport or competition you train for! Kamal’s motivational training methods balance drive and control to get the very best from your dog.

Kamal Fernandez is arguably one of the world’s finest obedience performers and trainers, much sought after to conduct classes in the UK and Europe. His name is synonymous with heelwork but he is competent in training all aspects of obedience, and his motivational reward-based methods apply to all dog sport disciplines including obedience, agility, protection sports and canine freestyle/DWD. His specialty training revolves around using play and games to create motivation and control. Kamal is an engaging presenter with a fantastic sense of humour and a knack for solving problems. If you are interested in positive, motivational training and getting precision and drive from your dog, no matter what canine activity you do, then Kamal is inspirational and definitely a “must see”!

Tracey and Kate are delighted to be able to take your seminar bookings NOW! Places are limited, so register quickly to ensure you don’t miss out.

**Early Bird special** – pay in full by June 30th to be in the running for a FREE private training session with Kamal

Please make your payment (bank transfer or cheque – details are on the form), complete the registration form and return it by post, or scan & email.

And here is Kamal in action training his own dogs

http://www.eastlondondogtraining.co.uk/#!videos/c9xs

For more details, please email Kate Lloyd from Dogs Etc or Tracey Hardcastle from Oh Do Behave.

Note: I am not affiliated with this event, but do plan to attend!

03/11/12

Puppyhood: The time to rescue shelter dogs

This post is part of the series in response to Dunbar’s 2012 Australian seminars. See index.

Welcome to the first post in my Ian Dunbar seminar series. This, as well as many other posts, will be updated as I make more posts. So let’s start!

Ian Dunbar very seriously believes that puppyhood is one of the most vital periods of a puppy’s life. He believes that appropriate training and socialisation will mean that common behaviour problems can be prevented and, ultimately, the dog will not end up in a shelter facility. (In the handout, he called common and precitable behaviour problems “the #1 terminal illness for adolescent/adult dogs.”)

Photo © Ruthless Photos

With puppies, training should focus on:
• Stopping behaviour problems from occurring,
• Teaching bite inhibition,
• Socialising puppies to people and therefore reducing the likelihood of bites (from fear or aggression).

In terms of behaviour problems that should be prevented in puppyhood, this includes:
• House soiling,
• Inappropriate chewing,
• Biting,
• Barking,
• “Temperament problems”
These behaviours are easily predictable, and easily preventable during puppyhood.

Dunbar made some pretty firm statements. He says that puppies with insufficient socialisation suffer “massive permanent damage”. He thinks that puppies are pretty much ‘made’ by 3 months of age, though socialisation does continue. It is only at 2-3 years that you can finished your puppy a finished product – you can relax and enjoy your dog and not worry about further socialisation.

Making the most of puppyhood is a dual effort between breeders and puppy buyers. Breeders have duties, as do puppy buyers. One of puppy buyers duties is puppy classes, and we’ll look at puppy classes in our next post.

11/2/11

McGreevy on Operant Conditioning

This post is part of the McGreevy seminar series. Click here for the index.

Please note: This article assumes some prior knowledge of operant or instrumental conditioning, as it mostly focuses on McGreevy’s comments on operant and instrumental conditioning, rather than on explaining these terms itself. If you are lacking a comprehensive understanding of Operant Conditioning, then I suggest this page from Crystal at Reactive Champion blog. If you already have some idea of operant conditioning, come on in. This may be confusing, but we can only hope it may add to your understanding.

Operant conditioning, also called instrumental conditioning, is when the animal’s voluntary response is instrumental (i.e. important) in establishing the consequence (i.e. reinforcement or punishment). (By voluntary, we mean responses that the animal has control over. Involuntary would be things like salivating or growing hair.)

McGreevy used the diagram below to consider operant conditioning.

Here, the ‘x’ marks the spot of neutral stimuli that does not modify behaviours. That is, a neutral experience. From here, stimuli can either be reinforcing and increase the probability of behaviours, or they can be punishing, and decrease the animal’s responses in question. The purple arrows indicate negative punishment (-P) and negative reinforcement (-R). Negative punishments use the removal of attractive stimuli to make a response less probable. Negative reinforcements uses the removal of adverse stimuli to make a response more probable. Continue reading →

10/27/11

McGreevy’s Thoughts on Dog Breeding

This post is part of the McGreevy seminar series. Click here for the index.

Throughout Paul McGreevy’s two day seminar, he expressed a number of opinions regarding dog breeding. Being a dog breeder myself, I anticipate I paid particular heed to his comments. I find that, in the current climate of dog rescue and puppy farms, dog breeders are constantly under scrutiny and, in general, I find myself a little defensive to conversations surrounding dog breeding.

However, McGreevy had some very interesting and thought-provoking ideas surrounding dog breeding, and he presented them in a very amenable way. That is: McGreevy didn’t breeder bash! He approached matters surround breeding dogs in a matter-of-fact way. Indeed, he spent more time blaming the system of dog breeding (i.e. breeding purebred dogs to a standard) for the problems in dogs today than critiquing breeders themselves. Fundamentally, McGreevy believes that the system for breeding dogs need to change in order to emphasise the health and temperament of dogs, and not their physical appearances.

Couldn’t resist including a photo of my current singleton litter. See here border terrier mum with her 2 day old puppy.

Domestication and dog breeds

Domestication and selective breeding have changed dogs from their wolf ancestors. For example, dog skulls have changed a great deal from the skull of a wolf, and there is also much variation between dog breeds. Not surprisingly, the brains of dogs have changed too, with a wolf brain weighing three times as much as a dog brain. Considering that the dog’s brain is part of its central nverous system, it is reasonable to assume that there may be implications for the dog’s entire nervous system. McGreevy said, “We are only just beginning to learn what we’ve done.”

One thing is for sure: We don’t have a wolf in our lounge room.

In times gone by, breeding dogs were selected on the ability to perform tasks, such as herding, retrieving, carting, or any other purpose. These days, selection is mostly based on conformation, and emphasis is being place on ‘beauty’ traits such as coat and colouration instead of structure. McGreevy believes that this current system ineffective, as 150 years of breeding dogs ‘to standard’ has resulted in a host of inherited disorders. Considering this, McGreevy believes that the dog breeding system needs to change.

Current dog breeding practices are cruel

McGreevy asserted that inherited disorders are a form of cruelty. He also put forward that, considering that the main reason dogs are euthanised in shelters is due to their temperament, breeding for good temperaments is imperative. Neither of these traits are overly considered in the current breeding system.

McGreevy believes that breed standards often are in contradiction to animal welfare. He used the British Bulldog as an example. He criticised the standard for asking for a head that is “the larger the better”, while at the same time calling for a narrow pelvis – an obvious problem for the whelping abilities of the breed. Furthermore some of the points in the standard are actually unhealthy (for example, loose skin in Shar Pei has been found to correlate with joint problems, and the skull shape of a dog influences its vision). In McGreevy’s opinion, dog breed standards have been written in a manner that is sometimes contradictory to dog well being.

Continue reading →

03/25/11

Paul McGreevy Seminars

Recently, I had the pleasure of listening to Paul McGreevy present a two-day lecture.

Paul McGreevy is from The University of Sydney’s faculty of vet science. He is a vet that practiced in the UK for 5 years, before pursuing an interest in behaviour. His approach is scientific, with frequent references to academic studies throughout his lectures. He is the author of A Modern Dog’s Life (“a rant about what we could do better for welfare”) and Carrots and Sticks (interviews with animal trainers globally). He concluded his sessions with an emphasis on the help science can provide to the training field, that there is “room for humanity” within science, and there is still plenty to learn.

Photos © Ruthless Photos

I have been struggling for several weeks to begin writing my summary of his two-day seminar. I think that, due to the breadth of topics covered, I have had a little difficulty organising my thoughts and the best order for presenting the topics on this blog.

What I have decided may be best is to summarise some of the topics covered, in preparation for more in-depth posts as time progresses. As such, this post is likely to be edited overtime and act as an index to future posts.

Firstly, I thoroughly enjoyed the scientific nature of this seminar. Paul McGreevy went into details examining many aspects on the nature of dog science, and then also specific dog studies that has taken place. In a way, Paul described a very similar phenomena to what I described in my post Paucity in Dog Science. However, this is a lot more to the dog-science conundrum than I initially thought. I will review this topic with enthusiasm!

Paul McGreevy also spoke a great deal about dog breeding, with a particular focus on dog health. As a dog breeder, I was perhaps sensitive to this information, but I surprisingly found myself quite receptive to his ideas. Basically, Paul believes that the health of dogs should be at the forefront of breeding practices and that inherited disorders should be considered a form of cruelty.

This was a dog training seminar, so Paul did consider the four quadrants of operant conditioning and other training principles (such as classical conditioning and non-associative learning) a great deal. He talked about what he thought were ‘the keys’ to dog training. He also spoke specifically about improving dog recalls. Though there were the occasional tidbits that offered new insights, for the most part the information was not new to me. However, Paul talked a lot about horse training which I found incredibly interesting. I have a curiosity in horses, yet not enough to actively pursue the subject.

Paul considered the ethical and welfare issues concerning working dogs. That is, working dogs in all aspects – from sheep dogs, to assistance dogs, to police or customs dogs. This was definitely thought provoking, and another issue I will look forward to examining in more depth. He refers to his work with the Australian Working Dog Survey, though I am yet to read this document thoroughly.

The book Paul wrote, and refers to, A Modern Dog’s Life, concerns the stresses of day-to-day life that dogs have to contend with. Though these weren’t at the forefront of his seminar, they were addressed throughout and did provide interesting food-for-thought. These also encompasses, in some ways, the extraordinary dog senses and the challenges these pose for dog trainers. He also considered how desexing, disease and aging could influence behaviour.

McGreevy Seminar Index

Dog Training

McGreevy on ‘The Keys’ to Dog Training

Classical Conditioning Bits

Operant Conditioning Bits

McGreevy on Rewarding Dogs

McGreevy on Punishing Dogs

McGreevy on Non-Associative Learning

General Dog Training Thoughts from Paul McGreevy

7 Tips for Improving Your Dog Recall

Other

Dog Senses (with Paul McGreevy)