The Newfoundland Club of Seattle has the honor of hosting this exciting and informative workshop on the science and skills of dog training with Kathy Sdao. Regardless of your experience level, you will not want to miss this unique opportunity.

REGISTRATION FORM

Shaping is a powerful & fun training technique. Its applications are virtually limitless and include basic obedience behaviors, tricks, service-dog tasks and winning conformation moves. Our focus for this weekend workshop will be a deeper understanding of the underlying science of behavior shaping and the practical skills needed. We’ll split our time between lecture and training exercises with several dog-and-handler teams. On each day of the workshop, we’ll work on a goal behavior that can accommodate beginners and more advanced teams. People who attend without a dog (i.e., the auditors) will be able to observe and assist with the training.

Kathy Sdao is an applied animal behaviorist. She has over 30 years of experience as an animal trainer, first with marine mammals and now with dogs and their people. 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. After that, Kathy 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.

Since selling Puget Hound in 1998, Kathy has owned and managed Bright Spot Dog Training. Services include consulting with families about their challenging dogs (50-75 per year), teaching private lessons to dogs and their owners, and coaching novices and professionals to cross over to positive-reinforcement training. She’s taught more than 200 seminars, workshops, conference presentations & webinars, enjoying these opportunities to share her passion for the incredible power of positive-reinforcement training, confirmed over decades of working with dozens of species.

Saturday September 10

Lecture 1: A brief overview of learning theory for animal trainers

Skills practice for trainers: sequence of marker & treat

Break                          

Skills practice for trainers: timing of marker

Lecture 2: Ways to get behavior

Training session 1: photos/videos of goal behavior 1; make plan; begin training

Lunch

Training session 2: Practice shaping & collecting data

Lecture 3: Review SMART; Why use a marker?

Training Session 3: Raise criteria & continue collecting data

Break                          

Lecture 4: Reinforcement options

Training Session 4: Final training & demos

Sunday September 11

Q & A

Training Session 5: photos/videos of goal behavior 2; make plan; begin training

Break                          

Lecture 5: Seeing behavior

Training Session 6: Practice shaping & collecting data

Lunch

Lecture 6: Creating powerful cues

Training Session 7: Raise criteria & continue collecting data

Break

Lecture 7: Choosing cues with care

Training Session 8: Final training & demos

Working Spaces are limited so sign up early. The working spaces are for both days.

There is no limit on audit spaces and auditors can do either day if not both.

REGISTRATION FORM