“Learning is a relatively permanent change in behavior potentiality that occurs as a result of reinforced practice” – G.A. Kimble All animals, human and non human, learn in a number of different ways – through trial and error, insight, socially or by association, nonetheless dog trainers typically train with only one approach. Conventional training relies on instrumental and associative learning to accomplish its goals; trainers work with classical and operant conditioning to utilize rewards or punishment to reinforce or dissuade behaviors. How conditioning is applied however, varies greatly in method and technique. Positive trainers encounter a veritable schism of to click or not to click, how to treat, when to treat, how often, to be silent or to be verbal, to use emotion or be neutral, to use one word or two, where to put a name if at all, to use body language or be still, to use eye contact or not and so on. All of which can be a not so positive divide in the world of positive dog training. Our individual approaches to dog training are highly influenced by what everyone else is doing or cultural norms, personal intuition and experience. And while that may be why we train the way we do, what does science have to say about the how to best train a dog question? Focusing on the most effective and humane ways to train dogs- without force – this webinar takes a look at some of the latest research on the use of social learning as training methodology and offers insights into the comparisons of the effectiveness of verbal markers, acoustic markers or none when paired with positive reinforcement.

Sponsor:Pet Professional Guild
Speaker(s):Frania Shelley-Grielen

Contact: Sharon Nettles
 Email: membershipcoordinator@petprofessionalguild.com
 Phone: 731-300-6520
 Web: https://petprofessionalguild.com/event-3454640