Two fun-filled days of learning all about clicker or marker training, capturing, shaping, and cooperative care! Day 1 will be held at Success Just Clicks Dog Training for a lecture presentation about the science of learning, we will play a fun human shaping game to build up your marking skills and splitting skills, and you'll have hands on opportunity to use those skills with some demo dogs in attendance. Day 2 will be held at Hope Haven Farm with hands on training with pigs, emus, goats, chickens, donkeys, turkeys, and more. We know that trainers can learn a lot from working with different species--you better have fabulous timing with that chicken, be prepared for your emu to opt out if you have too low of a rate of reinforcement, be mindful of your body pressure with the sensitive goat, and watch that the donkey just doesn't shove his nose in your training pouch out of frustration if you are unclear with your criteria. Attendees will learn foundation skills for marker/clicker training and more advanced concepts in cooperative care with some of the animals at the farm sanctuary. Attendees will learn about species specific body language and behavior patterns of the animals they are working with (and how that might affect training choices), learning theory, good training mechanics, reinforcement procedures, shaping, luring, capturing, criteria setting and more. They will also learn a lot about how we influence animals with our body language/pressure (in helpful and not so helpful ways) while working with animals far more sensitive to our bodies than most domesticated dogs.

Sponsor:Alliance of Modern Pet Professionals Pittsburgh
Speaker(s):Tena Parker, Andrea Lamping, Dr. Karen Phillips

Contact: AMPP
 Email: pittsburghpetprofessionals@gmail.com
 Phone: 141-238-90202
 Web: http://www.pittsburghpetprofessionals.com/