Back to the seminar notes for the Sept 2011 Obi Fox event. There are a lot of neurons in the brain. Motor neurons “fire” (electrical/chemical changes within the cell) in response to a specific stimulus and then cause movements of specific muscles or muscle groups. The type of stimulus depend Read more…
Last weekend was a very unique 2 day seminar by Obi Fox. It was a medium sized group of attendees from all over the US. Day one was powerpoint and discussion with a few short demos and video. Day two was all about working dogs and considering our new knowledge Read more…
Luring is not evil. You are not a bad person if you lure behaviors. If you do a bad job of it….then you get your own set of problems. Practice Following: We treat it as a magnet and fairly closely follow some of the notes in Agility Right From the Read more…
I typically do not do impulse purchases. I practice my self control by shopping online and putting all sorts of great toys, books, gear…into my shopping cart. And then never going to the “pay now” page. I think about getting stuff, but don’t. I practice that too often. Sometimes Read more…
We recommend practicing in lots of environments to get very fluent and reliable behaviors. It’s especially important to practice in the environment where you most need the behavior. For safety reasons, we can’t just let your dog off leash in the front yard to work on recalls. And we don’t Read more…
“It depends” on which part you are working on. These are not the only option and possibly not the best options… but they’re my current favorites. Looking ahead while at heel: Release and toss reinforcer forward Initially leaving your side: Send and toss reinforcer ahead of the dog, prompting chasing Read more…
This is a very common complaint…it’s a common belief that dogs inherently bark or whine when they need to go outside. In reality? Not so. Me: Most dogs won’t and it has to be trained. For most dogs, you have to get them into a schedule and remember to take Read more…
What started as a short jump-tunnel sequence ended up being a lot of thought on how a dog knows when reinforcement is available. During the session, the young retriever was bouncing at his handler and then running off to get into trouble. He wanted the reinforcers, but did not seem Read more…
Apparently that’s the theme of the week. It’s something we talked about at training group and something we worked on in classes. There are a few ways to get speed for any type of behavior… here are the five I hear most often. Train when the dog is already more Read more…
It’s so easy to end up working on multiple things at once. It’s hard to set criteria and stick to it. Here are a few examples from this week: 1. Sit AND Take Treats Gently: I saw this more than once. Dog owners want the behavior and the Read more…