The Pet Brain Repertoire

This course is suitable for dogs with very active brains that would benefit from a well structured learning program. We build a learner who will seek cues from you to access their valued rewards, learning fine discrimination skills and enjoy the reward prediction errors that keep them actively engaged.

This repertoire may include simple behaviours performed with high level proficiency that can generalise to the anywhere, anytime principle. Explore this standard of teaching so that you can apply it to all that you want your dog to learn.

You will be able to teach:

➤  A Target Chain: on cue to look for the target, travel to the target, adopt a specific position at target, hold at target until cued.

➤  Precision Movements: clean movement with a sit up or sit back, a drop and spring to attention: which will build fitness in everyday movements.

➤  Swing Sides: changing sides with easy flowing actions.

You can teach one dog all three repertoires or three dogs one of each, depending on available time, and energy, to invest in your learning.

Your teaching skills and connection will develop through

Learn and Teach Cue Seeking

➤  Anticipation of rewards drives cue seeking: the desire to want to do more; integrate cue seeking into all interactions to open the conversation. Learn how cue seeking is a two way street.

How Reward Delivery Impacts Value

➤  The way the reward is delivered is more important that what you deliver. Rewards are feedback: analyse the speed of delivery, your timing, the location, the sincerity and most importantly the timing of that reward prediction: your marker. Fast is definitely NOT better in reward-world. This is very much part of the Reward Prediction Error.

The Learning Pathway

➤  Using clear guidance to structure what your dog is learning but sufficient breathing room for them to adapt the learning to suit their style and abilities.
No short cuts or quick tricks but simply doing it right the first time: no “come back later and patch it up”. Not fair. 

A Chain or Two

➤  Careful building of chains that can lead to more complex repertoires without compromising the individual behaviours. Where are the cues and which behaviour loads the reward anticipation?

Fine Discrimination Skills

➤  The more we build our ability to communicate clearly through a range of visual, audio, object, location stimulus the wider the range of “language” your dog can understand. Remember Chaser: 1000 names of toys.

Resilient and Robust

➤  Teaching one or two top quality behaviours will develop a confidence in you and equally in your dog. A program of quality teaching reflects in quality learning that can be applied to all future learning.