Kynology Down Under: Science and Modern Dog Training (Event #1)

Science and Modern Dog Training

Join us for three days of detailed lecture and deep discussion about the ways in which behavioral science informs modern methods for dog training. The intended audience is all Australasian kynologists — dedicated students of dog behavior, learning, and training, who want to fully engage their minds when they train, and when they discuss dogs. Topics will be relevant to companion dog and sport, police, and military working dog disciplines, but should also interest any fancier who is thoughtful about dogs, behavior, and training.

We’ll discuss Pavlovian and instrumental conditioning in depth, and the ways these fundamental learning processes interact to produce good training — and the ways these interact to turn our training session into a bloody $%@ing dumpster fire. We’re going to address head-on the controversies about aversive control, stress, and the ethics of dog training, picking up along the way a deep understanding of learned helplessness and why it has a lot to do with top-tier dog training — but not for the reasons that force-free ideologues may try to tell you.

We’ll also unpack the nuts and bolts of stimulus control and secondary reinforcers and punishers, along the way clarifying the contingency square we’re all taught but never quite understand the way we’d like to.

The objectives of the event are to help participants:

1. Learn the science they need to make up their own minds about the important issues in dog training
2. Understand on a deep level why certain procedures work well, and why some procedures that seem to make perfectly good sense always wind up biting them in the ass, and how to independently analyze their own work to get better results
3. Articulate and also — when necessary — defend their personal ethical positions and technical dog training approaches when speaking with clients, colleagues, and councils or politicians