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June 4 – June 7 CDT
Opportunity Barks, The Farm, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Essentials of Modern Dog Training – General Training Emphasis
This event will be appropriate for trainers working in a broad variety of disciplines, including companion dog, working dog, and obedience dog training. If you haven’t seen how Leigh hosts an event, then prepare yourself for an exercise in masterful organization, impeccable taste, good humor, and nostalgic music — not to mention fresh fruit and little &%$#ing chocolates and stuff she puts out to make you feel at home, and all loved and shit. As jaded, disorganized, and irreverent as Forrest and Stewart can be, they loved the first Kynology/Opportunity Barks event and can’t wait to go back.
A Rare Gathering in Kynology
Hosted by Opportunity Barks | Featuring Stewart Hilliard & Forrest Micke
Most seminars tell you what to do. This gathering teaches you how to look.
Because if you can’t see what’s in front of you, it doesn’t matter how many techniques you’ve collected, you’re still guessing.
This isn’t a mass-market, sit-in-the-back-and-take-notes kind of thing. It’s small on purpose. A working room. Real dogs, real people, real-time decisions. The kind of place where things can get a little messy in the best possible way.
Over four days, we’re not trying to rush you through a checklist. We’re slowing things down enough that you can actually notice what’s happening, and maybe catch a few things you’ve been missing.
The Room (and What We’re Actually Doing Here)
Kynology is the study of the dog as a whole system: science, behavior, instinct, pressure, communication, relationship — all of it tangled together like it actually is in real life.
Not neat. Not linear. Not polite.
So we keep the group small, not to be fancy, but so the work can breathe a little. So someone can ask a question and we don’t have to sprint past it. So a dog can do something unexpected and we can actually stay with it instead of pretending it didn’t happen.
And just to be clear: the dogs aren’t props. They’re not demos. They’re the whole point.
Kynology provides the language for why this work matters.
Why Four Days (Yes, Four)
Because dogs don’t care about your seminar schedule.
They need time to settle. To show you who they actually are once the initial nonsense wears off. Patterns don’t show up on command, and neither does understanding.
So instead of cramming information into a weekend and calling it a day, we stretch it out. You’ll see something, try something, get it wrong, adjust, and then maybe, maybe, start to feel what you’re doing.
That’s the part that matters.
What We’re Looking At
No magic tricks. No scripts. Just better observation and better timing.
The Part People Don’t Plan For (But Remember the Most)
Saturday night we’ll gather for dinner. Not as a formality, but because once people stop “being in a seminar,” the real conversations unfold. The off-script stuff. The stories. The questions you didn’t know how to ask at 2 pm.
That’s usually where things click.
Schedule
June 4 – 7 (Thursday – Sunday): 9 am – 5 pm
Getting Psyched? Click the COURSE SYLLABUS Tab (above) to get a taste of some of the topics we will cover during lectures, discussion and live demonstrations. For more details on venue and location, see the Travel & Logistics Tab
Join us for four days of in-depth conversation, scientific analysis, and practical work. The seminar will be split among lecture and theory, demonstration and discussion, and hands-on training with participants’ dogs. We will focus on core aspects of modern dog training, including the application of functionally-defined aversive control. The ambience is intimate and the venue is small, so slots are limited. Dr. Hilliard’s lectures will provide insights on topics such as:
- Pavlovian Conditioning: The mechanisms of stimulus — stimulus learning and their relevance to dog training, including inhibitory conditioning, counterconditioning, and the technical problem of extinction.
- Instrumental Conditioning: Essentials of response — consequence learning and practical applications.
- The Contingency Square: A deeper understanding of the distinction between the valence (feels good or feels bad) of the stimuli we employ to train the dog versus the valence of the consequence the dog actually experiences
- Pavlovian – Instrumental interactions: How Pavlovian-Instrumental interactions determine the effectiveness of training techniques, and procedures used to “insulate” the target instrumental response from interference by embedded Pavlovian contingencies
- Aversive Control: Distinguishing between aversive stimuli (those that are unpleasant for the dog to experience) and functionally-defined aversive control (defined by the effect on behavior), and understanding why the distinction is important for dog welfare.
- Negative Reinforcement and Positive Punishment: Mechanisms of negative reinforcement and positive punishment, including the critical distinction between escape and avoidance, and the importance of safety cues
- Signaling: The roles of secondary reinforcers and secondary punishers in dog training.
- Dog Welfare: The truth about learned helplessness, the nature of stress, and why dog welfare should not be defined in terms of the presence or absence of stress, but instead in terms of the dog’s ability to predict and control stress
- Training Methodology: The Agency- Accountability Approach to dog training and how it provides for training techniques that are kind and fair to dogs, ethically-defensible, and consistent with scientific data on animal learning and animal welfare– while also providing real-world results for dog trainers
Getting More Psyched? Click the TRAVEL & LOGISTICS tab (above) for venue details, travel logistics, accommodations, etc.
Venue Location
Opportunity Barks is located in the Quakertown, PA vicinity (event address provided after registration)
Travel
Airports
Where to Stay
Anywhere around Sellersville, Perkasie, or Quakertown, PA.
Hotels (about 15 min out):
Cabins/Camping
More details to come!
In-person Registrants will receive an email from Leigh several days prior to the event with more details and to prep working teams. For questions regarding venue location, travel and accommodations, please e-mail Leigh at leigh@opbarks.com
Getting Even More Psyched? See REGISTRATION OPTIONS (below) to see details on registration options and how to nominate your dog as a demo dog. Note that registered students will be given access to pre-event resources.
Registration Options
Seminar Participant ($600 In-Person)
Fully immerse yourself in lectures, discussions and live-demos, with or without a dog. Unlike traditional seminars, which prioritizes individualized attention to each dog-handler teams with little participation from other handlers and auditors who pay a nominal fee to passively listen in, the hands-on demonstrations and training sessions with selected participants dogs will be inclusive of the entire group, permitting everyone to ask questions and fully participate in the discussions, learning the practical application of topics presented in the lectures by watching a multitude of dogs and scenarios.
The first 10 registrants will get $100 off (in-person) or $60 off (Virtual attendance). Discount will be reflected in ticket cost (below), if you do not see a price reduction, then they have all been claimed.
Working Spots ($165 upgrade)
Those who would like to participate with their dog in the hands-on demonstrations must first register for the event (purchase a ticket) to reserve your spot as a seminar participant. After purchase, submit 1 – 2 minute video clips (rather than one very long video) of a training session showcasing your dog working in a busy, unfamiliar environment. Video clips should show your dog interacting with multiple rewards, including food, different types of toys, and bites on equipment (if appropriate for your discipline). The objective here is to make sure that the dog can function well in a seminar context and that in-seminar work will promote learning for all seminar participants, including your dog.
Submit links to your video (hosted on YouTube, Vimeo, etc) to events@kynology.org. Videos can also be submitted directly through WhatsApp (email us for that number). Once you are approved, you may reserve a spot for your dog by purchasing a working spot upgrade. Note that submission does not guarantee approval, and there are no refunds on seminar tickets if your dog is not approved (we want to fill the room with those who want to learn with the community and not just those who wish to work there dogs individually).
Virtual Participation ($365 Livestream)
Can’t make it in person but really want to be there? We are offering a LIMITED number of Livestream seats. Are we professional Livestreamers? No. Will you get to follow the fun and the chaos and get to participate in the group chat and occasionally get “behind the scenes” fun with the behind the scenes people? Yes.
And in trade for the occasional technical glitch (and because we appreciate you and that not everyone learns at the same rates), EVERYONE in the room, whether virtual or in-person, will receive 2 weeks access to recordings after the event. Note that we are doing this to give you all an opportunity to catch anything that you missed and not stress about frantically capturing notes. We intend this to be a live event for people “in the room” (in person or in virtual simulacra) rather than purchase of a pre-recorded event.
ALREADY HAVE AN ACCOUNT? Login prior to purchase to expedite the process.
IMPORTANT: Be sure to add your name and email to the attendee collection form during checkout to receive event updates and access to recordings.
