- This event has passed.
February 5 – February 8
Essentials of Modern Dog Training — Working Dog Emphasis
Seminar Instructors: Jerry Bradshaw and Dr. Stewart Hilliard (Sanford, NC)
A much-anticipated collaboration between two old friends and mutual admirers: Join us for three days of in-depth conversation, scientific analysis, and hands-on training with Jerry Bradshaw of Protection Sports Association and law enforcement K9 fame, and Dr. Stewart Hilliard. Jerry and Stewart will teach the core principles of modern working dog training, including the application of functionally-defined aversive control. The curriculum will be most appropriate for trainers and handlers of sport and military/law enforcement working dogs, and will focus on obedience and bitework. Substance detection and tracking training will be addressed in other Kynology events. Because Jerry and Stewart are both too old for this shit, young virile dudes will be summoned to take all the bites, muzzle punches to the face, confusing directions, and verbal abuse.
— Livestream Option Now Available
Hello all you lovely dog people! Here are your much anticipated and long overdo logistical details.
Event Kickoff (Thursday Evening)
Dennis A. Wicker Civic Center
1801 Nash St, Sanford, NC 27330
This is also the location for morning lectures each day thereafter
Livestreamers included! We’ll send you guys a follow up email tomorrow (if not Thursday) with a link and instructions for accessing the Livestream. Virtual doors will “open” by 5 pm for sound check and to give you guys time to ensure you can access before the lecture starts at 6 pm.
Full Day Schedule (Friday – Sunday):
Lectures start at 9 am (plus a few minutes for people to arrive) each morning in the same room as the kickoff event (Civic Center, 1801 Nash St, Sanford, NC 27330).
Afternoon sessions (time and location) will be announced each day dependent on weather and when we break for lunch. BRING LAWN CHAIRS (or stand, or make a friend with a spare)
Program Overview:
This seminar will be approximately 40% lecture and theory, and 60% hands-on demonstrations and training with selected dog-handler teams. Note that there are two separate locations for lecture vs practical work (tbd), and that 5 Feb is an evening session, lecture only (7 PM to 9 PM). 6, 7, 8 Feb are full days. Dr. Hilliard’s lectures will provide insights into the following topics, among others:
- Ethology: Why working dog trainers are practical ethologists, the critical distinction between predatory behavior and aggression, and what is the deal with “fighting drive,” anyway?
- 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 and Misbehavior: 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
- Terminology: How a %$#@-load of cussing makes you a better dog trainer.
For those of you who fear you may be overwhelmed by the material, we are providing you access to full length lectures on the essentials of pavlovian and instrumental learning to review before or during the event: https://kynology.org/student-portal/muzzle-fighting-seminar-resources/ (this is also where we will post recordings to the lectures after the event).
Registration options
Seminar Participant (On-Site, $550) Discounted to $450 before 5 Jan 2025
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.
For questions or issues registering please contact events@kynology.org
Local Hotels (Sanford, NC)
Interested in sharing an AirBnB? Registered Participants may Click Here to add yourself to a Whatsapp group to connect with others for this event.