Saturday, August 23rd: Location & Arousal Specific Marker Cues
Sunday, August 24th: Reducing Reinforcement
9AM-5PM each day

Attend one day or both – the choice is yours!

Saturday: Location & Arousal Specific Marker Cues

Reinforcement drives behavior, right? What if your dog cares what type of reinforcement they get and likes some more than others? What if specific types of reinforcement carry different arousal/excitement and you can take advantage of that in your training, whether sports skills or for general behaviors? And in the meantime, how about adding clarity to where and how to collect the reinforcement, something that highly motivated toy dogs could definitely benefit from.

We’ve all been using a clicker or a verbal word like Yes to mean “collect reinforcement” to our dog. Now let’s think about slicing up that clicker and making it more concise and clear to your learner dog. Having verbal cues that tell your dog where to collect reinforcement and what exactly that reinforcement is can be so mind blowing and complicated for the handler, but it clears things up and makes things so much simpler for the dog! The dog can devote their entire concentration to listening to you and performing the behavior skills instead of watching your physical motions as predictors of where and when the reward is coming.

A side benefit of teaching and using this concept is that it incorporates “switching reinforcement” and also teaches “no”. If yes means “food from the hand”, it also means not food on the ground, or the ball on the chair, or that other dog over there, extending all the way up to “Not that deer”! Teaching your dog this concept with reinforcement you control can only benefit your training in sport and real life skills that often bring about interactions with reinforcement you cannot control.

What you can expect in this seminar:

We’ll have our presentation in the morning and get out 3 times, once with each other and twice with your dogs in groups to practice some marker cues.

Then in the afternoon, we’ll learn and practice offered focus in groups. This will be followed by a one-on-one session with each team where you get to work on one behavior, strengthening it with what you have learned in the morning.

Sunday: Reducing Reinforcement

This one day seminar covers some of the subjects explained in my Spaces in Between and Cutting out the Cookie-Reducing Reinforcement classes from Fenzi Dog Sports Academy. I constantly see dogs that are excellent in their trial skills but get tired and unsure in those “in between” places. And then because they are tired, it affects their trial performance. We need to put just as much time teaching those transitions, the start and end rituals and systematically reducing the reinforcement so that come trial day, the dog isn’t surprised and frustrated.

Some of the concepts we might cover:

• Stays of all kinds: hurry up and wait!
• Remote reinforcement places: off body, on ground, and why or why not we might teach this
• Ready to Work protocol
• Paying for effort, not for tasks/skills
• Connected/Loose leash walking with distractions
• Reducing Reinforcement: random number time wise
• What are your cues? Is your behavior skill trained and trial legal
• Variable reward: violate your dogs expectations
• Patterns make confidence, variability make listening
• Start and end rituals: clarity rules!

We won’t have a chance to cover all these in one day. I’ll evaluate what is most needed by the participants at the start of the day and take some input.

Online Registration

Full Weekend Packages
Sign up for both days & save by using the links below!
auditing spot both days ($150 + tax)  – save $50!

IMPORTANT: After purchasing a full weekend package, you still need to register! Use the single day registration links below to sign up yourself/your dog. 

Single Day Registration

Saturday Auditing Spot ($100 + tax)
Sunday Auditing Spot ($100 + tax)

As of April 27th, all working spots are sold out. Any cancellations will first be offered to registered auditors.

***CEUs pending. If you would like CEUs from a particular organization, please contact us prior to registration.***

About the Instructor: Shade Whitesel

Shade Whitesel has been training and competing in dog sports since she was a kid. Always curious in how dogs learn, she teaches people how to get along with their dogs in all behavior things, as well as competing in the sports of IGP and AKC Obedience.

Though Shade is owned by highly motivated working line German Shepherds and is known currently for her toy skills and marker cues classes (online through Fenzi Dog Sports Academy and in physical seminars), she especially enjoys teaching foundation skills to all manner of dogs and their people. Good training and learning starts at the beginning with clear reinforcement and motivation for both parties.

Sports wise; Shade enjoys IGP (Schutzhund) and AKC obedience. Her current dog Talic, recently entered the AKC scene and scored 3 straight High in Trials earning his CD. He should be ready for the Open level this spring.

Access to Shade can be found at her website and she is on Instagram and Facebook. She currently has a Patreon page “Eye on Ion” that details out how to raise a young sport puppy.

About the Host: Crossbones Dog Academy

Crossbones Dog Academy is an 8,000 square foot dog training, daycare, & retail facility located right off I-95 in Providence, RI. Our training hall is 45×75′ with Great Mats interlocking agility flooring. Our facility is climate controlled with ample off-street parking. Indoor crating space is available for quiet working dogs in a space adjacent to the training hall, or you may work out of your car. Chairs will be provided.

Crossbones is less than 20 minutes from TF Green Airport and approximately an hour from Logan Airport in Boston.