Intelligent Dog Training Course

Dogs are intelligent, perfectly designed to live in a human world and get the best out of presented opportunities. Sometimes their intelligence is just a little hidden and waiting to be discovered. The dogs are in desperate need of intelligent training. Common sense may seem a more accurate description but common sense seems to evaporate in the presence of Dog, totally devoid in the presence of Puppy.

The Course

A 2 year course in virtual learning environment consisting of four Units with individual projects and options.

For anyone and everyone in the world of dogs. First time dog owner or long time dog trainer. Intelligent thinking is available for those with an active seeker circuit.
This course is seeking a balanced approach to learning about dogs. Teaching us to be at ease with dogs, employ ethically acceptable techniques to improve their lives and our relationship with them. Knowledge exploring science and nature is constantly evolving. We need at least a basic understanding to be able to research this knowledge and also as a foundation for our practical techniques. We need to continually develop our observation skills and abilities to read the evidence presented, as we begin to unravel the merging behavioural and scientific knowledge of the species that has co-evolved alongside us. If we do, we become fascinated by the dynamics of behaviour and how it develops,

"Dogs are probably our best teachers.
Not only do they relish our developing
 knowledge of them, they bring a balance
 to our lives and a deeper understanding
 of ourselves."

The course is devised and written by Kay Laurence. Kay has an extensive background sharing her life with dogs, involved in training, teaching, breeding and sports, which brings a unique philosophy, experience and practical knowledge to her teaching. Her success is measured by an extensive range of achievements through consistent high quality of results, both with her own dogs and those of her clients and students. Kay holds a Certificate of Education and a post graduate thesis in course design specialising in developing self-directed learners. Her experience includes three courses designed and taught for different colleges, verified and approved by City and Guilds and Open College Network. Kay is constantly seeking new avenues of effective teaching in practical work at her training barn and through online media.

Units

The Units can be studied individually. Unit notes, lesson material and handouts will be available for purchase separately for students wishing to enrol in later Units. Ideally the Units should be studied in order over the 2 year programme for inexperienced learners.

Unit 1: Apprenticeship.

Learning the tools and foundation knowledge

1. Equipment and correct usage. Leads, short and long lines; collars; collar language; pressure and release actions; harnesses; crates, cages, door gates, beds; travel safety
2. The training cycle. Cues, cues in the environment; changing and adding specific cues; cue discrimination; basic skills of luring, shaping and a target. Reinforcement. How a reinforcer works; types of reinforcers; effectively delivery of a reinforcer
3. Training strategies.  Setting up for success; avoiding and how to handle errors. Solutions: Avoid, Ignore, Punish or Address
4. Management strategies. Hands on the dog
5. Effective communication skills. Teaching, listening, marking, take a break

Practical Exercises in this Unit:
Lead walking, multi environment, walking together. Basic recall training. Shaping simple behaviours. Greeting protocols. Management strategies. Parking.

Unit 2: For the love of dogs

1. Connection, relationship and making friends. Being together, out and about and at home; reconnecting, greeting, providing approval; compromise, mutually enjoyable lifestyles;
2. Anatomy, handling, learning the capabilities.
3. Innate and instinctive behaviours. Development and management;
4. Play Games with food, toys. Games playing alone and with you; playing with other dogs; nosework, scent games
5. The Canine Way of Doing Things and Seeing the World. Brain functions: confidence, anxiety, uncertainty, arousal. Seeking learning, memory. Social skills and human interaction
6. Physical fitness. Proprioception skills, flexibility; stamina, exercise
7. Mental fitness. Controlled arousal, relaxation, observation; assessment, mental discipline
8. Who You Need To Be For Your Dog. Self awareness; developing trust and being reliable; managing your energy; mental discipline; your responsibilities, expectation of your society and your dog; developing your ethical platform

Practical Exercises in this Unit

Building connection exercises, spending quality time together. Lure-learning, mobility and observation skills. Playing with your dog: food games, tug training, playing ball, whippits. Fitness training: cavaletti, egg-agility, balance, motor skills. Personal development exercises and self questioning

Unit 3: Journeyman.

Skilful use and application practice

1. The Learning Cycle. Planning behaviours. Emotional context in teaching, learning, completion and practise. Duration, reliability and mental stamina. Behavioural fitness - mental and physically. Building a target library. Reinforcement schedules. Patterns of reinforcement and how they pull behaviour. Finishing behaviours. Building fluency. Cues as reinforcers. Developing robust and reliable cue response, default behaviours. Designed errors for learning development. Designing learning environments. Modification tools: desensitisations, counter conditioning
2. Chains and compound behaviours
3. Advanced cues
4. Advanced luring, shaping and targets
5. Individual training project
6. Evidence of learning, data gathering
7. Poisoned cues and repair
8. Examining ethical options
9. Self control, affecting the learner, building subtle responses

Practical Exercises in this Unit:
Teaching targets: follow, front feet, body. Different emotionally contextual behaviours: active and passive behaviours, joy in learning. Analysis exercises of reinforcement use, delivery, placement, quality and quantity. Developing performance quality behaviours. Building chains and compound behaviours.

Unit 4: Master Trainer.

Seeking excellence

1. Complex reinforcers in compound behaviours
2. Planning learning experiences and the learning process, developing the learner.
3. Teaching complex behaviours: Multi targets; modifier cues, complex cues; conceptual learning; chains and compound behaviours
4. Deconstructing unwanted behaviours
5. Adduction
6. Evidence of learning, observation, testing, assessment choices, data gathering
7. Building vulnerable learners
8. Specialist Options:  Teaching People Teaching Dogs, Microshaping, Puppy development, Sport training, For the Love of Training, Breed specialisation, Assistance dog

Practical Exercises in this Unit:
Teaching advanced adduction. Conceptual projects: match to sample, largest smallest, etc. Gathering evidence of learning patterns and preferences. Develop confidence through learning. Specialist options listed are available, other options may be suggested. CAP4 projects for those who have achieved CAP3.

Certification

Optional Certification is available for completion of an individual evidence based assignment for each Unit. Certification will be awarded at two levels:

a) Successful completion of the Unit
or
b) Successful completion of the Unit and Recommended Trainer by Kay Laurence

Units

The Units can be studied individually and Unit notes, lesson material, handouts available for purchase separately for student swishing to enrol in later Units. Ideally the Units should be studied in order over the 2 year programme for inexperienced learners.
 

Classes

Tuesday evenings 6-8pm GMT. (two weeks apart).
Europe: 7-9pm, E Coast USA: 12-2pm, W Coast USA: 10-12pm, Australia  6-8am Weds.

No of lessons: 8 per unit. Courses: Apr - Jul, Sep - Dec.

Fees

New Student:

Each Unit: £195, Whole Course £780,
Whole Course Paid in Advance £585 (25% discount)
Material from each Unit (when enrolling for a later unit) £50

Previous Collar Student
For Students that have enrolled on a COLLAR course within the previous 2 years of the course starting. Students must apply to COLLAR Admin for enrolment code

Each Unit: £146 (inc 25% discount), Whole Course £584.
Whole Course Paid in Advance £439 (inc 25% discount)
Material from each Unit (when enrolling for a later unit) £40

4 Unit 1
4  Unit 2
4 Unit 3
4 Unit 4
4 Certification
4 Fees
4 Classroom

“I think one of the "greats" about COLLAR is that it is a place for people of similar mindset to share ideas and develop understanding as a group. I underlined develop because the information is not spoon-fed, as it sometimes is in other courses. We are encouraged to think through the nuances of behavior, past the superficial tags ("recall", "bad behavior", "reactive", "aggression").

I see COLLAR as a guided think-tank. Discovery that tugs at our seeking systems, and teaches us the process of learning: Looking deeper, sharpening our perceptions, questioning the "known", listening to the learner by truly seeing behavior through our own eyes -- not just taking someone else's explanation for it. We learn to become scientists: Check the data, question any variables or assumptions that may have led to the results. Skills that will last us a lifetime.

What we learn here can move from information to knowledge as we apply it to our own experiences, our own behavior. I always take away a few vital gems, lightbulb moments I otherwise may not have experienced, leading to a deeper understanding of dogs... and life in general.”

Christine Bond