description

This course is designed to take the stress and mystery out of solving common behavioral concerns in pet dogs. It is built on the science of applied behavior analysis and flavored with real-world experience. It will teach you how to identify the precursors and reinforcers that are leading to your client dogs’ unwanted actions. From there, we will explore the many options for intervening and modifying these behaviors, based on what is driving them. We will cover basic differential reinforcement procedures, antecedent manipulation (management) techniques, and ethical concerns with behavior modification. We will discuss planning and how to help our clients hang in there when only marginal progress seems to have been made.

This course assumes you are already a professional in the field of dog training, and would either like to up your game in the behavior department or add more behavior cases to your workload.

syllabus

• The ABCs (Antecedents, Behaviors, and Consequences): Understanding behavior as a feedback loop
• A brief ethics consideration, and things to rule out first
• Antecedent manipulation (a.k.a. management)
• Implementing differential reinforcement procedures
• The role of desensitization: when you need it and when you don’t  
• Building your plan, and different ways to help clients with the implementation process
• Splitting for clients