On The Road Again

This year, I have resumed giving multi-day seminars in the States. During the course of my protracted (ten-year) retirement from the US seminar circuit, I gave my very first last multi-day seminar in Orlando way back in 2001. Between 1998 and 2008, I gave only five multi-day seminars — three of them in Orlando and each one billed as my very last and final US retirement seminar. But now I’m back…

Between1986 and 1997, I gave hundreds of dog behavior and training seminars all over the States and around the world. During that decade, I averaged over 200 nights a year in hotels. The schedule was a bit grueling and my pets at the time, Phoenix, Oso, and Mittens thought I was a stranger.

I really have no idea why I decided to stop lecturing. I seem to remember, that to restrict my travel I was planning to hold a single week-long seminar each year in the Bahamas. I was going to call the seminar, “Kalik & Treat”. (Kalik being a Bahamian beer). Didn’t happen though. Neither did my dream of arranging a ski-resort dog seminar for dog training skiers. (Not yet.) I guess I stopped lecturing because I thought I was going to be happily blogging in sunny places and ski resorts and seminars would be an unnecessary means of disseminating information. Needless to say, blogging hasn’t happened yet either. But instead of reducing the number of lectures and the amount of travel, I only stopped giving seminars in the US and actually increased my seminar schedule and travel by giving many more seminars abroad  — with multiple trips to Canada, Mexico, Japan, China, Singapore, Australia, New Zealand, England, Holland, Belgium, France, Spain and Italy. We even organized a K9 Caribbean Cruise! It’s certainly been a whole lot of fun, but now Jamie, Claude, Dune, Hugo, Ugly and Mayhem all think I’m a stranger.

Regardless of the above, it’s good to be back on the US seminar circuit. Lecturing about dogs is one of the joys of my life and right now, there is just so much that needs to be talked about.  When I was in Italy last year, a trainer asked me what I thought were the most pressing issues in present day dog training. I thought that the whole Dominance-Punishment-Compliance debacle was the most damaging to the quality of life of dogs and their owners. And of course it still remains so today.

However, there are so many more dog-training issues that need prompt resolution. Many concern the feedback (consequences) that drives behavior: binary feedback, quantum vs. analogue feedback, instructive vs. non-instructive feedback, sterile versus personal feedback, non-aversive vs. aversive punishments, phasing out food rewards (to prevent spoiled dog syndrome), differential reinforcement and especially, quantification to increase the reliability and quality of performance.

Other issues concern the cuing of behavior: phasing out lures (to prevent bribing), avoiding physical prompts, and the quickest ways to teach reliable off-leash, verbal, distance control without the need of any training aids such as food, toys, leashes, long-lines, collars, harnesses and halters. There is simple so much that dog owners need to know so that they can get about the important business of having fun with their dogs.

The above topics were the major focus of my recent Chicago seminar — the first multi-day seminar that I have given in the US since 2006. These issues are so important that I plan to repeat this seminar in November in Mexico and Austin (TX). Additionally, it is time (“And about time too!” says Kelly) to start my blogging career in earnest. So, hopefully, coming soon —  a series of blogs from yours truly on the above topics. Also, I have started to re-edit articles that I have written over the years and we shall publish at least one of these a week on dogstardaily. Kelly’s already posted a few and the most recent one is — The Macho Myth.