May 2023

Three-Day Seminar with Michael Ellis

240 Videos | 19 Hours of Content

Filmed at Leerburg

1 Minute, 45 Second

How This Course is Designed

4 Minutes, 58 Seconds

We have organized 19 hours of video from this online course into 5 modules:

1- An introduction to the seminar

2- A Module on Friday's training

3- A Module on Saturday's training

4- A module on Sunday's training

5- Where To Go From Here

To make the information easier to review we broke down the information from each day into various categories or segments of the module. Some segments will contain a number of videos on the topics Michael is addressing.

Below, you can scroll down this page and see the outline Michael provided for each day. Below Michael's outline, you will be able to see the titles of the segments within each module.

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Michael's Three Day
Course Outline

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Day 1 - The Foundations of Training

1. Introduction and Philosophy of Training

2. Learning Theory: The science of how dogs learn and common considerations.

1. 1. Classical Conditioning/ Pavlovian Conditioning/ Associative Learning
   2. Operant Conditioning/ Instrumental Learning

  (R+,R-,P+,P-)

1. 1. 1. Early stages… goal-directed, weighing outcomes, building expectations, “conscious”, model-based.
      2. Habitual, “unconscious”, less affected by outcomes.

3. Role of Emotion in Learning

1. 1. Relationship Diagnostic portion: Getting to know your dog and setting goals.
   2. Management strategies to avoid conflict while building relationship.
   3. Not all dogs are alike: Genetic Propensities and Breed Generalizations.

4. Communication System

1. 1. “Verbal Markers”, Conditioned Reinforcers, Conditioned Punishers
   2. Physical CRs and CPs
   3. Tone, praise, and emotional reinforcement and punishment.

5. Habituating Equipment and Building Reward Events before Behavior Creation

1. 1. Tools and their planned use
   2. Food rewards
   3. Play rewards
   4. Functional rewards

6. Engagement: What is it?  What are the key principles?

1. 1. Motivation
   2. Movement
   3. Make the dog make you move/dog drives the production of reward
   4. Varying the duration of the reward event
   5. Rituals…starting and ending signals
   6. Duration and frequency of practice
   7. Avoiding empty repetitions

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Day 2 - Reducing Rewards:

The Missing Middle Steps between

Foundation and Finished Dog

1. Rituals: Verbal, Physical, and Equipment-based.

2. Moving rewards out of sight.

1. 1. On body vs. remote.
   2. Separating the release from the reward production.
   3. Premack Principle, using behaviors to reward other behaviors.

3. Reinforcement Schedules: Effects and Neurochemistry.

1. 1. General strategies for implementing.
      1. Initial unrewarded repetitions: Do you use your markers?
      2. Making sure the dog can’t determine which repetitions won’t be rewarded.
      3. Avoiding predictable patterns.
   2. Considerations for different temperaments and different exercises/disciplines.

4. Conditioned Rewards and Bridging Behaviors.

1. 1. Physical and verbal/auditory.
   2. Hand touch/press, around/behind, spin, through, etc.

5. Fading Equipment/Making training look like finished applications.

6. Negative Reinforcement, Punishment, and the use of Aversives.

1. 1. Negative reinforcement and rewards together: Benefits and pitfalls.
   2. Positive Punishment: black and white vs. grey behaviors (the pitfalls of controlling through suppression), superstitious associations, and when to allow imperfection.
   3. Subtle conditioned punishers.

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Day 3 - Reactivity and Separation Anxiety

Reactivity:

1. Causes: What makes it happen?

1. 1. Fear/Anxiety
   2. Frustration
   3. Role of leash/barriers
   4. Role of handler/owner
   5. Handler as resource
   6. Lack of exposure/socialization vs. “over-socialization”
   7. Genetics

2. How it’s reinforced:

1. 1. External reinforcement…R- and P+ i.e. reaction relieves stress (R-) vs. handler inadvertently encourages (P+)
   2. Internal reinforcement (self-reinforcing behavior)
      1. What happens neurochemically?
      2. Why is internal reinforcement more powerful for one dog than another?
      3. Why punishment doesn’t often work on internally reinforced behaviors with a strong history?
      4. Does classical conditioning play a role and can we uncouple it or decondition it without further reinforcement or escalation?
      5. Emotions are not subject to the laws of reinforcement and punishment in the way that operant behaviors are.

3. Diagnostics: 

1. 1. The questions… What’s the trigger and what’s reinforcing to the dog?
   2. Extent of reinforcement history and the age of the dog
   3. How short is the fuse and what is the threshold distance?
   4. Learning to read the dog’s body language

4. Management

1. 1. Definition
   2. Importance in preventing further reinforcement and breaking the cycle
   3. Management to prevent behavior problems from being established versus its role in the rehabilitation
   4. The potential of lifelong necessity

5. Role/Importance of Motivation in Behavioral Rehab

1. 1. Food
   2. Play
   3. Functional rewards
   4. The myth that all arousal is bad with reactive dogs

6. Role of Obedience

1. 1. Alternative behaviors
   2. Control as a means to allow dogs to be worked safely in proximity to triggers
   3. How it changes a dogs worldview
   4. Redirection drills
      1. Verbal versus physical
      2. Movement is our friend
      3. When you close a door open a window

7. Other Considerations

1. 1. Sudden environmental contrast
   2. BAT (Behavior Adjustment Training)/CAT (Constructional Aggression Treatment)
   3. Are suppressed or avoidant dogs “cured”?
   4. Corrections/Aversives and fearful dogs

Separation Anxiety:

 Causes:

1. 1. Early/improper weaning and inappropriate rearing regimes
   2. Traumatic experiences
   3. Lack of physical and mental stimulation
   4. Genetics

2. Diagnosis:

1. 1. Is it really clinical separation anxiety?
   2. Triggers i.e. routines, time of day, location, equipment, etc.
   3. Classical conditioning and habit

3. Rehabilitation

1. 1. Obedience plays very little role, and can sometime exacerbate
   2. Uncoupling routines from outcomes
   3. Physical and mental stimulation
   4. Manners Minders, etc.
   5. Rehabilitating i.e. crates and other modes of confinement
   6. Building duration is a non-linear process
   7. Medication/SSRI’s
   8. Can boarding/board and train help?

4. Other considerations

1. Behavior Mod rule number one: An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure!
2. Are our rehab procedures realistic for the lifestyle in question?
3. What’s fixable?
4. Suspending judgement
5. Behavioral euthanasia (not specific to Separation Anxiety)