‘What’s New in Dog Training’ and ‘What’s New in Clicker Training’ are topics for a weekend workshop with internationally renowned clicker trainer Kay Laurence at the end of June in the UK which I will be attending. It was at her training centre in the Cotswolds area of Gloucestershire in 2006 that I first came across TAGteaching.
Kay, who has hosted multiple TAGteach seminars, says that "clicker competency is not directly measurable by a person who has a clicker in their hand being a clicker trainer! “Some clicker trainers”, she says, “are reaching for the sky and able to achieve astonishing results, some clicker trainers are simply adding the clicker to an existing program of training, which may or may not be coercive. To gain access to this powerful method the teacher (clicker trainer) needs to be skilled, very self aware, observant, able to analyse, adjust the teaching to suit that particular dog at that particular time. As they develop their skills their understanding of the process deepens and they are able to transfer the learning to other animals, other fields of interest and have genuinely learned to communicate with another species through skilled use of the clicker.'
"I believe the true power of clicker training is seeded in allowing the dog to self-teach and in particular through the method of capturing the behaviour. The canine ownership of the learning results in very secure cue association and reliability of quality. The dog truly becomes involved in the learning process, becomes highly motivated and teaches us poor humans a thing or two about learning.”
The Learning About Dogs ‘Competency Assessment Program” (CAP) is designed to serve two purposes:
- to provide a clear pathway, with marked steps for learners to gain their skill, knowledge and understanding
- to provide a certification system validating the competency of clicker trainers.
Click HERE for further details of CAP Levels 1-4
Click HERE to see the winner of ‘That dogs got talent’ at LADs
