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FF490: Greeting Skills: From Friendly Tornadoes to Warm Hellos

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FF490: Greeting Skills: From Friendly Tornadoes to Warm Hellos

 

Course Details

Teach your overly friendly dog how to say hello – or maintain a polite distance – with grace and finesse.  This course is for the dog who absolutely loves people and/or dogs and feels the need to say hello with his entire body anywhere, anytime.

Having a friendly dog is a wonderful thing!  Having a friendly dog with manners is even better.  The goal of this class is not to dampen your dog’s happy disposition or zest for life.  On the contrary!  Learning some social greeting skills will allow him to enjoy the proximity of people and other dogs without being a space-invader. 

IMPORTANT NOTE:  This course is for the dog who happily seeks to interact with as many other living beings as possible, but does so with a little too much oomph.  This is not for dogs who respond fearfully or who lunge or bark aggressively towards other people or dogs.  Keep in mind that some dogs will approach people and dogs happily, and then quickly retreat or become concerned if people try to touch or pet them.  This course is not appropriate for these dogs.  If you’re unsure if this is the course for you, contact the instructor before registering.

This course is eligible for: CPDT-KA 14.5 CEUs, CPDT-KSA 10 knowledge + 4.5 skills CEUs, CBCC-KA 10 behavior CEUs.  All levels of enrollment - Gold, Silver, and Bronze - are eligible for the knowledge CEUs. ***NOTE***: The Skills CEUs for CPDT-KSA certificants are only awarded to Gold level registrants and will require video submission for each assignment for review.

Teaching Approach

Lectures are released at the rate of 2-3 lectures per week (over several days) for the first half of the session.  Not all lectures include a practice assignment. Some lectures consist only of a helpful recap and checkpoint.

The second half of the session sees about 1-2 lectures per week.  Lectures are kept short and on-topic to make it easier to absorb the information shared without feeling overwhelmed. 

Demo videos are fully described in writing in the lectures, and text appears on the video itself to point out important sections.  There is no verbal instruction or voice-over in the videos.  When there is sound, it may be that of a verbal cue, general chattiness with the dog, or praise.  

There is a strong emphasis throughout the course encouraging each student to work at their own pace and that of their dog’s.  There is no expectation to work on material that has just been released. Students will move through the assignments at whatever speed corresponds to their dog’s needs.

None of the exercises require dogs to meet & greet other dogs.

 

This class will have a Teacher's Assistant (TA) available in the Facebook study group to help the bronze and silver students! Directions for joining that Facebook group will be in the classroom after you register.

Nancy TuckerInstructor: Nancy Tucker

Nancy (she/her) is a certified trainer with the CCPDT, and a certified behavior consultant with the IAABC. She teaches seminars, webinars, and workshops on dog training, dog behavior, and the business end of training throughout Canada, the U.S., and Europe. (Click here for full bio and to view Nancy's upcoming courses)

 

Syllabus

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Let’s make a deal – how to get your money’s worth in this class

What’s your problem, exactly? – Identifying each element of the behaviour you want to modify.

Foundation behaviours – Yes, this old thing again. But this time, we mean it. Becoming a pro at “checking in”, “4-on-the-floor”, and short-distance recalls.

Building behaviours, one distraction at a time.

On-leash dog greetings – Deciding whether to allow them, and how to orchestrate them if you do.

Yield to pressure – Learn what this technique is really about, and when, how, or whether to use it.

Stand to greet – is it really necessary for your dog to sit to greet? (Hint: Nope.)

Premack Principle – What it is and how to apply it to reinforce the behaviour you want.

Taking your new skills on the road.

Trouble-shooting and how to handle unexpected events.

Prerequisites & Supplies

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Trainers of all levels can perform the exercises in this course. There is no special equipment required.

Much of the foundation work will be done alone (just you and your dog!).

Later in the course, you’ll be taking your exercises “on the road” and will need to practice where your dog can be in the presence of people and/or other leashed dogs.

You’ll also need a human helper to practice greeting exercises in different contexts. If this is not possible while the course runs, you can practice these particular skills later, whenever it's convenient!

At no time will any of you be practicing dog-dog greeting exercises. You will, however, be practicing certain exercises in the presence of other dogs (without contact), such as moving past them, or standing while other dogs move past you and your dog.

You do not need a “helper team” for these exercises (simply going to an area where there are other handler-dog teams will do, such as a park, or a street where pedestrians are walking with their dogs), but if you have access to a team with a friendly dog, that would be very helpful.

REMINDER: Only friendly dogs who display no fear or aggression towards people or other dogs will be participating in these exercises.

Sample Lecture

More

 

Foundation behaviours – “I can skip this part, right? My dog knows the basics.”

 

This is it. This is the part where most people casually get off the bus, convinced they “already know this stuff” and that it doesn’t apply to them. “This is too basic… I want to work on my actual problem!”

 

Ah, but this is precisely the stuff that will get you over the hump you’ve been struggling with. You may think your dog has already learned all the foundation behaviours he needs, and you are probably right… in certain contexts. Sometimes, your dog gets it perfectly right, and he’s a star. After all, you’ve already put hours and hours of work into training your awesome dog.

It’s just in a few other contexts that the problem surfaces, amirite?

 

You’re certain that if you could just work in those particular contexts, you will resolve the issue. “My dog already does X behaviour perfectly at home, I don’t need to practice that. I want him to learn to do X behaviour in the other context, where it becomes a problem. Can’t we just work on that already??”

Well, sort of, yes. But mostly, no.

Let me explain. But first, a little anecdote:

 

I once had a client who wanted help with her dog’s “Stay” behaviour. We talked for a while, she and I and her dog standing in my training facility. She was growing frustrated at my suggestion that we start at the beginning again – revisit the foundations of that behaviour – because she felt her dog “already knew” a basic Stay.

 

“I can ask to him to Stay and then leave the room for 10 mins at a time, and he won’t move.” Great! Then what was the problem?

“If I ask him to Stay and I call my other dog to me, he’ll stand and follow us.” Ah, I see.

Well now, that’s a whole different behaviour. She wanted us to work together with that as a starting point, and while at first glance, it would seem as though “a stay is a stay” and should be pretty straight-forward, the reality is that the contexts were so different that they weren’t even on the same side of the tree.

 

Tree? What tree…?

 

And here is where it will all make sense for you. Consider this illustration:

  1. A behaviour is like a tree.
  2. The roots are the foundation skills.
  3. The trunk is where the foundation skills for that behaviour come together and become strong.
  4. Each large branch – or limb – represents a different context in which that behaviour can take place.
  5. Each smaller branch growing from those limbs represents more details about that context.
  6. And each even smaller branch, right down to the individual leaves, represents even more contextual detail.

 

While I stood talking to my client about her dog’s Stay skills, she explained to me that her dog was able to maintain a stay while she was out of the room. Okay… that’s a limb: “Stay, even in owner’s absence”.

I asked about distractions. She said that her dog was rock-solid. He was able to stay while she literally ran circles around him, waving her arms and shouting excitedly. Okay… that’s also part of a limb on the “Stay” behaviour tree:

“Stay while your person moves”.

And another branch off that limb:

“Stay while your person moves around excitedly.”

And another smaller branch off that branch:

“Stay while your person moves around excitedly and shouts.”

 

I asked her to cue her dog to stay and to show me what that distraction looks like. As she moved around and shouted excitedly, I tossed a ball off to the side. Her dog stood up immediately, unsure what to do.

Tossing a ball is a context that belongs on a different branch that grows on a different limb. Tossing a ball is not attached to the limb that represents “while your person moves”.

Before we marry both contexts – Context #1: the movement/shouting, and Context #2: the ball toss – we need to work on each context separately, from the foundation, up the trunk, onto the limb, and across to the appropriate branch.

 

What my client was suggesting was the equivalent of jumping straight from the “movement and shouting” branch, clear across to the other side of the tree to the “tossing a ball” branch. But that’s where the problem was… it’s too far a stretch, even for Tarzan.

 

That’s why she hadn’t been able to solve the problem of her dog breaking his Stay in order to follow her other dog. She was attempting to skip a few vital steps. Her dog had not yet acquired that skill.

We can’t jump from branch to branch until we’ve taught each behaviour from the roots up, separately. Instead, by building each behaviour from the foundation up, you are building a sort of tree-house that will allow you easy and direct access to all the different branches. A solid platform.

 

So here we are now, you and I, standing at the roots of this particular behaviour tree: The “Polite greetings” tree.

 

This behaviour tree is made up of several branches, each representing a different context and skill. Look up, and you’ll see the “greeting people at my door” branch, and the “walking by another dog and ignoring him” branch, and the “standing still while someone approaches us” branch… and off of that branch are even smaller branches: “standing still while someone approaches us from behind”, or “... from head-on”, or “... from head-on while jogging”, or “... from head-on while jogging with a dog”.

 

You get the picture. Each of these is an entirely different context requiring a different skill set. They will each need to be practiced separately, systematically working our way through levels of difficulty. With each practice, you are building your tree house, so that one day you can own that entire behaviour tree.

 

Foundation skills are where it’s at, and we’re going to spend some time here together. I promise you it’s worth it. Let’s move our way up the trunk and work on each branch systematically so that we can finally help your dog get it right in all the contexts you envision.

Testimonials & Reviews

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A sampling of what prior students have said about this course ...

This is a great class for a pet parent to take if their dog is an over excited greeter. Nancy stresses the importance of her foundational games and throughout the course she ties them all together. At the end one can see a dramatic improvement in the owners who took their time working each piece of the puzzle. I recommend this class.   


I am so glad we took Friendly Tornadoes to Warm Hellos with Nancy Tucker! Bronze was perfect for us because it offered flexibility with our busy schedule and affordability, along with very high-quality instruction and class materials! We hope to make another class soon!         


Excellent course and instruction. Content was well explained and illustrated, feedback to students was effective and supportive.     


Excellent course and really liked the instructor Nancy Tucker. her feedback, insights and comments were really useful. My border terrier and I improved during the class process and Nancy's feedback. will keep looking for more classes through Fenzi.       


My lab has been a hyper greeter of people and other dogs for her whole life (4 years). I have tried lots of different things including training classes. This course is the only thing that has really helped. We had visitors today including a dog and my dog was well behaved. I can’t believe how nice it was to have a stress free visit. Thank you. It’s a miracle!         


I want to again thank Nancy for the fantastic information regarding Greeting Skills. It is a wealth of assistance with my eager greater and is truly appreciated. It will be a wonderful research for my current and future clients.

Registration

Next session starts: June 1, 2023
Registration starts: May 22, 2023
Registration ends: June 15, 2023

Registration opens at 10:30am Pacific Time.

FF490 Subscriptions


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Tuition $ 260.00 $ 130.00 $ 65.00
Enrollment Limits 12 25 Unlimited
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Post general questions to Discussion forum ✔ ✔ ✖
Submit written assignments ✔ ✖ ✖
Post dog specific questions ✔ With video only ✖
Post videos ✔ Up to 2 ✖
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