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BH210: Watching Confidence Grow!

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BH210: Watching Confidence Grow!

Course Details

“Hey Mom, are you watching?”

We already know you’re your dog’s biggest fan, but your ability to help your dog be as confident as they can be is only as good as your observation skills! Ready for a 6-week immersion class in reading the dog in front of you? And what use would this skill be without putting it into practice with some training designed to bring out confidence in your pup? 

This class, based on my previous webinar, Building Confidence, will lay out a customized plan for each dog all while training you, the handler, to develop a keen eye for reading your dog’s confidence-level every step of the way! 

Because feelings are based on our perception of the events or situations surrounding us. And with our dog friends, they communicate their feelings using body language.  Therefore, it is important that we, as their caretakers and handlers, be aware of and understand body language so we can not only help them feel safe when needed, but also to interpret the times when they are feeling comfortable and more confident, also! 

We’ll begin by identifying your dog’s confidence level in three key areas: Social, Environmental, and Skills. Then we’ll tailor a holistic approach using the elements of Safety & Security, Social Support, Physical, and Mental Well-Being, including choosing appropriate decompression outlets that will be determined by each dog and their unique preferences (Hint: some dogs prefer more active decompression than the popular sniffing-based methods). 

In this class, you will also learn how to create predictability in reinforcement strategies, and our interactions and expectations with them in daily life and during training sessions. Allowing for agency during the learning process is key to helping your dog become more confident. Equipped with your stellar body language-reading skills, you and your dog will have fun building confidence by ensuring they are not put into situations that could be detrimental to the process.   

Anyone wanting help with their own dog or simply to get better at reading and interpreting body language of dogs in their care through house sitting, training, sheltering/fostering will benefit from this class. This class will be appropriate for reactive and fearful dogs, but also dogs who are confident in one area but less confident in others. Puppies, adolescent dogs, and adult dogs are welcome!

Teaching Approach

Information outlined in the syllabus will be detailed in a lecture and when appropriate will include photo or video examples.  Each student will receive a customized approach so that although there is a lot of information presented, it may not apply to each of you and recommendations will be given based on the individual.  The initial focus of the course is to identify the areas of confidence your dog may have, where they lack confidence, and to create reinforcement strategies for future training.

Forums will be checked twice daily, and all posts will be responded to by me in detail with or without video support before you post again.

Karen Deeds, CDBC Instructor: Karen Deeds, CDBC

 Karen Deeds, is a Certified Dog Behavior Consultant through the International Association of Animal Behavior Consultants (IAABC). She is the co-owner of Canine Connection in Ft. Worth, TX with her husband, Bob Deeds, a retired Federal K9 Handler on Texas Task Force I....(Click here for full bio and to view Karen's upcoming courses)

Syllabus

View Full Syllabus

 WEEK ONE

  1. Identifying Strengths
    1. Social
      1. Dogs
      2. People
    2. Environmental
      1. Sounds
      2. Visuals
      3. Three Dimensional
    3. Skills
      1. Physical
      2. Mental
  2. Identifying Weaknesses
    1. Social
      1. Dogs
      2. People
    2. Environmental
      1. Sounds
      2. Visuals
      3. Three Dimensional
    3. Skills
      1. Physical
      2. Mental
  3. Known History
    1. Parentage
    2. Prenatal Care
    3. Maternal Care
    4. Early Life Experience
    5. Planned Stress (Inoculation)
    6. Unplanned Stress
  4. Ensure Safety & Security
    1. At Home
      1. Alone
      2. With Familiar People 
      3. With Unfamiliar People
    2. In the Car
    3. In the Shelter/Kennel
    4. Suitable Barriers
    5. Muzzles
  5. Provide Social Support
    1. Presence
    2. Voice
    3. Touch
    4. Another Dog

 WEEK TWO

  1. Medical and Physical Well Being
    1. Grooming
    2. Injury/Pain/Disease
    3. Physical Exericse
    4. Mental Stimulation
    5. Play (Toy & Personal)
    6. Adequate Rest
    7. Behavior Medication
  2. Decompression *What does that look like
    1. Active
      1. Cardio/Treadmill
      2. Training/Skills
      3. Shredding
      4. Digging
      5. Tugging
      6. Personal Play
    2. Passive
      1. Licking/Chewing
      2. Duration Sniffing
      3. Cuddling/Touching/Massage
      4. Relaxation/Sleeping
  3. Games
    1. Food
      1. Chase
      2. Race
      3. Go Through
      4. Focus Chase/Race
      5. Hide & Seek
    2. Toys
      1. Flirt Pole
      2. Chase/Fetch
      3. Tug
      4. Go Through
      5. Focus Chase/Fetch/Tug
      6. Hide & Seek
    3. Handler
      1. Peek-a-boo
      2. Tickle
      3. Tag/Push
      4. Prey/Predator

 WEEK THREE

  1. Reinforcement Strategies
    1. Food
      1. Baseline (Deliver from hand)
      2. Activating (Chasing)
      3. Calming/Sniffing (Multiple on Ground)
      4. Room Service (Deliver to mouth)
      5. Loop (Single piece on ground)
      6. Remote (Off body)
    2. Toys
      1. Chase
      2. Bite
      3. Tug
      4. Switch
    3. Personal Play
      1. Exciting
      2. Calming
  2. Learning (Ensuring Agency)
    1. Observational
      1. Imitation
      2. Social Facilitation

WEEK FOUR

  1. Learning Continued (Ensuring Agency)
    1. Classical Conditioning
      1. Sounds
      2. Visual
      3. Environmental
      4. Social
        1. Dogs
        2. People
    2. Outcome Dependent Learning
      1. Capturing
      2. Shaping
      3. Targeting
    3. Alternative Behaviors
      1. Offered & Cued Eye contact
      2. Hand Target
      3. Chin Rest
      4. FUN behaviors
    4. Settle/Do Nothing

WEEK FIVE

  1. Predictability Continued
    1. Interactions/Life Skills
      1. Food
      2. Collar/Harness/Leash
      3. Crate
      4. Threshold/Doorways
      5. Toys
    2. Pattern Games
      1. Up/Down
      2. Left/Right
      3. 1, 2, 3
      4. Super Bowls

WEEK SIX

  1. Progressive Criteria Implementation
    1. Marker Cue Loop
      1. Establish Marker Cue Hierarchy
      2. Apply Marker to change Emotion
      3. Get offered connection
      4. Raise Criteria by changing marker cue
      5. Re-establish connection
    2. Remote Reinforcement
      1. Add Distance
      2. Get Focus
      3. Add Skills
      4. Add More Distance
      5. Repeat
  2. Generalization
    1. Social
      1. Dogs
      2. People
    2. Environmental
      1. Sounds
      2. Visuals
      3. Three Dimensional
    3. Skills
      1. Physical
      2. Mental

Prerequisites & Supplies

View all Prerequisites & Supplies

 

There are no FDSA class Prerequisites for the Building Confidence class.

Suggested Supplies

Target Platform/Mat

Relaxation Mat

Cardboard Boxes (big enough for dog to put their head in)

            Some with open tops

            Some with tops you can fold down

Empty Paper Towel, Toilet Paper rolls, or cardboard egg cartons

Cavalettis (broomsticks, landscape timbers…)

Sample Lecture

More

 Identifying your dog’s Strengths and Weaknesses

Seeing the good in your dog is a great place to start! Confidence isn’t an ‘All or nothing’ characteristic. There are various categories of confidence, and your dog could display one or more of them, or could be lacking in all categories! So, for starters, we need to identify our dog’s strengths.

Is your dog socially confident? Is your dog confident around people? Do they enjoy the company of people without showing any signs of fight, flight, freeze, fidget, or fawn? Describe how they interact with familiar people as well as unfamiliar people. A video is worth a thousand words!

Is your dog comfortable around other dogs? Do you have other dogs in your household? If so, how do they interact? If you have more than one other dog, does your dog act differently with each of them? Is your dog comfortable meeting unfamiliar dogs?

What about confidence with things in the environment? What does your dog do when things change in his environment? Does he/she startle if you bring a new plant home? Or leave a new cardboard box in the living room? Do sounds make your dog startle but they can easily rebound? Or does your dog avoid the source of the sound, and if so, for how long or how intensely? Is your dog great at going up stairs? Going down? Getting on the scale at the vet clinic? Or do they struggle with stepping up on things, going through small spaces, or under something hanging above their head?

Does your dog struggle to learn new skills? Or are they ‘wicked’ smart and excel learning things? Is your dog a physical go-getter, playing hard, wanting to do all the things? Granted, this physical type of confidence has an element of environmental as well, but it is something that we can potentially build on to help in other areas.

For me to be able to best help you, we need to identify both your dog’s strengths and weaknesses!

Video where your dog struggles as well as where it excels or handles themselves well!

Testimonials & Reviews

Read All Testimonials

New class for the October 2023 session.

 

Registration

There are no scheduled sessions for this class at this time. We update our schedule frequently, so please subscribe to our mailing list for notifications.

Registration opens at  10:00am Pacific Time.

BH210 Subscriptions


Gold

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Bronze
Tuition $ 260.00 $ 130.00 $ 65.00
Enrollment Limits 12 25 Unlimited
Access all course lectures and materials ✔ ✔ ✔
Access to discussion and homework forums ✔ ✔ ✔
Read all posted questions and answers ✔ ✔ ✔
Watch all posted videos ✔ ✔ ✔
Post general questions to Discussion forum ✔ ✔ ✖
Submit written assignments ✔ ✖ ✖
Post dog specific questions ✔ With video only ✖
Post videos ✔ Up to 2 ✖
Receive instructor feedback on
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