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FF155: Go Ahead, Motivate Me! Engagement for the Differently Motivated Dog

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FF155: Go Ahead, Motivate Me! Engagement for the Differently Motivated Dog

Course Details

The types of dogs that will be best suited to joining us in this class are those that are naturally quite independent, appear to have very little interest in “work”, appear to have a very short attention-span when it comes to “work”, are more focused on aspects of the environment than they are on their human, and/or appear unenthusiastic about training / working / trialling; in summary, not your typical sports dog!

This class came about because some of us really enjoy training and/or competing, but we are not working with “work-oriented” dogs; our dogs have been chosen for different reasons……. maybe we need a dog that is “easy to live with” or doesn’t require a lot of work/exercise; or maybe our dog is a rescue or came to us from a family member or friend who could no longer care for them; or maybe our dog genetically “should have the whole package for dog sports” but doesn’t display the innate drive that we expected; or maybe we just have a passion for a breed / type that hasn’t been genetically selected for innate traits conducive to training in handler-directed dog sports. For those of us living with these less “work-oriented” dogs, it can be difficult to know how to proceed when our dog doesn’t respond to training in the same way as our previous dog/s, or doesn’t improve in response to common training strategies; we may even become frustrated at times when our dog doesn’t show the same enthusiasm for work that we see in other dogs in social media videos, or at our in-person classes.

Our goal in this class is to improve engagement, motivation, enthusiasm, perseverance, resilience, and focus, utilizing strategies that are specifically tailored to be effective with dogs that are not the typical “work-oriented” sport dog.

As we progress through the class, we will learn how to implement strategies that will directly lead to more successful and more enjoyable training sessions (and competition performances) for both us and our dog. These approaches will not only lead to increased enthusiasm and reliability, but will also result in improving our dog's ability to undertake longer periods of engaged work in the absence of treats / toys.

Consider joining this class if any of the following describes your dog:

  • Not innately driven to “work” / train.
  • Naturally independent.
  • Not innately biddable.
  • Appears unenthusiastic about “training”.
  • Seems to lose interest in work very quickly.
  • Displays limited ability to persist in training challenges.
  • Rarely works in a fast or intense way in training or when competing.
  • Gets easily distracted by “anything” (e.g. other sights, smells, sounds, etc.)
  • Displays poorer performances when the treats and toys are not available.

 

This class is suited to anyone interested in building a stronger working / training relationship with their dog, regardless of whether the team is training for fun, or aiming to compete in dog sports.

 

The Gold and Silver spots will likely include teams with an interest in obedience, rally, tricks, musical freestyle, nosework, agility, and more, however teams who are not interested in competing in a sport are also very welcome.

 

Teaching Approach

Note: There is a teaching assistant (TA) for this class. This means that all bronze students will be able to access individual feedback on all of their videos from our wonderful TA, Jennie Murphy. To access this feedback please join the private FB group after registering for this class.

 

Lectures will be released in two blocks each week: one at the start of the week and one mid-week. There will be practical exercises introduced weekly, with lots of flexibility for Gold level students to progress through the work at their own pace, selecting the exercises that most suit their dog and their own end goals.

All students are encouraged to follow along with the Gold and Silver students’ forums to get the most benefit from this class. This is where you will see the strategies applied in a real-life setting, with appropriate adjustments made as required to suit the needs of each individual dog and handler. 

The content of this class is presented in written form, with the occasional diagram or chart to support the written information. Practical exercises are often supported with short video demonstrations. The videos may include audio voice-over but are always supported with a detailed written description.

Sharon’s approach is very practical and flexible. Her aim when teaching is to help students understand why their dog is performing the current behavioral responses and how, through changing our approach to training, we can increase our dog's enjoyment, enthusiasm, and desire to train. Students typically say that their increased understanding of the existing behaviors significantly improves their relationship with their dog and reduces their own feelings of frustration.

Sharon CarrollInstructor: Sharon Carroll

Sharon (she/her) has been a professional animal trainer for 30 years. She has been both a presenter and trainer in a range of animal shows, and currently operates, a dog training and behaviour consulting business based in Newcastle, Australia. (Click here for full bio and to view Sharon's upcoming courses.)

Syllabus

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Written topics will be released in two batches each week (one at the start and one mid-week). There will also be relevant practical exercises released each week; gold students are welcome to undertake all of the exercises or select only the exercises that are best suited to their dog. Gold students are also welcome to continue working through earlier exercises in their videos if they feel they need more time on a specific week’s practical work.

Week 1.

This week includes introductory topics as well as topics that focus on building a stronger relationship; improving 2-way communication; recognising “opting in” and “opting out” behaviours; and strategies for improving overall engagement.

 

Week 2.

This week focuses on “rewards”. We discuss all the uses for rewards, including their role as reinforcement for desired behaviours. We take a detailed look at “appropriate” reinforcement, reinforcement schedules, “reducing reinforcement”, and building reliable behaviours in the absence of visible treats / toys.

 

Week 3.

This week focuses on motivation. We discuss the relationship between motivation and reinforcement, as well as the changes that need to be made to our training strategies depending on whether the behaviour is intrinsically motivating / reinforcing or is only maintained through the provision of external rewards (e.g. access to treats/toys).

 

Week 4.

There is always a balance between our dog’s motivation to “work” with us, and their motivation to interact with another aspect of the environment (e.g. leave us to “visit” another human or to run to another dog, leave “work” to chase a bird or other prey animal, stop “work” to investigate an interesting scent on the ground, etc.). This week we look at strategies for reducing the perceived “value” of environmental stimuli, which has the effect of increasing our dog’s relative desire to remain engaged with us and the “work” we are undertaking.

 

Week 5.

When our dog perceives a behaviour as “low effort” (i.e. “easy”), then our dog is more likely to remain engaged and more likely to enthusiastically participate. This week we discuss this concept in more detail, and we also discuss strategies for improving our dog’s overall confidence (e.g. with spatial pressure, with unstable objects, on different terrains / surfaces, with objects that move and/or make noise, etc.), and we undertake exercises for improving their skills for interacting with objects.

 

Week 6.

In this final week we target increasing our dog’s ability to deliver prolonged periods of focused, accurate “work” (i.e. increasing the amount of time our dog can “work” in a focused and enthusiastic way before needing access to rewards). Not only do we look at improving mental stamina in this week, but we also cover topics that will help those preparing for competition, including information about acclimation, how to prepare our dog for “work”, and exactly what steps to take when our dog is saying they are not yet ready to “work”.

Prerequisites & Supplies

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There are no prerequisites for this class.

 

Sample Lecture

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Although reinforcement and motivation are distinct concepts, they are also closely related.

 

Motivation.

Motivation is present BEFORE a specific behaviour is performed. Motivation is the desire to perform the specific behaviour; it is what “drives” the individual to initiate and maintain the behaviour.

Typically, the higher the level of motivation, the more enthusiastic, intense, and/or focused our dog will be as they prepare to undertake the task, and whilst performing the task.

Many typical sport dogs / working dogs have an innate “drive” (intrinsic motivation) to perform specific sport and training related behaviors, whereas our differently motivated (DM) dogs may also have strong motivation to perform specific behaviors / activities, but these “behavioral drivers” may be less conducive to undertaking typical training / “working” tasks.

Typical sport / working dogs possess one or more of the following traits:

  • They are highly biddable (i.e. their genetics generate innate motivation to want to listen to the human and focus on the human, and they have an innate desire to determine what the human wants and to “comply” with the human’s requests).
  • They have a strong innate motivation to perform the required sport / ”work” behaviors (e.g. a nosework or tracking dog that has a strong innate desire to hunt /  track / locate scent; a bitesport dog that has a strong innate desire to monitor movement in the environment, and to chase and bite; a herding dog that has a strong innate desire to interact with livestock; a retrieving dog that has a strong innate desire to carry / retrieve; etc.)
  • They have a strong innate motivation to perform behaviours that can easily be transferred into very powerful “reinforcement tools” (e.g. a strong desire to chase, bite, retrieve can allow toys to be used as high value reinforcement; a strong desire to move / run / circle (herd) can allow something as simple as wrapping a cone to be turned into a powerful reinforcer; etc.)

When we are working with our DM dogs, we often need to adjust our training strategies because:

  • Their reduced innate biddability results in our dog becoming very de-motivated about continuing to work with us as soon as they experience even a small amount of challenge (e.g. frustration that is not RAPIDLY resolved; any amount of mental fatigue; any amount of physical discomfort (e.g. a small amount of physical fatigue, environmental conditions that are less than ideal, etc.) etc.)
  • They may be very independent and possess limited drive (innate motivation) for the specific sport / work / activity we are undertaking. Hence their ONLY motivation to perform the behaviors will be derived from the potential opportunity to access the rewards / reinforcement we deliver.
  • Although all DM dogs are still highly motivated to undertake specific behaviors / activities, their individual innate traits may not lend themselves to generating viable reinforcers for typical training sessions (e.g. they may be driven to do independent activities; they may enjoy investigating aspects of the environment in an independent way; they may predominantly enjoy low energy activities; etc.)

Hence, when working with our DM dogs we may find ourselves almost exclusively using food as our primary reward / reinforcement and to motivate the initiation of behaviors in the learning phase. We may also need to utilize food to increase the value of other behaviors that may then be useful as reinforcers (e.g. using food to strengthen the value of toy play, or using food to strengthen the value of personal play / petting, etc.)  

 

How reinforcement influences motivation.

Reinforcement encourages the performance of behaviors because the individual anticipates a benefit from performing the behavior (i.e. they anticipate that performing the behavior will lead to a pleasant outcome (i.e. the influence of “positive reinforcement”), [or that performing the behavior will avoid an unpleasant outcome (i.e. the influence of “negative reinforcement”)]. It is important to note though, that the behavior has to have occurred BEFORE our dog can associate the “good outcome” (reinforcement) with the behavior (i.e. reinforcement comes AFTER the initiation or completion of a behavior). This association has to have been repeated many times before our dog will be able to reliably predict that performing the behavior will result in a “good outcome”. Once our dog finds a behavior to be enjoyable / beneficial, then that previous reinforcement motivates future performances of the behavior.

 

The impact of intrinsic reinforcement on motivation.

When behaviors are intrinsically enjoyable the reinforcement occurs during each performance of the behavior, this then adds to the motivation to perform the behavior again in a future similar circumstance.

In this case, motivation to perform the behavior will remain consistently high over time (unless our dog is experiencing conflicting issues – e.g. they are extremely fatigued or injured, or their arousal is so high that they are unable to perform the behavior, etc.), and once the behavior is trained / established, it will be easy to reduce (or even eliminate) our externally provided rewards because the performance of the behavior provides innate enjoyment / fulfilment.

 

The impact of extrinsic reinforcement on motivation.

When we strategically provide extrinsic reinforcement (i.e. when we provide rewards that our dog is able to directly associate with the performance of a specific behavior), this can create motivation to perform that behavior again under similar circumstances (because our dog predicts that a “good outcome” is likely to occur if they perform the behavior, even though the actual performance of the behavior is not innately rewarding to them).

When the behavior is not intrinsically motivating / reinforcing, and our extrinsically provided rewards drop below the threshold where our dog perceives enough “value” for performing the behavior, their motivation for performing the behavior will decline.

Behaviors that are not innately rewarding / enjoyable are more sensitive to changes in the value and rate of the rewards (reinforcement) we are providing and are more likely to rapidly decline in quality and reliability when there is any additional challenge (e.g. competing motivators, shifts in arousal, frustration, concern, physical or mental fatigue, etc.).

 

In summary……..

Motivation leads to the performance of a behaviour, the performance of the behaviour allows the individual to experience benefits for performing the behaviour (i.e. intrinsic or extrinsic reinforcement), and then the reinforcement contributes to the motivation to perform the behaviour again in the future.

 

Note: We discuss the influence of intrinsic and extrinsic reinforcement in more detail in the next topic.

 

Testimonials & Reviews

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

This was a great class! The description fit my girl to a T. We learned so much in the class. We have a better relationship now and I understand better what she needs and what she is telling me. It has made me a better trainer for her. The lectures are packed with great information and just as I'm trying to picture in my head what Sharon is saying there is an example in the lecture to make sure I'm fully understanding. Her feedback was kind, insightful, and very helpful.   


Very good background education, but always made easy to understand for a layperson. The course was a good mix of theory and work. We were always free to work on what we needed the most, not the exact course homework. Very detailed analysis of the videos, especially with "failed" sessions. I learned the most from my failed sessions. I wish I had Sharons observation skill. It was amazing how she translated dog language to us dog people. And always encouraging comments, when one became frustrated with his distracted/not engaged dog. Because we have to work hard for what others get for free and that can be very frustrating from time to time. It gave me hope, that I can do agility one day with my non-working dog, even if it takes way longer than with a working type dog. I learned a lot and I also have a better relationship with my dog because I can understand and handle him better now. Thank you for that great class!           


Sharon really gave her all in responding to each question posed by various teams! I learned so much and will continue to work on it. Already sessions have been more enjoyable for both my dog and I. She gave me a lot to think about and I can't thank her TA enough for all the wonderful work she did in the FB group! 


This class is excellent!! The lecture material and individual feedback are outstanding!! My dog made significant progress during the 6 weeks of the class. I am so excited about his level of engagement and he just seems like a happier dog. He is now able to "work" despite some very challenging distractions. Sharon's understanding of canine behavior and her ability to explain and apply to individual teams is extraordinary. I would definitely recommend this class to anyone with a DM dog.         


As with all Sharon's classes, the content was full of all the information you could possibly want or need. Everything was easy to understand and implement and illustrated with supporting videos. This course has and will continue to improve my relationship and communication with my dog.       


I loved this course! I have spent years of trial and error and frustration figuring some of these things out and this course laid them out beautifully as well as giving me some new ideas and tools and helping me become more confident at explaining my approach to others. For anyone who wants to do sports with an independent dog who does not live for work, I can't recommend this course highly enough. Thank you, Sharon, for offering it!       


The course Engagement for Differently Motivated Dogs is very informative and worthwhile. I have learned so much and can see changes in my DM dog’s behaviour after only 5 weeks. I strongly recommend this class to anyone struggling/working with a differently motivated dog. I have so many new skills that I need to practice with my girl - and she is loving it. Thx Sharon.   


This is the best dog training course I have ever taken! From week one I learned so much about how to help my dog learn in a fun and effective way. I have seen huge positive changes in my dog’s confidence, engagement with me and enthusiasm for learning! We have made good progress on training goals that were stalled out. I understand my dog so much better and am excited to keep using the knowledge I have gained in this course to keep working on our training goals. Sharon Carroll really understands “differently motivated dogs” and how to motivate them.


This class was fantastic for my independent dog that has struggled to learn in many other classes. We now have a system for developing and maintaining motivation and she is much more engaged. I wish we had had this class as a foundation years ago!

 

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 11:00am Pacific Time.

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