Diagram of Extinction Burst While Adding a Cue

On Cues

Last Fall, I attended an amazing workshop featuring Bob Bailey at Say Yes! in Canada. I think the highlight for nearly everyone was the presentation by Bob on the second day where he coached one of the attendees through the process of adding a cue. The steps are subtly different…

Chopping treats as dogs look on

When can I wean off of treats?

That’s the question most people—especially those not already primarily using positive reinforcement (R+) to train—constantly ask. Often the answer they often get from R+ trainers, while correct in many instances, just doesn’t feel emotionally satisfying. This answer will be some variant of “Why would you want to—you don’t work for…

Can My Puppy Train Me to Be a Better Trainer?

Meet Arya. She joined our household about two weeks ago, when she was eight weeks old. She came to me with the best foundation imaginable, but she is a baby, and she is a Cattle Dog. So I have a lot of work to do. Learning from the Past When I got…

Managing Excessive Barking

In my last post, I commented that I was concerned by Lackey’s barking during training and that I intended to address that in an upcoming post, but I didn’t get into specifics. In the intervening weeks, I have shot and analyzed a lot of my own training videos, as well…