Leerburg News | One Day Special!

This is the latest in Leerburg’s series of training videos done with Michael Ellis.

It’s a training video that follows Michael’s curriculum for his course on Motivation and Play at his school for dog trainers in California: michaelellisschool.com

The work in this DVD (or video-on-demand) teaches trainers of all breeds (large and small) and trainers from every dog sport (agility, obedience, and protection sports) the advanced concepts of how to motivate their dogs.

The goal of this training is to teach dog trainers how to turn a reward into an event for their dog. When trainers can learn these skills they are going to be able to manipulate the motivation and drive of their dogs.

The chapters for this training video are:

Learning Moving Skills Without a Dog
Rewards Are An “Interactive”
Techniques for Increasing Motivation
Borrowing Techniques From the World of Protection Sports – Not All biting is Protection
How to Manage Your Dog’s Genetics
Establishing Rules

In our chapter on Learning Moving Skills Without a Dog, Michael introduces trainers to movement skills they can learn without their dog to help develop and increase a dog's motivation and drive. In this chapter trainers will learn:

Backing drills
Lateral drills
Line/luring drills
Weight shift/balance drills
How to use your legs and not your back
Tug/toy presentation without a dog
Food handling without a dog - how to hold and deliver
Why straight line targeting – the problem with hooking
Getting bit is bad for the handler and dogs motivation
Misses – How and Why?

In the chapter titled Rewards Are an "Interactive Event" trainers will learn:

Movement is reinforcing during a reward
Contrasts between a “reward event” vs. “normal behavior”
The differences between “hunger drive” and movement-based “prey rewards”
Variable duration of the “reward event” and its effect on post-reinforcement pause/attention
Using auditory stimulators to stimulate motivation
Chasing and searching are better than having
Tugging, Chasing, and Eating

In the chapter for Techniques for Increasing Motivation Michael covers:

Using restraint and frustration to build motivation
Learning to balance and use HUNGER and a tool
How “social isolation” can be a tool to increase motivation
Patterning arousal levels/classical conditioning
What activities intensify through rehearsal, which don’t
Restricting and channeling your dogs’ energy use
Appropriate toys and treats
Violating your dog's expectations. Using food and toys in the same training session.
Balancing possession without creating conflict

In the chapter, Borrowing Techniques From the World of Protection Sports, we explain the following:

Restrain/frustration revisited
Using back pressure to build motivation
Building the “STRIKE” as a factor of motivation
Revisiting Targeting
Revisiting the Auditory Stimulator
Letting the dog “WIN”

The chapter on How to Manage Your Dog’s Genetics will cover:

“PLAYERS” vs. ”FIGHTERS”

Spatial awareness and sensitivity

Possessiveness - the pros and cons, learning to initiate

Internal vs. External dogs and how to motivate each

In the chapter, Establishing Rules, we cover:

When to add rules without causing confict
How strict should you be?
Capping drives
The balance between motivation and rules