Clicker Expo 2014: My Brain is Going to Explode!

My best friend and I just returned from a four day adventure in Southern California. We attended our first ever Clicker Expo in Long Beach,  California. For those of you who haven't heard of Clicker Expo, it's a 3 day seminar with about 60 classes to choose from and the top trainers and behaviorist in the field speaking about just about every training topic imaginable.

What a unique event! These are some of my biggest heroes and the classes are so amazing that many of the instructors are attending classes when they aren't teaching. During one session Dr. Susan Friedman was sitting next to me and borrowed my notes! What can I say? Some people are star struck by pop stars - I'm star struck by behavioral scientists.

The "Room with a View Point" talk where 7 of the speakers sit and discuss random training topics

And then of course it wouldn't be Karen Pryor Clicker Training without all the stuff for sale. There was a great store and I bought some fun new stuff to use while training the dogs - a nice mat for training a dog to go to their spot that ties up like a yoga mat for classes, a container that works for dispensing wet food treats - something I need for Tilly who has a very specific diet she is following due to health issues. And then my favorite - a targeting stick with a clicker built right in to free up a hand while doing targeting training.

Mutt Mat, Clik Stik and wet treat bottle

The Expo was held on the Queen Mary and we also stayed there. Interesting place. It was a little depressing because it could be a pretty excellent venue but it just seemed so mismanaged - bad food at the restaurants, broken soap and towel dispensers in the restrooms, the worst signage I've ever seen, and kind of a shabbiness like everything was in need of a good polish. I found the original art deco interior beautiful and was in awe of some of the fixtures in the huge salons, but overall I was kind of "meh" about the space. I didn't hate the ship but I would have gladly given up the novelty for some numbered floors and good signage.

Queen Mary

The sitting, dressing area of our room

Anyhow, right now my brain is just awash with new information and I learned so much that I'm a bit overwhelmed. Hopefully I'll have time over the next few days to read back through all my pages of notes and get some posts going about what I learned.

The main thing I took away though was that I need to slow way the heck down in my pace of training and I need to strengthen a behavior more before I move onto a new thing. Oh - and observe, observe, OBSERVE. By doing that the dog will tell you everything you need to know about what kind of work should be done in the session.

Oh, and all my dogs would like to extend their deepest thanks to the faculty of the 2014 Clicker Expo for how much they all stressed to increase the quality and quantity of the rewards I'm using. They'd tell them themselves but their too busy eating the roast chicken they earned.