The second weekend in January brought a wonderful speaker to
Ahimsa Dog Training in Seattle. Ken Ramirez is a biologist and animal behaviorist with over 35 years of experience, primarily working with marine mammals. He is the idol of many of my idols, including Kathy Sdao and Patricia McConnell, so I knew this would be a seminar I couldn't miss!
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| One of the wonderful dogs at the seminar. |
Since the seminar took place at Ahimsa, they encouraged attendees to leave dogs at home but allowed them to come. A wonderful friend said she would pet-sit Maya and Sappho on Saturday, and I took Cody and Moche with me. Little Moche was recovering from a bought of gastroenteritis so she came too so I could keep an eye on her, and I felt more comfortable keeping Cody with me than with someone who hadn't had time to build a rapport with him. Fortunately there was plenty of room at the back for a chair and two covered crates, and the three of us settled in for an exciting weekend.
Ken is a fantastic speaker, full of analogies and anecdotes. He answers questions during the flow of the seminar and intersperses his talk with videos to demonstrate the techniques and theories he is discussing. Saturday morning focused on secondary reinforcers and how to set up, proof, and use these reinforces, and Saturday focused on the use (or ill-use!) of negative punishment, time outs, and no reward markers.
During our breaks and lunch, several of us took the dogs out to get some fresh air and potty. We met several wonderful dogs, and dog-loving Cody wanted to meet them all! This is a young, shy Australian Cattle Dog who at first wasn't sure if he wanted to meet this eager guy who was as big as he is!
I coaxed Cody away from the pup and let the pup come closer on his own before I let Cody approach him again.
Cody got a little over-eager and started to make the little guy nervous (notice the ears turned back on the pup!) so we both called our dogs away and rewarded them.
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