That time of year

January 16, 2015 at 9:12 am 1 comment

It’s that Clicker Expo time of year and I am not going. Sigh – I will miss Sarah Owings, Emily Larlham and Susan Friedman again! Even so, my brain seems to have kicked into WANT-TO-LEARN-NEW-THINGS mode! Thank goodness for Tawzer DVD sales.

DVDs on my Watch List this week:

1. Sue Sternberg – dog-dog body language – Watching this one for drawing reference.

2. Patient Like The Chipmunks – So glad this is on YouTube! Watched this historical gem a few nights ago. Warning: Different animals doing cute amazing things but I would rate this video a zero on the ‘warm and fuzzy’ scale. 🙂 This is the cold, emotion-less face of Science, Enterprise and Efficiency in animal training… How it all began, starting with BF Skinner and pigeons shaped to guide missiles; critters in boxes performing 4-5 hour shifts…. The point is that the Brelands and Baileys are still so inspiring and deserve to be better known for being way ahead of their time in championing humane animal training methods. Quote Bob Bailey: “Patience and preparedness is better than brute force”.

3. Roger Abrantes – I have only watched Disc 1 of 3 so far and I am loving it. Quote: These DVDs are a “Review of the Principles of Behaviorism and Operant Conditioning spiced with the view of an Ethologist”. Roger Abrantes is fascinating to listen to and to observe and I think this might be the first dog training DVD I have ever watched where the presenter is actually interacting with and moving around with a dog (and their humans) rather than talking straight to camera the whole session. He also very clearly defines the words he uses. eg, Signal vs Cue vs Command; and I like that he says “Inhibitors” instead of “Punishers”.

4. Grisha Stewart – there is a full series of DVDs (with covers I illustrated!), and I am starting with the “Problem Prevention” instalment tomorrow 🙂

Will add thoughts later….

P.S. I have registered a domain name for Boogie’s blog! It is now http://www.boogiebt.com