Behavior chains, that is. (Not choke chains!) Behavior chains are sequences of movements that must be performed in a particular order, one after the other, without a time gap. They are governed by cues from the trainer or from the rest of the animal’s environment. The primary reinforcer occurs after completion of the entire chain. Creating, maintaining and repairing behavior chains are essential skills for any advanced trainer. Virtually everything we want dogs to perform in competition or working venues (e.g., service-dog tasks, search & rescue, freestyle, agility, etc.) consists of behavior chains, rather than single discrete behaviors (e.g., sit). Just a single weak link in an otherwise fluent behavior chain will cause it to break. The confusion and possible punishment the animal experiences during “weak link” failures can contaminate the entire chain and erode the dog’s ability to perform the activity at all. In this course, Kathy will: • Review types of behavior chains commonly found in dog-training • Compare back-chaining to forward-chaining • Describe how to break down behavior chains into their component “links” • Provide a general framework for creating resilient “welds” between adjacent links • Discuss reliability as a natural by-product of carefully constructed behavior-chains • Examine the effect of weak or poisoned cues on the fluency of behavior-chains • Give examples of problem behaviors that are actually well-maintained behavior-chains and suggest ways to weaken these unwanted chains

Sponsor:dog-ibox.com
Speaker(s):**Kathy Sdao

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 Web: http://www.dog-ibox.com/