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Virtual Classes

V-LADs

These classes bring you the very best that the Wag More Teaching Team can deliver:

to your own home
without taking a mortgage to fill up the car
at a time of day to suit you

You still get the benefits of class learning:

learning in a friendly group
inspiration from learning from the masters
unique chance to develop your skills

PLUS you can be anywhere in the world - Yay internet!

Reviews of the First Class

At the end of Wag More courses the dogs are content to settle for a well earned rest, it is tiring work teaching us; and we spend the last 20 minutes “reflecting” on what learning has happened. I consider this an integral and key part of any class, by identifying what we have learned we become more skilled at recognising learning for the dog; we become more aware of the changes in our behaviour that we have made, and need to continue to do so, and one person’s view of what they have learned can spark the other participants reflective process.

In the Target class this spark ignited a bonfire but these are some of the key reflections from the group:

Anne Bove
“I never expected a v-class to have such a powerful impact on learning, both academically, and more impressively, clinically.”

Susanne Stramm
"I am truly enjoying the emphasis on 'theory', reading , analyzing the videos and exchanging ideas, being able to ask questions and get rewarded for this!"

Clare Whittaker
“As someone who always self-taught a lot of dog training (sometimes simply so I could avoid some of the more negative old-skool techniques still prevalent in local classes) I was beyond delighted I could take a virtual class with you. It's exceeded my expectations”

Kate Mallatrat
“I find myself watching Mabel much more, looking for changes in weight shift, muscle movement, frustration level, understanding of cues. I try to be clear about when I am interacting with her, and when I am not. My expectations of what she is capable of has grown!”

When we first started clicker training, bearing in mind I was already immersed in a world of dog training, I wanted to give people a poke on the shoulder and tell them ”Hey, you need to pay attention to this. It’s the future. Listen up.” Now 12 years later it comes in full cycle and people are telling me that clicker training is the future, or “how lucky” I am that there is “such good clicker training” in our area. Well I wonder where that came from?

With virtual classes I feel the same need to give the poke on the shoulder: ”You should pay attention to this, it is going to be important”. It certainly removes any “luckiness” from living in the right area.

Approaching virtual learning with an open mind is key to getting the most from the experience. It may not fit your understanding of learning about dogs, but it brings many values that you cannot appreciate until you are part of the process. The different activities each bring a different experience and can significantly improve your skills, understanding and knowledge. If you like to learn by mimic, or copying, then the V-classes may not be for you, but if you read a line in a book and that has the effect of shifting your perceptions then prepare to be blasted away.

see you in the classroom .... Kay

Current Classes:

K-Class

This is an open format class with Kay Laurence, where you “drop in” at any time. Your fee covers a six week period, where you can:

ask advice on specific training issues that need solutions & ideas
seek understanding of a training process
broaden your learning base
train under supervision, with regular virtual feedback
ideas for your own classes

This course is ideal if you would like to teach a new behaviour but would benefit from developing a step by step plan and supervision through the training. £75 (inc VAT) for six weeks.

4 enrol in this class

The Inside Track on Reinforcement
Starting January 9th 2009

A 12 week course with Kay Laurence covering a range of aspects of reinforcement: walking on a loose lead, returning with the toy, learning self control, managing arousal. This course will look at several different applications of reinforcement principles, from clicker training to toy training, including everyday applications in our interaction with dogs.

Understanding:

exactly how a reinforcer works
what choices you have from the reinforcement library
how to effectively deliver a reinforcer
patterns of reinforcement and how they pull behaviour
advanced techniques to make you think

Training time would be expected approximately 2-3 hours per week, plus 2-3 hours of activities in the virtual learning environment. Course fee £165, (inc VAT). We advise you to enrol at least 2 weeks before the start of the course to familiarise yourself with Moodle, the virtual learning environment, unless you are a previous Moodle user.

4 enrol in this class

Micro Shaping
Starting April 3rd 2009

Micro shaping is a termed coined by Kay Laurence in 2003. It encompasses the benefits of free shaping - where the dog self teaches under your guidance, and the precision that is often missing when you cannot lure. The aim of micro shaping is to maintain a 90-100% reinforcement rate on every behaviour through every step of the increasing criteria. This is as close as we can practically get to error-free learning.

This 12 week course with Kay Laurence will teach you excellent observation skills and truly enhance your ability to break down the behaviour and building the learning patterns.

You will require some understanding of clicker training and free shaping behaviours.

4 enrol in this class

Teaching Moderator Cues
Starting July 3rd 2009

Moderator cues are the “adverbs” we use to describe more specific functions of the behaviour. Instead of “paw”, a moderator of “left” would indicate more information. “Left” can then be used to moderate a variety of other activities - fetch the “left” toy, turn to your “left” etc. We can moderate higher or lower, faster or slower.

This fascinating area sounds complicated to us but is very straight forward for the dogs - fall-out-the-chair, stuff! We love to teach the dogs to tell us “which is the largest?” you’d think that may be complicated when faced with several cones of different heights, but the dogs can just shrug their shoulders, scan the objects and hit the largest - cool, “what’s so difficult huh?”

This 12 week course with Kay Laurence will require you to wear a seat belt, because your dog’s learning capacity will knock you off your chair! Some previous clicker training experience is advised.

4 enrol in this class

Interested in Virtual Teaching?

I would be keen to hear from anyone interested in teaching in a virtual environment. Learning About Dogs does exactly what it says on the tin. From basic clicker training courses, through to advanced concepts, a variety of sports and supporting learning on behaviour, nutrition, breeding, rearing, history of dogs, teaching.

Everyone of these topics can be taught in a virtual environment - opening up the world of learning to many more people. If you would be interested in teaching please contact me with some details of your teaching experience and particular topics you would be confident to teach. We will also be looking for technical server support in the future.

Our virtual environment is Moodle - well worth visiting their website to explore the features and community: moodle.org

Joining a V-Class

When you enrol for a class, you will be sent details to join the Virtual Learning Community: “Learn More Wag More”. This is a complete virtual campus containing a Dog’s Bed, our “water cooler” for chatting with learners on all the courses, forums for your own course, access to the course resources, documents and activities.

There will be a lesson posted every two weeks, followed by a forum class over a 10 hour period. This is to allow for the time differences of learners around the world. During the time the Course Teacher will be available along with other members of the class for a variety of exercises and group activities.

Classes will usually be run over 12 week periods and contain 6 lessons. Once the course is finished we hope the group will wish to continue their training outside the class, but the Course Tutors and Mentor may no longer be available.

Support

When learning support is needed, a specialised Mentor can be assigned to help you. If there are learners with similar areas they want to develop, a sub group can be assigned with the Mentors.

Lessons

Activities for each lesson will vary from course to course. But the rich benefits of learning in the virtual environment will be fully exploited.

Samples activities:

Watching a video:
learning to observe body language
anticipating when to click
counting movements
record keeping rate of reinforcement
Discussing your training
giving feedback on what you are teaching
turning observation into analysis
learning to recognise progress
Breaking down your learning
following the lesson exercises & training plans
testing your understanding of the plan
brainstorming new ideas
Working with other trainers
gaining experience through the learning of others
exploring different learning styles with different breeds
give feedback

Resources

You will need to access the internet on a regular basis, broadband will lessen the level of frustration, but it is not essential. Depending on the V-Class requirements you will need to keep a folder of the training exercises, course material, personal journals etc. All the personal and V-Class resources can be kept in the virtual learning environment allowing you to access your area from any computer.

You will need a suitable dog for the course, plus access to a training environment. This may be your own house, garden or local facility depending on the V-Class. The V-Class will give you details of the requirements for each course.

Without personal tutor supervision you may find it useful to be able to video your own training. This helps with observation, analysis and may be posted for other viewers. But a video facility is not essential.

Using the Learn-More Wag-More Community

When you join a LADs V-Class you will become part of a Learn More Wag More Community. One of the greatest benefits of learning in a group is the shared learning OF the group. By helping each other your understanding of the process is deepened. By viewing the learning from a different aspect you will enrichen your experience.

All of the V-Classes are Real Classes taught in the Wag More Barn. Learners from these courses will be invited to be part of the V-Class community so that their personal experiences can be shared, and their personal learning broadened by the global views of trainers all over the world. To be able to communicate what you have learned to others is an excellent learning process. It gives you clarity, makes you order your thinking, and use terminology accurately.

Back in 1999 we began an online Clicker Training course. Clicker training has evolved through the internet and for the first time we could train together and learn together as we progressed. People from that very first course are still in touch with each other - have travelled across the world to visit each others homes and shared the progress of their dogs.