Lenght: 2 hours 30 minutes (including 30 minutes Q & A part).

You will learn:

• How to recognize situations in which the protected contact is beneficial even for dogs in regular domestic coexistence.
• What aids to use and how to set up an environment for a barrier dog training.
• Often underestimated first steps to create strong basis for further work.
• Selection of the most useful actions and manipulations that can be performed in protected contact.
• Process of practicing the most useful positions at the barrier.
• Principles for getting used to touch and unpleasant sensations through the barrier.
• How a barrier can help adopted dogs cope with traumatic memories from the past.

About the presentation:

Protected contact, i.e. training an animal through a cage or another protected barrier, is probably the most common form of positive training in zoos. In most cases, it is also the only possible option due to zoo safety rules. In reality, however, protected contact provides a sense of security to the animal rather than the trainer.

The barrier allows the animal to work at a lower stress level as it can freely end the training at any time, enter a safe space out of the trainer’s reach and resume work again after reducing the stress, while the trainer can avoid direct combat and spoiling the relationship with the animal in the event of animal aggression.

That is also why, in protected contact, it is easier to establish initial cooperation (as well as a number of voluntary veterinary procedures) with shy or aggressive zoo animals.

In dog training, most work is done in direct, free contact. However, as practice shows, an occasional transition to protected contact can provide the dog with a number of benefits and guarantees that would be impossible with the standard free contact. It is most evident in work with adopted dogs’ trauma and generally dogs’ fear reactions to people.

The transition to protected contact can be very useful even when practicing specific treatments that are not successful in free contact.

Training in protected contact, however, can be more challenging and difficult for the coach than the free contact and therefore it requires its own methodology. In the project presented by František Šusta, you are about to get to know this dog training methodology inspired by the system of training wild animal species in zoos and its results and benefits for dogs and their guardians.

Lenght: 2 hours 30 minutes (including 30 minutes Q & A part).

You will learn:

• Why we are afraid of losing control
• What’s beyond positive reinforcement
• how to see the world through a dog’s eyes
• from analysis and behavioural modification to the understanding of processes
• about the polyvagal theory and its effect on the human-dog relationship
• Reevaluate the traditional approaches, discuss concepts as dog dominance, obedience and happiness
• Focus on process and relationship, stop evaluating your dog’s behaviour as “right” or “wrong”

About the presentation:

The life lived by family dogs depends on the reality perceived by our mind. It is our mind that decides what is right or wrong in a dog’s life. What a dog can do, what a dog cannot do. Who it can be and who it cannot be.

There is no absolute truth, there are many versions, often at odds with each other. We were told we had to be dominant, leaders or even good “parents”; we were told our dog had to be obedient, then happy. We were told that nothing in life is for free, and we were told to meet the dog’s needs. Sometimes it is really hard to understand who we need to be for our dog, and who our dog should be for us. 

This presentation is a journey into our mind, into the way the construction of our mind can cage the dog into our reality. It is a journey that starts with the use of coercion to get a dog obedient and under control, moves through the use of the scientific principles of positive reinforcement and operant conditioning, and moves far beyond these worlds, into a dimension where dog behaviour is no longer right or wrong, the focus is no longer on the dog’s behaviour, but on the processes, the communication, the relationship.

All this is not just theoretical, it is about living with a dog and asking questions, working with dogs and asking questions, learning to understand their guardians and asking questions.  It is a journey that brings us into contact with the latest scientific knowledge of the neurophysiology of behaviour, and how this can forever change our minds. 

Lenght: 2 hours 30 minutes (including 30 minutes Q & A part).

You will learn:

• A brief history of CAT and its related research. The principles of the Constructional Approach to behavior change.
• Key criticisms of the early versions of CAT and how they were addressed. 
• How to establish a tailored training environment for individual dogs. 
• Step-by-step guidance on conducting CAT. 
• The critical role of the dog’s “alert” in the training process. 
• Procedures for generalizing CAT to different settings and situations. 
• Best practices for the emotional care of helper dogs, trainers, and people involved.

About the presentation:

The Constructional Aggression Treatment (CAT) is a science-based approach to rehabilitating aggressive behavior in dogs. By recognizing the dog’s “alert” to an aversive stimulus and withdrawing the stimulus before aggression occurs, CAT prevents pushing the animal to the point of aggression or reactivity.

This method uses the dog’s natural awareness as a cue for the trainer to remove the decoy, reducing pressure and fostering confidence. The process transforms fear and aggression into calm, adaptive responses. 

Lenght: 2 hours 30 minutes (including 30 minutes Q & A part).

You will learn:

• How to work up cases and estimate prognosis for clients.How much – and which – management between sessions is necessary for good outcomes.
• The technique options: what actually works and works efficiently.
• How to progress through standard plans.
• How to ensure behavior modification transitions from training sessions to the real world.
• When and how to add “splits” – extra steps – to standard plans.
• How to address common counseling challenges.

About the presentation:

This presentation will briefly review prognosis estimating and critical technical skills for resource guarding and body handling problems before presenting six case studies, all with interesting splits – extra steps that were needed in standard training plans. For each case Jean will talk about the initial presentation, the prognosis, the training plan, and how the training unfolded, including the additional splits that ended up being needed.

She will also discuss when initial plans should be more “splitty” (very incremental) and when they should be more “chunky” (more efficient and less incremental).