Training Skills Workshop 5 – Cues

Training Skills Workshop is a series for dog owners and animal professionals. Participants gain knowledge of the fundamentals of animal training and refine their training skills without a dog. This time, the topic is CUES.

Training Skills Workshops (TSW) are a part of the European Capital of Culture Tartu 2024 side programme.

Kristina Mägi (Hea Koer) and Lea Tummeleht (BriskMind) are leading TSW, which deals with CUES.

We want our dogs to be “obedient.” We want them to respond to our first “command.” And when dogs don’t do that, we consider them dominant, stubborn, disobedient, or foolish. In reality, the reasons are that they don’t understand us, the trainer hasn’t taught the cue correctly, or there’s something more interesting in the environment. If we want to use the things learned in training in real life, we need clear cues that the dog will respond to. Well-functioning cues are signals that indicate the start of behaviour. And even when everybody knows that the green light allows driving, we can still see cars NOT driving when the red turns green.

We invite you to learn how to connect trained behaviours with cues and do it so that the cue really works.

TSW (Training Skills Workshops) is an excellent format for learning training because we don’t have dogs with us. Have you ever experienced that feeling when you try to teach your dog something new, and something happens that you didn’t plan for? Since the dogs stay home, you can come to the workshops completely stress-free and develop your knowledge, observation, training, and analysis skills.
We connect the experiences from TSW with behavioural science, which has yet to be widely popularized in the Estonian public so far but can significantly improve our everyday lives and the lives of our loved ones.

We welcome dog owners, volunteers working with animals, and professionals. Also, we welcome everyone who is keen to learn more about animal training!

The event is in Estonian.

Hea Koer and Kristina Mägi with BriskMind and Lea Tummeleht will organize 7 Training Skill Workshops, allowing enthusiasts to learn and refine their animal training skills. We focus on humane and positive reinforcement training with a scientific basis.
After each TSW, there will be a discussion with selected guests. We’ll talk about various aspects of Estonian dog culture. Both events aim to raise awareness of the needs of people and dogs in both urban environments and in general and thus improve our survival skills. We also aim for a more compassionate and friendly (dog-keeping) culture. We can achieve this through knowledge, skills, and a change in mindset.

If you want to grab a bite or need a place to stay, see what the Tartu 2024 hospitality network offers in the area: https://tartu2024.ee/recommendations-tartucity