Training Skills Workshop 7- Behaviour chains

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 BEHAVIOUR CHAINS.

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

Often, we focus on training one behaviour at a time in dog training. However, life is much more colourful. In real life, behaviours aren’t isolated but usually interconnected and chained. Understanding behaviour chains helps us better comprehend training planning and progression.
Even if you think of a simple behaviour of bringing a toy back to you, it’s a behaviour chain that consists of several parts. Running towards a toy, finding it, picking it up, reorienting towards you, moving with an object in the mouth, running towards you and releasing the toy from the mouth near you or onto your hands.
Behaviour chains are everywhere. We must understand how to build a solid behaviour chain so we won’t need to correct errors but teach our dogs confidence and fluency right from the start.

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