Webinars

The following conference presentation recordings are available for purchase ($39.95-$59.95) or in some cases rental ($9.95-$19.95) individually from ClickerTraining.com:

Your Dog Already Knows How: Teaching When, Where, and Why In training, we talk a lot about teaching our dogs how to do behaviors. But what are we really teaching them? They come knowing how to move their own bodies. What we’re really teaching them most of the time is not how to sit, stand, lie down, walk, or look, but rather when, where, and why to do so.

The when is generally either when the human gives the cue or when a certain something else happens in the environment. The where is position—where do you want the dog to be, go, or do something? The why is, of course, what’s in it for the dog: reinforcement. In this Lab, you'll learn how focusing on these environmental arrangements instead of a particular behavior can produce the behavior almost as a by-product.

There are some nuances to doing this well, but focusing on the when, where, and why can drastically reduce training steps for clients with whom you have only a short time to solve a problem. It can be especially helpful in teaching naturalistic alternatives to problem behaviors. Often, the easiest alternative behavior for a dog to offer instead of a problem behavior will not be a behavior that was trained formally, but a behavior the dog can easily offer in the problem situation—e.g., standing, orienting toward something, or moving somewhere. In other words, the alternative behavior will be something the dog already has available to draw on when you give the dog a reason to do so.

Many trainers are already doing this in some way, including in some well-known and widely used protocols. A bonus of the perspective Kiki brings, as a student of the principles that underlie most learning, is that it will help trainers see the commonality across protocols and how to use those commonalities to create innovative new solutions.

Training With the Grain: Choosing Better Alternative Behaviors When learners exhibit behaviors that we find undesirable, instead of punishing the routes we don't like, we can provide alternative routes to important reinforcers. This life-changing concept, called differential reinforcement of alternative behavior, is a cornerstone of problem-solving with positive reinforcement. On the surface, it sounds very simple: we just ask, “What do you want instead?” and proceed to teach it. However, reality is seldom so straightforward. One common reason for the failure of this approach is that the alternative behaviors go “against the grain” in a given situation. That is, they’re above the dog’s current pay grade, or they are easy in other settings but incredibly hard in the problem context. For instance, we might ask for laser-focused eye contact instead of fixating on an intimidating dog, or expect the dog to remain still on a mat instead of leaping on visitors. We may request the dog to come, then touch, and finally sit with extended duration instead of bolting away. We might even aim for a general "sit and stay" instead of...well, everything! When the dog inevitably falls short, the frustrated owner dismisses our plan. The key to the success of this approach is choosing the appropriate alternative behavior for the task at hand—think existing skills, easier behaviors, faster behaviors, fewer behaviors at a time, more physically comfortable behaviors, behaviors that are more likely to access naturally-occurring reinforcers, behaviors that aren't typically “trained."

Let the World Do the Work: Transitioning to "Natural" Reinforcement Contingencies Food is often the go-to reinforcer in clicker training, and it's a wise choice for several reasons. It's a primary reinforcer, easy to dispense, and most dogs respond eagerly to it in various situations.

However, relying solely on food can have its downsides. Dogs can become full or lose interest, and some may have dietary restrictions or caloric limitations. There might be instances where you desire a behavior trained with food but struggle to consistently provide it, leading to frustration. Additionally, in certain cases, it may be better for a dog's well-being to focus on other aspects of an activity. Moreover, the presence of food can unintentionally cue unwanted behaviors that were inadvertently reinforced with food.

While we may not mind using treats in many situations, our clients often ask, "When can we stop using treats?" Responding with a simple "never" or an analogy like "Would you work without pay?" is inadequate.

In numerous scenarios, we can employ food or other "contrived" reinforcers to develop behaviors that are robust enough to expose the learner to "natural" reinforcers—those that typically result directly from the behavior. For instance, with a child, we may initially provide praise for pronouncing words or constructing sentences, but as their reading fluency improves, the reinforcement comes from the reading material itself.

Drawing on literature and personal experience, Kiki will explore the benefits and pitfalls of food reinforcers, the criteria for identifying "natural" reinforcement contingencies, when it's appropriate (or not) to incorporate such contingencies in our training, and how to manage this type of transition.

Say What You Do: The Wonders of Technological Description Have you ever spent an hour or two listening to someone talk about how to help dogs, only to walk away with no idea what to do next? (Or have you ever been that teacher?) This talk will introduce dog trainers to a crucial concept from applied behavior analysis: technological description. Technological description is one of the seven “core dimensions” of applied behavior analysis—essential traits that define the field. Essentially, it means describing your procedures so clearly that an appropriately trained reader could replicate them exactly. In this Session, you will discover why this concept is important for conducting effecting behavior research and how it can help you communicate more clearly with clients and colleagues on a daily basis. You may be surprised to learn that many common ways of discussing training fail to meet this standard. (Spoiler: terms like ""clicker training” do not constitute a technological description!)

(A version of the technological description webinar is also available to members of the Animal Training Academy community; trial memberships are $1: “Technological Description”: Why It Matters How You Explain What You Do.)

Now You Know Your ABCs: Putting Functional Assessment to Work In this presentation by Susan Friedman about developing interventions that take into account why an animal is doing an unwanted behavior,, Kiki presented a case study on addressing excessive barking during Zoom calls.

The Other End of the ABC: Antecedent-Forward Thinking for Clearer Training

“Clarity” is a concept; what it looks like is in training that the dog does what we are asking or expecting them to do in a particular situation. And what causes them to do that is not the “clarity”; it is genetics, learning history, and current conditions—and the way all three of those things interact with one another.

The current conditions, and future learning history they produce, are what we have access to as trainers. How do we adjust those to help the dog get “clear” about what to do?

We have it hammered into our heads that consequences drive behavior, and so that is often the first place we look when we want to change behavior: What kind of consequences do we provide to make it clear what behavior we want or don’t want?

But you know what else is learned via consequences? Antecedents. And they don’t just tell the learner which behavior to do. They can make other consequences more or less potent at a given time, they can combine to make each other mean different things, and—very important to the concept of “clarity”—they can signal what is and isn’t available to behave for at a given time. And that can reduce the need to use punishment or extinction to clarify what not to do.

This webinar should enrich your understanding of antecedents, and your ability to efficiently and humanely use that understanding in practice.

The live webinar was given on December 21, 2025, but for a limited time you can still purchase access to the recording for $40. Click here to purchase access; when payment is received I will send you the link at the email associated with your order.

Training Publications

For the newest articles, including revised and updated versions of some of Kiki’s One Tail at a Time columns, please see the blog. 

For Karen Pryor Clicker Training:

For One Tail at a Time Rescue:

The “Ask a Trainer” page is currently an archive. I will be working on moving the best of these articles to my blog and updating them.

For Rover-Time Dog Walking & Pet Sitting: 

For Pets Are Like Family

For Barks From the Guild, the magazine of the Pet Professional Guild