Emily Larlham
Presentation given at the 2020 Conference
Combining the behaviors of multiple animals is not a new concept; most likely human beings have been doing this from the moment they began interacting with other species. What is a new concept is asking animals to work in social situations while taking their emotions into account. Everyone has most likely seen circus animals doing extremely precise behaviors in a group, but for Emily, this is not enough. She feels that the training should be based on a reciprocal relationship where the learner is not put into a situation where he might feel uncomfortable or conflicted.
In this presentation, Emily will describe how she teaches dogs to feel comfortable and confident during training sessions that involve two or more dogs. You will learn how she breaks up the steps that make up each behavior and the foundation behaviors she trains before the animals even begin working in a group setting. Emily will also discuss how this way of training animals can build their relationships and social skills. Throughout the presentation, she will use a variety of video examples of her own dogs to illustrate how to train multi-dog behaviors.