Mastering Your Mechanics: Honing Your Training Skills

No Prerequisite

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For those committed to becoming exceptional teachers and trainers, success begins with mastering the mechanics of training and a understanding of how animals learn. At the foundation of this process is the ability to recognize and shape discrimination and establish stimulus control—critical elements that underpin all effective training.

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This course is designed to develop the trainer’s mechanical precision through intensive hands-on practice and targeted instruction. Students focus on sharpening their observation skills, timing, and reinforcement delivery while applying behavior principles in real-time training scenarios using chickens.

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Key learning objectives include:

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• Targeted practice developing your eye to detect those subtle shifts in behavior. 

• Strategically timing and placing reinforcement to support clear progression in training.

• Presenting cues effectively—while avoiding becoming an inadvertent cue

• Creating step-by-step, objective-based training plans tailored to individual learners (because you are working two chickens)

Throughout the course students will observe behavior as data rather than making assumptions about what the animal thinks, knows, or feels. With a chicken as the learner, students are challenged to make deliberate, evidence-based decisions, and to adjust their own behavior with clarity and intent.This course builds the foundation every dog trainer needs to increase clarity, reduce training time, and improve reliability in real-world applications.

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Class sessions alternate between focused lectures and guided training sessions. In the training room, where a bird is actively working to understand how to succeed, students are pushed to apply theory in real time. Students will work in teams to aid in record keeping and coaching. This is where mechanical skill meets behavioral science—where mastering your mechanics becomes the key to creating consistent, effective, and precise training outcomes.