Alphabet Album Webinars: 

X Y Z, The Big Picture  - Collected Themes in Dog Training! 

LIVE Nov 1 @ 2 pm ET  recording available for you after!

(Lucy Newton presenter/ TBD  moderator) 

In this exploration of her collected, and hard-earned,  wisdom Lucy will be connecting her broad experiences in SAR, police work, working dogs, behaviour modification, IGP, tracking and more to many of the common training themes she sees over and over in all the work she does. 

How is being successful different to understanding how you got there? Every dog is not an individual. Except when they are. There is so much to explore, and discuss  Some of the big picture items you'll see might include: 

• Location of reward placement 
• Habit (connected to cues) 
• Manipulate the environment
• Repetitions of correct behaviour 
• Identify the cue(S) 
• Define your criteria 
• Clean loops in training 
• Truly understand what is reinforcing 
• Why behaviour change is, or is not, happening 
• Identify mental state

When asked to explain her webinar this is what Lucy said

“I have had the good fortune to have been involved in a wide variety of dog training venues. I started out in competitive obedience with the first dog I owned as an adult. Then I moved on to canine search and rescue then added to that by becoming a police officer and handling several dual-purpose police dogs. I was a search & rescue training director, a state-certified police canine instructor and worked full-time teaching detection dog training. 

 I currently train service dogs as well as compete in several different sports with my own dogs. The people I have instructed include handlers competing in a wide variety of dogs sports, police and military dog handlers, SAR dog handlers, veterans being paired with their service dogs and dog owners seeking solutions for behavior problems. 

Quite a few years ago I realized that regardless of whom I was teaching, I was basically saying the exact same things and explaining the same concepts. Which really should come as no surprise. However, a pet peeve of mine is people thinking that their sport and venue is “special” or “unique”.  

Some of the most helpful concepts for training police dogs came from the agility world. I completely revised my method of training tracking after attending a drug detection seminar. 

The lecture that I give veterans with PTSD handling their service dogs is exactly the same as I give to handlers trying to improve their dog’s detection alerts.

What I decided to cover in this webinar is a list of those things that I find that I repeat a lot when I am teaching. These are across all the dog training venues. I might be using an example from a task or sport but the more important thing is to see the big picture. 

These concepts are also things that I take into consideration when I problem solve or develop plans for the dogs that I personally train. These are my top ten (or more!) most often repeated concepts. 

Like all of us though, I am a product of all the wonderful trainers and teachers I have been exposed to. My good fortune also has been to train dogs for a wide variety of purposes and also to work with hundreds of dogs and their handlers. I won’t be going into depth on each of these concepts but my goal is for each person to find at least one or two or more concepts in this webinar that they can apply that will improve their dog’s performance and/or well-being."

Lucy

LUCY NEWTON

Lucy Newton has been training dogs and teaching dog training most of her life. She was a search & rescue dog trainer, handler and instructor for over 15 years. She trained numerous personal dogs for wilderness search and rescue, as well as land and water human remains detection. Working with very active wilderness SAR teams, she has worked a large number of missing person cases in both urban and very remote wilderness locations. She has served as an instructor and training officer and continues to provide training to search and rescue dog handlers and their canines.

Lucy also worked for over 10 years as a full-time police sergeant and police canine handler. She handled multiple dual purpose patrol/narcotics canines for her police department. Lucy raised and trained all of her police and SAR dogs from puppies. Lucy was a state-certified police canine training instructor and served as a field training officer for her department. Lucy has received awards for life-saving finds made by her working dogs; her dogs have also had successful finds in human remains detection, evidence recovery, and narcotics detection.

In 2013 Lucy took a full-time position as an instructor and trainer for the Randy Hare School for Dog Trainers teaching detection trainer schools and working dog training classes to law enforcement, military, and professional dog trainers. In addition, Lucy has served as a consultant and trainer for a Colorado-based business that trains dogs to detect a wide variety of plant and animal products important to conservation research projects.

In 2017 Lucy re-located to North Carolina, where she continues to offer high-level training and instruction to police, search and rescue, working, and sport dog handlers. At Front Sight K-9, Lucy offers board and train programs for sport and working dogs. She also provides coaching for students involved in various dog sports, primarily in obedience, tracking, and nosework.

In addition to training dogs for police and search and rescue, Lucy competes in a variety of sports with her own dogs. Her now-retired police patrol/narcotics detection partner, Steel, has the distinction of having achieved an AKC Tracking Championship as well as an IPO TR1 title in addition to having been a certified police tracking dog. Lucy has achieved titles on her dogs in obedience, tracking, and IGP/schutzhund. She also has served as a National Association of Canine Nose Work judge.

Lucy is currently the service dog trainer for American Humane's Pups4Patriots Program. Lucy trains green dogs to be service dogs to veterans experiencing post-traumatic stress. The dogs reside with her until fully trained and then Lucy conducts a residential training camp where the dogs are paired with their veterans and the veterans learn to handle their dogs. Lucy teaches the veterans positive reinforcement training techniques which allow the veterans to understand how to maintain and improve upon their dog's training. These training techniques also serve as an excellent mechanism to help the veterans cope with their PTS as well, because focusing on things like rates of reinforcement, correct mechanics and clean criteria, etc often helps mitigate some of the symptoms of PTS.

Lucy has taught a variety of clinics throughout the United States and Canada. She currently offers various seminars focusing on aspects of tracking, nosework/detection, or scent theory and dynamics. Regardless of the venue, Lucy emphasizes a training philosophy that allows the dog to satisfy his drive and control his own avenue to reinforcement. Her goal is to create high drive, thinking working and sport dogs that can work independently of the handler and be accurate and successful under a variety of conditions.

Lucy also offers private coaching to sport dog handlers, specializing in helping handlers understand how dogs communicate and learn in order to create better performances as well as develop a better working relationship regardless of the venue. 

Looking for more information about the webinar series this is part of - and links to the specific individual webinars (or the whole album)? 

CLICK HERE TO  LEARN MORE!