Dog Training Workshop: Breaking the Rules

We're breaking all sorts of rules with this workshop! Join Leslie McDevitt, Adam Skandarani, and Merissa Dubraque-Kriedler at the Clean Run facility in South Hadley, MA, on April 26 and 27, 2025, if you want to break the rules too! Day 1: The three instructors will discuss some of the concepts and techniques they've been working on most recently. Leslie will focus on the incredible healing power of licking and integrating decompression into her pattern games, whereas Adam and Merissa will head in a seemingly opposite direction by discussing how they've been ditching food and expanding their positive reinforcement toolbox to communicate with dogs. They will be playing with tempo, bilateral tactile stimulation, and creating new pattern games to help calm the nervous system and help dogs and handlers alike enter a calmer state of mind. Day 2: The instructors will be expanding on the concepts introduced on Day 1 and introduce new and innovative ways to incorporate pattern and parallel pattern games. Format Each day will consist of a lecture/discussion session on concepts and techniques followed by hands-on training. The working teams will break into three groups to train. After the working session, everyone will come back together and the process will be repeated. The goal is to ensure that there is plenty of training time each day for the working teams. The event will be from 9am to 4pm each day with a break for lunch. Bring your own lunch or there is a Big Y across the street with prepared foods. Who Can Attend? This workshop is open to 12 working teams (Premier sign-up option) as well as auditors (Standard sign-up option). Participating dogs must be safe and manageable around other dogs and people in close proximity. They must also be happy to learn and take treats in a novel environment full of strangers and strange dogs. No previous CU training is needed, but dogs should have some experience with R+ (reward-based) training. Recordings We are not live-streaming this workshop, but we are recording it so it will be available for sale in May after the workshop. If you are attending the event in person, after you register you will receive a link to complete registration in the Clean Run Learning Center. If you click the link and complete the registration, you will be able to view recordings of the workshop free of charge when they are posted after the event. Register here: https://bit.ly/4ik8y0F