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Ripples = Small things that make big changes in spreading the message of positive reinforcement animal training. ​

Every week Animal Training Academy premium members share remarkable things within the membership community areas. These members are superheroes/Rockstars, I’m so so proud of them and the following posts are two of my favourites from the last month! (beware you might get goosebumps and a bit teary eyed when reading these).

Both of the following posts are ripples involving challenging but important conversations in a way that spreads the message of positive reinforcement animal training.

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And then ATA premium member Anna Bartosik shared the following piece of amazingness.

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You would have seen the book Crucial Conversations (Authors – Kerry Patterson, Joseph Greeny, Ron McMillan & Al Switzler) mentioned in both of these posts! It is something we discuss and utilise a lot within Animal Training Academy and I highly encourage you to check it out if you haven’t already done so! 

You can listen to an ATA podcasts episode on Crucial conversations here >>> http://bit.ly/Crucial_conversations

Have you read the book? Do you have some experiences of how this has helped you out in challenging conversations. If so I would love to hear your story, you can leave a comment below.

Best Regards
Ryan Cartlidge
Animal Training Academy

P.s want to get access to the exclusive ATA premium members community areas? (FaceBook group and ATA website forums). Register for your trial membership today! >>> https://www.animaltrainingacademy.com/2019-membership-trial/

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Have you ever been asked – What is your WHY? 

If so – what did you say? If not – what do you think you might say?

Recently, I was interviewed for an event here in New Zealand organised by a colleague of mine & NZ based Positive Reinforcement Horse trainer – Bex Tasker! In this interview, I was asked what is the WHY of Animal Training Academy?

I didn’t articulate it so well in the interview but here is an offering (prepared when I have much more time to carefully choose my words lol) about the why of ATA.

* The WHY of Animal Training Academy

ATA exists to help improve the lives of animals and their human companions through ethical animal training and behavior management principles (with the main focus being on Applied Behavior Analysis). World leading professionals share their knowledge through our podcasts, blog, web-classes and the ATA membership.And then we build a tribe around that knowledge to help develop trainers competencies, orientation & growth. Our online communities help support and encourage our members as they put this knowledge into practise.

You can see my ACTUAL answer (basically the same thing just not as succinct lol) and the entire rest of the interview in the following video …

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Once again I’m curious what your WHY is? Leave your comments below & let me know.

Best Regards
Ryan Cartlidge
Animal Training Academy

P.s a MASSIVE thank you to Lisa Whiteman who recorded the actual interview and whose voice you can hear asking the questions.

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Last week I got to spend an amazing 4 days hanging out with Dr. Susan Friedman, Peta Clarke and 200+ behavior nerds (& dogs) deep within the beautiful Barrington Tops in New South Wales Australia!

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Not only did we get to see Wild Platypus on a Daily basis but we got to geek out on both scientific and practical aspects of what we do!

So as I sat at Sydney Airport nearing the final leg of my journey home I thought I would start to write this email and share – whilst still fresh in my memory – 5 amazing takeaways for me from that sensational week! Here they are

1. I was reminded of how little I know! OMG was I ever! I got to experience Susan’s Emotions inside out presentation and consequently there is going to be some latent learning as I process all of this over the coming weeks/days/months! I was left with the words “emotions track contingencies” and I’m currently working on fully digesting what this means and how it works

2. The ATA tribe is AMAZING! – This was four days of meeting so many individuals from ATA’s audience in the flesh and getting hugs that in some instances have been years in the making!

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3. Some offerings on definitions of choice & control. I realise how much I use these words interchangeably and I really had to stop and think about the different definitions. At the moment I am left with the these two thoughts – control is all about giving the learner the ability to manage/control outcomes with their behavior, and choice is about settings up contingencies in ways that offer the animal many different outcome options – including the option/control to say no. What do you think?

4. The use of reinforcement placement – it was an absolute joy to watch Peta Clarke in action coaching numerous trainer/dog teams! One topic that came up time and time again was reinforcement placement. This is definitely something I am going to be thinking about more and more in my training over the coming while and how I can improve my skill in this area.

5. High rates of reinforcement. Seeing the contrast in rates of reinforcement when Peta Clarke demonstrated some live training for us in relation to some of the other dog/trainer teams working at the event really allowed me to see how much Peta skilfully moved behavior. This was so beneficial for me to see live and was one of the biggest take aways for me!

To be honest I could go on and on and on… lol and I’m sure as the events of the last week marinate in my mind over the coming whilst latent learning will provide me with so much value from the richness of spending time with individuals at the cutting edge of what we do! #feelingblessed! 

If you want to find out more about these two wonderful human beings check out some previous ATA podcast episodes where we were very privileged to have them as guests!

ATA podcast episode with Susan Friedman here >>> http://bit.ly/Friedmanpodcast

ATA podcast episode with Peta Clarke here >>> bit.ly/ATA_Peta_Clarke

Best Regards
Ryan Cartlidge
Animal Training Academy

P.s Want access to over 6 hours of exclusive interview time with Susan Friedman?

You can access two (3 hour long) web-class replays with Dr. Susan Friedman inside the ATA members only area right now! These are for premium members only but we are giving you the change to view them for just $1 – CLICK HERE for your trial membership and get started now!