Thursday, November 11, 2010

TAGteacher Spotlight - Helix Fairweather


Helix Fairweather is Certified Level 2 TAGteacher and an accomplished clicker trainer. Helix is a faculty member of Clicker Expo and the Karen Pryor Academy for Dog Training and behavior. She was the first to apply TAGteach techniques in the instruction of dog handlers, developing tag points for the front cross and other agility-related maneuvers.
I first learned of TAGteach through something Karen Pryor wrote some years ago. I tried so hard to chase down more information searching the internet, looking for books and so on - there was nothing out there at the time! Imagine how happy I was to then be invited to be on the first year's Clicker Expo faculty. Finally, I had first-hand information about TAGteaching!

One of the most joyous uses of TAGteach for me currently is in presenting seminars. My co-presenter, Megan Cruz, KPA CTP, and I bring bags of small candy bars and Werthers to our seminars. As people ask good questions or make observations about dog body language, we give them a bone cut out of cardstock, redeemable for the candy of their choice. It's really fun to see the seminar attendees start indicating "oh! she should get a tag for that" as they pick up on noticing the behaviors we are reinforcing. 

Sometimes someone will run up to our table on a break and grab a bone to hand to someone who just did something great.
Find out more about Helix from her blogs and wesbite:


http://rosannerosannadanna.blogspot.com/ (How to raise a puppy the clicker way)

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