Flow charts are amazing! Do you include them in your training?
It was back in November of 2017 in an ATA podcast episode with Swedish trainer Eva Bertilsson that I first heard of this idea (Eva sharing the concept on behalf of her & ‘her training partner in crime’ – Emelie Johnson Vegh). Listen to the episode HERE (Specifically at around the 20 minute mark for our flowchart conversation)
Since that time I have been fortunate enough (with Eva’s blessing) to teach flowcharts to others! To help demonstrate how they work I put together a little video using audio from that podcast! You can watch it below;
I can’t recall a single time where I have been stuck & flowcharting didn’t help my training move forward. As Emelie Johnson Vegh and Eva Bertilsson say, it’s the only time you can erase mistakes in your training.
These two tips will help you get started with flow charts (if you fancy giving them a go).
- I like making it simple. Focus on one of your learners behaviours you are challenged with. Then have two options – Either your learner did what you want OR they did something else. This is opposed to all of the options I gave myself in the video above.
- Figuring out what to do when your animal doesn’t do what you want – doesn’t mean you need to add in the perfect consequence (you can always change this up later). Instead – and to begin with – do something, you are well practised at (obviously using ethical animal training techniques).
Hopefully from the above you can get started with some flow charts of your own. However, if you want to take your learning even further – Eva was SUPER kind and joined us for a LIVE ATA members only web-class specifically on this topic. She covered how flowcharts work, gave some examples and even went through a live demonstration with an ATA member and their Agility dog.
ATA premium members can watch the full web-class by clicking the image below >>>
Not an ATA premium member? Not to worry … Access your exclusive $1 ATA trial membership here >>> https://www.animaltrainingacademy.com/2019-membership-trial/
Are you already using flowcharts? Or maybe you use some other system to plan out your sessions in advance! If so I would love to hear about your experiences! You can leave your comments below!
Best Regards
Ryan Cartlidge
Animal Training Academy
P.s One aspect I absolutely love about the ATA premium community areas is when members share their notes/doodling that they quickly put together whilst simultaneously consuming content from the ATA library! Here’s some from this web-class with talented ATA premium member Lili Chin.
See more of Lili’s professional/polished artwork here >>> https://www.doggiedrawings.net/
That makes sense that keeping the training simple would be a good idea. I could see how that would make it easier for the animal to understand what you would like them to do. I’ll have to keep that in mind if I ever need to work with a trained animal for a project.