Upcoming Events
Unless stated otherwise events do not include personal pets. Please check with us regarding service animals.
“I’m inspired by you and Sara! Honestly, I think this is the fresh perspective that BCBAs need right now. You are all doing some amazing behavior analysis…”
Jennilee Lacroix, M.S., BCBA
I met you about four years ago at the FPPE conference in NC. I am a trainer at the Humane Rescue Alliance in D.C. and always give your book to adopters of fearful dogs. I also refer them to your website. You are my go to person for fearful dog issues here in DC. Thank you for your groundbreaking work with and for fearful dogs. I can’t tell you the numbers of dogs you have helped keep in their homes.
Linda H.
Thank you, thank you, thank you! It was so great listening to you and I can’t wait to get started on muffins next journey! I will be applying all that to my goats and sheep too!
Laura W.
Self-paced Online Course
The Essentials of Applied Behavior Analysis For Serious Animal Trainers
Transforming Problem Behaviors in Animals
Available now!
Learn more and register here.
Hands-on Intensive For Shaping Behavior
Join us to learn how to shape behaviors without having to use modeling, physical guidance, or hand-over-hand prompting and create a task analysis for them. After practicing with other participants you’ll have the opportunity to try out your skills with a variety of animals at Lemon’s Hope Sanctuary in Brattleboro Vermont including mini-horses, sheep, goat, guinea pigs, birds, dogs and cats. Get started or continue to practice using a clicker as a conditioned reinforcer (marker or bridge) for training and shaping.
Participants will be introduced to PORTL (Portable Operant Teaching Lab). PORTL is a tabletop game that provides an interactive environment for learning about behavior principles and investigating behavioral phenomena. PORTL had its beginnings in another game, called GENABACAB, which was developed by English dog trainer Kay Laurence. This was Debbie’s first introduction to the process, and she completed 2 levels of Kay’s Competency Assessment Programme (CAP). About a decade ago, Laurence taught this game to Dr. Jesús Rosales-Ruiz and his graduate students.
This event has been designed for BCBAs and RBTs along with animal trainers to expand on their understanding of operant conditioning, and work on the skills of identifying and deconstructing behavior in order to build training plans, create criteria for reinforcement, and improve the timing and rate of reinforcement. Professional animal trainers have been working with non-verbal learners for decades and have been assessing the risks and potential fallout for using force or coercion when training.
Contact us to find out how to schedule this event for your staff or clinic. Visit this page for more information.
Coming up 2024! For anyone interested in improving their training mechanics consider joining us for one or both days.
Coming up in 2024
Mini Trainer Retreats
Weekend events at Lemon’s Hope Sanctuary for professional trainers and anyone interested in animal training who needs an uplifting get-away to renew and refresh their skills and joy in training. Guest trainers and educators will share their expertise with you.
Training and Rehabilitation for Sanctuary Animals
Whether you are working with wolf-hybrids, domestic farm animals, or exotics, animals who have found their way into sanctuary typically share a history of neglect, abuse and/or deprivation. Trauma events in the lives of these animals necessitates the need for trainers and handlers who are better educated and skilled in the science of behavior and learning. In-person training opportunities will be available at Lemon’s Hope Sanctuary in Brattleboro VT, and our staff is available for workshops and presentations at your facility. Contact us for more information.
Working With Challenging Behaviors
Fear, Reactivity, Aggression, Inhibition
TEAM: Training Efficiently And Mindfully
Location: Lemon’s Hope Sanctuary, Brattleboro, VT
Join Sara Matters, MA, ABCDT, Debbie Jacobs, CPDT-KA, RBT and special guest presenters for three days of evidence-based information and practice related to learning and behavior change at Training Matters’ farm animal sanctuary in beautiful southern Vermont. Behavior change professionals, whether they are animal trainers or human educators or both, are invited to hone their training and teaching skills with the animals of Lemon’s Hope Sanctuary, sheep and a goat, miniature horses, guinea pigs, cockatiels and resident dogs and cats. Other individuals of other species may be recruited to participate as well. We hope to include beginning animal trainers, behavior analysts who are interested in moving from working with people to working with animals, as well as experienced animal trainers of a variety of species in multiple contexts, and other animal care professionals.
Special presentations by coyote and wolf researchers and trainers! Exciting information for canid enthusiasts! We will also incorporate the use of PORTL into the experiential learning during this fun and educational event.
Along with other seminars on applying the science of behavior analysis to training and interventions we’ve added another great one!
Resilience Conditioning in Shelter Dogs: Building Bounce Back for Life in the Real World with Ferdie Yau. This information is applicable to dogs in or outside of the sheltering system. Ferdie will also be sharing this seminar at the upcoming APDT conference.
- Where the other behavior sciences sit in relation to applied behavior analysis
- How to systematically plan for working with a member of any species
- Behavior analysis of challenging behavior
- Using function-based assessments
- Developing successful interventions
- Using enrichment in interventions
- Task analysis (or, writing training plans)
- Shaping
- Data collection
- Training habits and practices to cultivate
- talking or writing about behavior using behaviorally appropriate language
In addition to listening to presentations on these and other topics, attendees will practice their training skills with sanctuary and other animals. The animals are almost all rescues, and they vary in sociability as well as physical ability. We will discuss each individual and what they are able to do or not able to do, and where things stand with their training and socialization. We will provide species and individual-specific considerations for working with these animals, and discuss beginning or more advanced training as appropriate for and interesting to the trainer/learner team. We may also compare teaching one behavior to more than one species, such as haltering.
Our location in Brattleboro offers many opportunities for relaxation in down time: swimming, biking, boating, walks or hikes in soothing landscapes. Unique local attractions will also be recommended, so that you can round out your educational experience drinking in the beauty of Vermont.
Dates: COMING AGAIN IN 2024! DATES PENDING
Cost: $TBD
CEUs: CPDT- 14 CEUs for trainers & 5 CEUs for behavior consultants
IAABC- 25.5 CEUs
Past Events
Animal Trainers Collaborative in Puerto Rico
Our 2020 Collaborative in Puerto Rico was a great success! We plan to offer future collaboratives. You can learn more about the event by viewing our 2020 Collaborative details.
Go There
Behavior Basics and Beyond
2 On-Demand Webinars
Beyond the Basics: There’s more than you know
8 CEUs CPDT
Fear: Its Impact on Behavior
6 CEUs CPDT
Go There
Who is Debbie Jacobs, CPDT-KA, RBT?
Debbie Jacobs is a Certified Professional Dog Trainer and Registered Behavior Technician. She is the author of A Guide To Living With and Training A Fearful Dog, and Does My Dog Need Prozac? She has provided evidence-based information for owners, trainers, and veterinarians since 2007 and this website is recommended as a resource by veterinary behaviorists. She is recognized internationally for her commitment to helping animals struggling with fear-based behavior challenges, and educating on best practices in training. Learn more
