Vicky Darnell & Tiz From Chicken Workshop to UKC Grand Champion Precision Animal Training EP21

An eleven month old Labrador finished a UKC Nosework Grand Champion title, and the reason is not the dog. It is what her handler learned in a room full of chickens. Vicky Darnell did not want the puppy. She planned to get herself trained up first and then bring another dog home. Tiz arrived early anyway, and three weeks later Vicky was sitting in her first Chicken Workshop with Kirsten Kraljevic and Dr. Bob Bailey. Tiz started trialing shortly after she turned six months old, the youngest age a dog can compete in UKC Nosework, and finished her Grand Champion at eleven months. In this episode Vicky tells host Kirsten Kraljevic and Dr. Bob Bailey exactly what carried over from the bird room to the trial floor: timing, criteria, rate of reinforcement, sharper observation, and the nerve to stop a training session that is not working instead of hoping it comes around. Dr. Bob Bailey lays out the principle behind all of it in one line. You get what you reinforce, not what you want. Vicky has run dog sporting events in the Chicagoland area for thirteen years and has been through the discrimination class twice. She still says you cannot comprehend the experience until you are standing in it. In her words: "I would run 100 dog shows before I would think I am capable of working with this chicken again." What you will learn in this episode: Why Vicky built a nosework foundation before starting any tracking work The seven second rule that changed how she runs a training session How to recognize bad training in real time and stop it before it sets Why timing, criteria and rate of reinforcement transfer across every species Dr. Bob Bailey on data, precision, and reinforcing the behavior you actually want Why a thirteen year professional still needs a refresher The history of the public Chicken Workshops, running since 1994 About the guest: Vicky Darnell is a nosework competitor and dog sport event organizer based in the Chicagoland area, and a graduate of Kirsten's Chicken Workshops. About the show: Precision Animal Training is hosted by Kirsten Kraljevic with Dr. Bob Bailey, recording the oral history of modern animal training. Dr. Bob Bailey was the first Director of Training for the U.S. Navy Marine Mammal Program and worked alongside Keller and Marian Breland, the founders of Animal Behavior Enterprises and the people who brought B.F. Skinner's science out of the laboratory and into working animal training. Learn about the Chicken Workshops at kirstenschickenworkshops.com Subscribe for more interviews on operant conditioning, marker training, and the trainers who built the modern field. Topics: animal training, dog training podcast, nosework training, scent work, UKC nosework, UKC Grand Champion, chicken workshop, Bob Bailey, Kirsten Kraljevic, operant conditioning, clicker training, positive reinforcement, marker training, rate of reinforcement, training criteria, timing in dog training, puppy training, dog sports, animal behavior, Keller and Marian Breland