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| If You Are a BCBA, Are You/Can You Become a Dog Trainer? Some Ethics and Some Steps in That Direction |
| Friday, May 22, 2020 |
| 4:00 PM–7:00 PM |
| Virtual |
| Area: AAB; Domain: Service Delivery |
| CE Instructor: Terri M. Bright, Ph.D. |
| TERRI M. BRIGHT (MSPCA Angell) |
| Description: When you have studied behavior analysis, you find yourself being asked about the behavior of non-human species, usually dogs. Do you pause before stepping into the breach and making suggestions? Until you have the tools to implement the assessments and interventions you have used with humans, you will likely not be able to generalize your skills to another species. Safety is also a reason: 4 million people are bitten by dogs each year. To a trained professional, the precursors of aggression are like a blinking neon sign; to a novice, they are unnoticed. Whether in your neighborhood, your home, or your workplace, dogs pose a bite risk to humans. Dog bite prevention involves teaching others to recognize precursors of a possible bite. This workshop will first remind BCBA’s and others what the ethics are of teaching outside of their scope of training and experience. It will also teach attendees to identify precursors of canid aggression as well as what to do when they see them. Finally, if you are interested in dog training, this workshop will demonstrate generalization of such skills as preference assessments and functional assessment/analysis of dog behavior, and give some simple tools for training dogs, as well as instructions on how to refer to the right dog trainer. |
| Learning Objectives: Upon completion if the workshop, attendees will be able to: - via videos and textual prompts, identify the precursors of dog aggression and how to stay safe in the presence of an aggressive dog; - identify how your behavioral skills are skewed towards humans and how your dog-training skills may be skewed away from science - identify when and if you should intervene with a dog’s problem behavior; - identify an ethical dog trainer in their geographical area should they need a referral - learn to perform preference assessments and use the Functional Assessment of Behavior of Dogs (FABD), an assessment created by the workshop presenter |
| Activities: Activities will include lecture, discussion, surveys, choral responding, small group breakout, still photos of dogs, dog behavior videos and textual prompts. Objectives will be met through a mixed presentation of discussion, self-scoring, lecture and video demonstrations of dog behavior. Supplemental materials will be provided such as participants will be able to review all photos, videos and surveys after they leave the workshop. |
| Audience: This basic workshop is meant for those who find themselves in the company of dogs and who are tempted to train them and otherwise interact with them. Though participant's individual dogs' behaviors are not the target of the workshop, enough information will be disseminated so that participants can, perhaps, begin their dog-training at home, using the tenets of ABA and within the scope of the BACB Task List; they will be able to recognize the limits of their behavioral skills across species. Those who come into contact with dogs in the community or workplace and who are fearful or uncertain will be better equipped to act appropriately, be it to gain safety or to find referrals. |
| Content Area: Practice |
| Instruction Level: Basic |