Webinar Registration Page

Understanding stimulus control is crucial for anyone seeking to shape, condition, or modify behavior

If you've previously registered for this webinar, please login to view it  

This is a "pay what you can" webinar (from $15-$40). If you're not already a TAGteach member or have not yet had a free trial membership, you'll get 1 free month in the TAGteach Membership.

The term “stimulus control” may sound daunting, but in reality, it is something we are very familiar with because it influences our lives all the time. From the moment we wake up in the morning until the moment we go to sleep, stimulus control is there every time an environmental cue, or stimulus, influences our behavior. When we open the closet door and see our favorite shoes, that is a cue to put them on. When a traffic signal turns from red to green, that is a cue to step on the gas. When the cell phone in our pocket buzzes, that is a cue to pull it out and look at it. When our co-worker says “hello,” that is a cue to say “hello” back. The list goes on….and the same is true for our animals.

Understanding stimulus control is crucial for anyone seeking to shape, condition, or modify behavior, such as teachers, animal trainers, parents, coaches, or therapists. The number one tool educators have is the ability to strategically alter the environment in which learning occurs. Concepts like “setting the learner up for success” are only possible when the antecedent conditions are optimal. This is because a learner’s response to context cues in the learning environment is also governed by stimulus control.

Come learn more about this exciting, but often misunderstood, topic with ClickerExpo Faculty member and Tromplo Online Instructor, Sarah Owings.

Topics include:

•   How to arrange antecedents to minimize errors during the learning process

•  How to avoid conflicting cues that can derail your learner’s understanding of the task

•  How to plan ahead for the context cues you do want to govern the behavior you are shaping

•  How to transition the learner from offering behavior on context cues to waiting for a formal cue without extinction

The examples will mostly be videos of dogs learning new behaviors and the process of adding cues to those behaviors, but the concept of stimulus control is applicable across all disciplines.

BONUS: When you register you'll get the opportunity to purchase the recorded webinar, Backchaining - The key to exceptional training with Joan Orr for only $10. Backchaining is an essential skill and this webinar is a great complement to Sarah's webinar.

No CEUs are provided

Sarah Owings is a Karen Pryor Academy Certified Training Partner, and long time educator. She specializes in the practical application of learning principles, transforming the lives of challenging dogs, as well as the lives of the humans that care for them. As an international speaker and regular contributor to both online and in-person conferences, she is known for innovative approaches to tough behavior problems and compassionate and insightful teaching. Sarah has written for Clean Run Magazine on topics such as stimulus control, release cues, and toy-specific cues. 

She currently gets her fill of what she calls "brave learning" as a member of the ClickerExpo faculty, as an instructor for Cyber Scent Online, and as a tutor and curriculum designer for Tromplo.com, an innovative online platform for international training geeks. In the past she has advised the Glendale Humane Society in Los Angeles, as well as the training team at Marin Humane Society in Northern, CA. 

Sarah is an avid Nose Work competitor, currently competing at the Summit level in the United States with her canine teammate, Tucker. She shares her life with her husband, Fred, Tucker, a small herd of pet cattle, a dove named Latte, and a tortoise named Bug on a fifteen acre ranch in Petaluma, CA.