Ted Turner's two classic seminars now available on DVD. Watch both The ABC's of Behavior Shaping and The Fundamentals of Training as well Proactive Behavior Management and Extinguishing Aggression - over 5 hours from one of the leading mentors of a whole generation of dog trainers! Large animal trainer, Ted Turner, entertainingly shares his extensive knowledge of behavioral science and learning theory with lots of real life examples from his more than 20 years of exotic animal training including at Sea World. These principles of learning are universal and apply to any training pursuit, including agility, competition obedience, pet dog manners and behavior modification, tracking and field work, freestyle, etc. This is a classic that every animal trainer will want to have in their library for reference and inspiration.

What reviewers are saying...

APDT CHRONICLE OF THE DOG
“This is a DVD featuring a portion of a live seminar by Ted Turner. It is divided into two sections; the total time for the DVD is five hours, with each section being approximately 2.5 hours. The first part of the seminar, The ABC’s of Behavior Shaping and the Fundamentals of Training, discusses the basic concepts one should understand and consider before attempting to modify behavior. The second section, Proactive Behavior Management and Extinguishing Aggression & Other Problem Behavior, goes into more detail about how to actually work with problem behaviors. The first part covers basic learning theory. Although there are several important points made in this section, it will primarily be a review for experienced trainers. Turner gives several nice, step-by-step hierarchies for different aspects of the training process. These hierarchies will be helpful to all trainers, and particularly newer trainers. He also gives a lot of very good information on learning principles and how to avoid common pitfalls of training. In the later part of the second session, Turner also discusses behavior modification techniques for dealing with aggression. I always enjoy Turner’s views on aggression, because he does work with wild animals and the lessons learned from them transfer well to working with domestic animals. Turner is obviously an experienced and educated trainer, and brings up many points that are often overlooked in books and seminars. Because this is a live seminar, there are some mis-statements and inconsistencies, but my impression is that this is not a lack of knowledge on Turner’s part, but a natural consequence of speaking in front of a live audience, and they aren’t serious enough to take away from the overall quality of the content. My biggest complaint is about the technology and editing. The presentation materials were spotty —most were typewritten notes and very difficult to see, while a couple were snazzy graphics—presented with an overhead projector! Nice graphics could easily have been inserted into the final presentation and even provided as a separate document to be printed and used. Occasionally, the camera focuses on the audience. All of this should have been cut! Because it was a serious lecture, there was little animation or smiling from the audience, and there was a lot of “shifty” eye movement. In my opinion, most of the audience shots actively detracted from the presentation. There were also some minor audio glitches. And, most annoyingly, the DVD itself was difficult to work with. Because I was reviewing the presentation, I often wanted to “rewind” and re-listen to something —I did not have that option. Each section is a very long, continuous segment, which meant that I had to go back to the beginning of the lecture if I wanted to hear something again. I fear that this will result in the DVD not being as useful as it could be—I wonder if I’m willing to sit through a 90 minute to two hours of lecture to hear an important point that I missed the first time around. The information presented is of good quality, regardless of technology, but it is not nearly as slick as it could have been. The producers should have taken the time to turn this into a more professional looking production.” Susan Smith