Michael Ellis School for Dog Trainers

Videos

Michael Ellis' Philosophy on Dog Training

This video is of Michael explaining his method and philosophy of dog training. He trains with markers and the lecture explains the foundation of his training. It was filmed at a training seminar at Leerburg.

Michael Ellis' Lecture on Operant Conditioning
Michael Ellis' Opening Lecture in his School Course in Protection Theory
Michael Ellis' Opening Lecture in his Course in Training Decoys
Michael Ellis' Opening Lecture in his School Course on Puppy Development
Michael Ellis' Opening Lecture in his Course on the Proper Use of the Electric Collar
Keeping Your Puppy Engaged with Michael and Cappy

Engagement is the most important thing you can have with your puppy. Engagement means your puppy wants to be with you and it wants what you have. In this short video you will watch Michael Ellis and a new puppy he just got working with food and toy engagement.

The Stages of Young Dog Bite Development

We recently finished our latest DVD titled The foundation of Puppy Bite Work with Michael Ellis.

Michael has broken protection training young dogs into categories based on age and the development stage of various training skills.

In this DVD, Michael explains each of these categories. He explains how he has established a detailed step by step training program that carries a young puppy or dog through and into the next category.

In the following video, Michael discusses these stages of development. The video was taken directly out of the DVD.

Videos on Individual Classes

Micheal Discuses his School for Dog Trainers with Ed Frawley
Obedience Intensive Video

This course is a great stepping off point for anyone interested in our school, and is a prerequisite for many of our other courses. It details all the fundamentals of our approach to obedience and the dog/handler relationship, and helps the trainer build the “toolbox” he/she will use throughout the training process. This course thoroughly covers classical and operant conditioning, our reward based teaching systems, the use of verbal markers for communication, as well as building behavior through luring, spatial pressure, “leash pressure,” and shaping. We discuss the thoughtful introduction of aversives, and the creation of motivation in your dog through productive play. There will be both a lecture/theory portion, covering the science of the training, and a practical portion, that puts the theory into play. There are no prerequisites for this class. Students must bring a dog for the practical phase.

Check out course dates.

Protection Theory & Practice

This highly detailed course is unlike any other currently offered in this country. It is broken into two sections. Each section is one week long, and they can be taken back to back or independently.

The first section covers the theory behind protection work from a training perspective. We will discuss the various venues for protection work (police service, personal protection, Schutzhund/IPO, French/Mondio ring, KNPV, and Belgian ring) and how they differ in theory and practice, as well as their historical significance and their influence on the techniques we use today. We will define terms commonly used in protection work, and learn to apply them in practical situations, as well as examining the strengths and short-comings of “drive theory” as it relates to protection work. We will discuss techniques for creating a strong protection dog and learn to read basic canine body language as it relates to this goal. We will learn how to establish a behavioral baseline for a given dog based on genetic gripping style, body language, and other external signs, and we will cover the role of the handler in protection work. This course is a must for anyone doing decoy/helper work, and is highly recommended for anyone interested in protection sports, aggression in dogs, or canine behavior.

The second section is a purely practical education for the helper/deco. In other words, this is the class where you learn to work dogs as a decoy/helper. This course introduces the equipment used in protection work, common safety measures, and the general “do’s and don’ts” of the work. We will cover the mechanics of working a protection dog with both the sleeve and the bite suit, proper targeting, techniques for working both upper and lower body dogs, and the differences between the various protection venues as it relates to helper/decoy work. We will also cover, in detail, the physical techniques for improving a dog’s protection work. Dogs will be available for students to work, but each student is also required to bring a dog that can do some protection work.

Check out course dates.

Sport Clinic

This course is the classic competitive sport seminar that Michael has been giving for nearly ten years. While there will be some lecture, this course focuses on hands on problem solving and the development of training plans for competitive protection sport and obedience trainers. The clinics cover both obedience and protection each day (or two sessions of obedience for those not doing protection sports). These clinics are for trainers actively competing, or planning to compete in the dog sports. Handlers must have attended at least one of our seminars or taken our Obedience Intensive.

Check out course dates.

Q&A Videos Featuring Michael Ellis & Ed Frawley

Michael Ellis Q&As at Leerburg
Michael Ellis - Engagement Training with His Dog Pi

In this video, you will see a dog that is extremely engaged with his handler, you will see Michael working on capping his dog's drive for a tug reward, and you will see how playing tug with your dog builds engagement and drive.

My High Drive Dog Will Never Settle and Be Calm, What Can I Do?
Why are Your Methods so Successful with High Drive Working Dogs?
Do you have any advice for teaching the back command in heeling?
When to Use a Tug vs. a Ball Reward in Your Dog Training

Many new trainers can get confused on when they should be using a ball as a reward item or a tug as a reward item. In this short video, Michael Ellis outlines what the criteria are for using a tug and a ball reward.

Questions & Answer with Michael Ellis on Training Problems with the Jumps

In this Q&A session Michael discusses training problems with the jumps.

Q&A: My dog loves chasing a ball but is not that interested in playing tug.

Questions for Michael - My dog loves chasing a ball but is not that interested in playing tug.

In this 5 minute video, Michael Ellis talks about what those people who have ball crazy dogs can do to train them to love to play with a tug.

Q&A: My puppy does not seem to have much prey drive. What can I do?

My puppy does not seem to have much prey drive. What can I do?

Q&A with Michael Ellis on Playing Tug

If you get to the point where you say 'yes' and your dog isn't that interested, does that mean you have "out played" your dog? Should you stop the game much sooner?

Q&A with Michael Ellis: My dog only has food drive, will the Focused Heeling DVD still work for him?

I'm interested in the Focused Heeling DVD, I have a few questions. My dog only has food drive, although it's a very strong food drive. Will this be a problem for that training? Will tugs be involved in the Focused Heeling training? Your site has jute tugs that can be filled with food, would that be a good thing to use to teach my terrier mix to like tugs? I'm also wondering if the DVD would be good for dog owners not engaged in any competition heeling.

Q&A with Michael Ellis: My dogs are so engaged they won't take care of business when we go outside.

I've been working on engagement with my dogs after watching Michael Ellis' DVD, The Power of Training Dogs with Food. They are all doing wonderfully and I'm very happy with the results. I've run into a small problem and I'm not sure how to resolve it. The dogs are so engaged when we go out for bathroom breaks, that they will not leave me alone long enough to go to the bathroom. I certainly don't want to discourage their intention, do you just not reward until after they've taken care of business?

Q&A with Michael Ellis: Should I train my dog with food and tug work at the same time?

If my dogs are already playing tug with me, should I do both the food work from The Power of Training Dogs with Food first and then go on to the tug OR can I do both to master the engagement process?

Q&A with Michael Ellis on Puppies Climbing out of the ExPen

I picked up my 8 week old puppy today, I ordered one of your ExPens in advance. I have a slight problem. After exercising my pup for quite a long time today after her long plane ride, I placed her in the pen. I went into the kitchen for a moment and as soon as I returned into the den, she had already climbed up the side and basically fell on the floor. She wasn't injured at all and seemed to enjoy it. My question is at this age what should I be doing to stop this? It amazes me that she was even capable of performing this feat at such a young age. Have you ever had this problem? And at what age do you think that this will stop? Do you have any advice? How often do your dogs stay in the ex-pen compared to the crate at the age of 8 to 12 weeks of age?

Questions from Leerburg Customer on Protection Training a 16 Month Old Dog

Michael Ellis answers a question from Andrew on protection training his 16 month old dog.

Question from a Leerburg Customer on Training with the Focused Heeling DVD

Mike asks, "Can I start out with the Focused Heeling DVD or do I need the The Power of Training Dogs with Food and The Power of Training Dogs with Tugs DVDs that you did with Leerburg?"

Question from a Leerburg Customer on Training in Protection Sport or Schutzhund

Question from Miguel: I'm interested in either protection sport training or Schutzhund. My concern with doing so is that I still want my dog to be friendly and a family pet, as I have two children. I'm wondering if awakening the aggressiveness through training would change his good temperament. Any advice and/or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Question from a Leerburg Customer About Being Challenged by a 8 Month Old Dog

Question from Erica: My 8 month old male Standard Poodle has recently challenged me by biting me twice. We adopted him from a family that neglected him during the first 16 weeks of his life, leaving him unsocialized and with some behavioral issues. When we brought him home at 4 months, he had separation anxiety and if we left him alone he went crazy... barking excessively non-stop and he still does. We try and take him on walks and to dog parks as much as possible. He gets along with other dogs great but he is still very shy towards strangers. He will not allow anyone to pet him, except my husband and my kids. He uses a prong collar and has had no problem with it, until recently. I had a couple of guests over one day. He got too excited, so I grabbed him by the prong collar with my hand and he turned his neck around and tried to bite me while making a huge fuss, whining and barking. So, I let go of it thinking that was all that was needed. Today, as he was outside, he saw a cat. I immediately grabbed him, again by the prong, this time he attacked me. What should I do?

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