Positive Reinforcement Workshop in Santa Rosa, CA June 19-21, 2026

Developing Reward Events and Understanding the Process of Reinforcement

Join us for a three-day, deep dive into the process of creating powerful and durable reward events. We will explore reinforcement as both a results driven process characterized by mechanical skills and intentional steps, as well as a genetically-driven and highly nuanced social interaction based on cooperation, structure, and a wide range of unique and variable choices throughout the training process.

We will cover the following, and more!

• Interactive Reward Events and the idea of Reinforcement as a process.
• Behavioral Economics, the “cost” of behaviors and choices we make in choosing reinforcement strategies.
• The language of operant conditioning/instrumental learning.
• Developing Rewards:
  • Food vs Toy
  • Structuring Play and how to add rules w/o diminishing motivation
  • Modifying Play to balance the interaction
  • Passive vs active rewards
  • Dynamic Food work
• Early Habits: Planting the seeds for the future and the pitfalls of asking too much
  too soon.
• The Double-Edged Sword of Anticipation.
• “Loops” in training, and maintaining the flow.
• Predatory Behavior and what is internal reinforcement.

Attendance: Capped at 40, we are looking for 8 working slots for demo and coaching. After you register, if you are interested in one of the working slots, please email info@michaelellisschool.com for an application.

Note: MES Members get priority registration before the general public.