Kamal Fernadez

[flyingduster]

Well Kamal Fernadez held two weekend obedience seminars in NZ, one in Auckland and one in Dunedin. I was lucky enough to get a handler spot in the Dunedin one, BUT I couldn't find ANY info on him online except for a youtube of him at crufts! Who is he, and how does he train!??? I've been asked this a number of times both before and after the seminar, so I thought I'd just make a wee post here so that there is at least a little info about him out there for future reference!!! If anyone else has info on him, please do post it too, as he is a good trainer so if people know about him he might get more following!!

Basically, Kamal is a clicker trainer and uses +R and a lil sprinkling of -P to train his dogs to a very nice level of obedience. He said initially that he uses very little luring when training, but in the seminar he used primarily luring for all the handler dogs. I suspect though that this is really the easiest way to try and get across training methods effectively without spending ages first teaching the dogs what a clicker is and how to shape behaviours! Many of the dogs who went hadn't had much, if any, clicker training before, so for a lot of it he didn't use a clicker at all and instead used his voice ("YES!! Good dog!!" ::treat:: ) and many of the handlers had crappy timing for their clickers anyway (it's also nerve wreaking being in front of everyone which I'm sure threw off timing for many!) so there wasn't much actual clicker work done, but if you know ABOUT clicker stuff, then everything he did was based on it, even if a clicker wasn't physically used a lot.

Kamal has a great voice and was a good speaker! SUCH a good thing, I hate when I can hardly hear someone! The hall we were in wasn't the best as when the group dogs were in and he faced away to talk to them, we couldn't hear so well, and it was echo-y too, but obviously not the fault of Kamal at all!

I really enjoyed the layout of his seminar, he had 12 dog handler positions, and split them into two groups of 6. On Saturday, group one were the 'group' dogs, group two were the 'individual' dogs. On Sunday, the groups switched so that group one was 'individuals' and group two were the 'group' dogs. The 'group' dogs all came in together about 5 times throughout the day, for 10 mins or so, and did motivation games, recall games etc, whereas the individual dogs came in once at some point during the day and had basically an individual lesson with Kamal, but with everyone else in the seminar able to watch, ask questions, and talk about what was going on. There was everything covered in the individuals, from send aways and scenting, to retrieves and recalls as well as general attention, heel work position and motivation techniques too.

There was very little that *I* took away from the seminar that I didn't already know about as I have done a lot of personal study on clicker training methods etc, but I saw a lot of other people having 'wow' moments as they figured out all this +R stuff! hehe.

There WAS a couple of things he did that made me wonder (one wee dog was encouraged to be given a wee collar pop for sniffing at the ground. I am not against a collar pop, but this wasn't followed up enough with reinforcement for the correct behaviour, or at least a description of how this particular person SHOULD be encouraging the right behaviour, and knowing the owner of this wee dog I fear she'll now be a little obsessed with popping the neck of this wee dog cos a professional told her she should...!) but all in all it was a good wee seminar, and I understand how difficult it would be to try and cover a bit of everything with such a wide range of dogs (ranging from a well trained OBGRCH with traditional training methods to young, less trained but clicker savvy dogs, and everything in between!) and handlers!!!

We weren't allowed to record anything unless it was of our own wee time in the limelight, and I'd say they'd frown a lot if I went and put that up online, so I won't. But I did get photos and I've put them up as you can't *get* anything from the photos (and this is also why I'm being careful NOT to describe his games etc, as I'm sure with how nazi they were about recording anything they'd get mad at me for that! So I'm sorry for being only vauge and rather general!!!)

Kamal holding Paris for a restrained recall

Morgan doing send away work

dumbbell stuff

Kamal would work with the owner, but also would at times take over the dog to show how something would work....

PLAAAY!!

All in all it was a nice weekend spent playing with dogs, it was well organised with morning/afternoon tea and lunches provided etc too and while I didn't personally take a lot away that I didn't already know, I DID get a few things that I will utilise in our training and I know many others would have gotten a lot more out of it!

[Jigsaw]

I had a handler spot at his seminar in Oz and a private lesson! There's possibly a few people here who saw the mad and bad Paxy and me in action and yes I was nervous! I thought he was a fantastic speaker, very personable and funny, and recognised any handler problem very quickly. He holds Susan Garretts methods of training in high regard I understand. I thought his games were a great method to incorporate into training making it more fun for the dog and you. Most of his training is directed at obedience work but also adaptable to agility and DWD. I was very impressed and I'm hoping he'll come back to Oz again in the not too distant future!

When I asked him about my girl sniffing he advised to take her by the collar and give her a 5 sec time out (holding collar and turning body away, no eye contact).

I thoroughly enjoyed the seminar. It was particulary motivating to be surrounded by people interested in learning more about motivational training methods. I've already heard from people who were very impressed with him and are wanting to incorporate his training methods into their obedience work.

If PAX is around she can fill you in a lot more on Kamal.

[bedazzledx2]

Thanks for the report and the fantastic photos flyingduster Its wonderful when people are exposed to positive training and have those brilliant light bulb moments!!!!

Well Kamal Fernadez held two weekend obedience seminars in NZ, one in Auckland and one in Dunedin. I was lucky enough to get a handler spot in the Dunedin one, BUT I couldn't find ANY info on him online except for a youtube of him at crufts! Who is he, and how does he train!??? I've been asked this a number of times both before and after the seminar, so I thought I'd just make a wee post here so that there is at least a little info about him out there for future reference!!! If anyone else has info on him, please do post it too, as he is a good trainer so if people know about him he might get more following!!

Basically, Kamal is a clicker trainer and uses +R and a lil sprinkling of -P to train his dogs to a very nice level of obedience. He said initially that he uses very little luring when training, but in the seminar he used primarily luring for all the handler dogs. I suspect though that this is really the easiest way to try and get across training methods effectively without spending ages first teaching the dogs what a clicker is and how to shape behaviours! Many of the dogs who went hadn't had much, if any, clicker training before, so for a lot of it he didn't use a clicker at all and instead used his voice ("YES!! Good dog!!" ::treat:: ) and many of the handlers had crappy timing for their clickers anyway (it's also nerve wreaking being in front of everyone which I'm sure threw off timing for many!) so there wasn't much actual clicker work done, but if you know ABOUT clicker stuff, then everything he did was based on it, even if a clicker wasn't physically used a lot.

Kamal has a great voice and was a good speaker! SUCH a good thing, I hate when I can hardly hear someone! The hall we were in wasn't the best as when the group dogs were in and he faced away to talk to them, we couldn't hear so well, and it was echo-y too, but obviously not the fault of Kamal at all!

I really enjoyed the layout of his seminar, he had 12 dog handler positions, and split them into two groups of 6. On Saturday, group one were the 'group' dogs, group two were the 'individual' dogs. On Sunday, the groups switched so that group one was 'individuals' and group two were the 'group' dogs. The 'group' dogs all came in together about 5 times throughout the day, for 10 mins or so, and did motivation games, recall games etc, whereas the individual dogs came in once at some point during the day and had basically an individual lesson with Kamal, but with everyone else in the seminar able to watch, ask questions, and talk about what was going on. There was everything covered in the individuals, from send aways and scenting, to retrieves and recalls as well as general attention, heel work position and motivation techniques too.

There was very little that *I* took away from the seminar that I didn't already know about as I have done a lot of personal study on clicker training methods etc, but I saw a lot of other people having 'wow' moments as they figured out all this +R stuff! hehe.

There WAS a couple of things he did that made me wonder (one wee dog was encouraged to be given a wee collar pop for sniffing at the ground. I am not against a collar pop, but this wasn't followed up enough with reinforcement for the correct behaviour, or at least a description of how this particular person SHOULD be encouraging the right behaviour, and knowing the owner of this wee dog I fear she'll now be a little obsessed with popping the neck of this wee dog cos a professional told her she should...!) but all in all it was a good wee seminar, and I understand how difficult it would be to try and cover a bit of everything with such a wide range of dogs (ranging from a well trained OBGRCH with traditional training methods to young, less trained but clicker savvy dogs, and everything in between!) and handlers!!!

We weren't allowed to record anything unless it was of our own wee time in the limelight, and I'd say they'd frown a lot if I went and put that up online, so I won't. But I did get photos and I've put them up as you can't *get* anything from the photos (and this is also why I'm being careful NOT to describe his games etc, as I'm sure with how nazi they were about recording anything they'd get mad at me for that! So I'm sorry for being only vauge and rather general!!!)

Kamal holding Paris for a restrained recall

Morgan doing send away work

dumbbell stuff

Kamal would work with the owner, but also would at times take over the dog to show how something would work....

PLAAAY!!

All in all it was a nice weekend spent playing with dogs, it was well organised with morning/afternoon tea and lunches provided etc too and while I didn't personally take a lot away that I didn't already know, I DID get a few things that I will utilise in our training and I know many others would have gotten a lot more out of it! :D

[PAX]

All I can add is Kamal is my new hero, I am creating a shrine to worship him....lol. :D

I have struggled for years to get a SFE on my Koolie and it is now fixed...well I think it is, next trial will tell.

(There was very little that *I* took away from the seminar that I didn't already know about as I have done a lot of personal study on clicker training methods etc, but I saw a lot of other people having 'wow' moments as they figured out all this +R stuff! hehe.)

I hope you got 'something' out of it Flyingduster, perhaps we should book you for seminars.

[Tiggy]

I found this

[PAX]

Thanks Tiggy, wait until his new dog is on the green carpet.

[Tiggy]

I'm stalking Kamal

http://brodyandco.blogspot.com/2010/06/obe...-fernandez.html

[MonElite]

I had a handlers spot at a seminar here near Sydney and althought Im not making a shrine I did like him a lot. Very good trainer, great speaker and entertainer. It was a pure pleasure to attend the seminar and if he ever comes back again Ill be attending again!

[sas]

I found this ;)

[PAX]

I'm stalking Kamal

http://brodyandco.blogspot.com/2010/06/obe...-fernandez.html

Me too and he's on Facebook.

[Tiggy]

I'm stalking Kamal

http://brodyandco.blogspot.com/2010/06/obe...-fernandez.html

Me too and he's on Facebook.

I saw that

[caffy]

All I can add is Kamal is my new hero, I am creating a shrine to worship him....lol.

I have struggled for years to get a SFE on my Koolie and it is now fixed...well I think it is, next trial will tell.

(There was very little that *I* took away from the seminar that I didn't already know about as I have done a lot of personal study on clicker training methods etc, but I saw a lot of other people having 'wow' moments as they figured out all this +R stuff! hehe.)

I hope you got 'something' out of it Flyingduster, perhaps we should book you for seminars.

How did Kamal recommend you fix your SFE Pax????

[RubyStar]

All I can add is Kamal is my new hero, I am creating a shrine to worship him....lol.

I have struggled for years to get a SFE on my Koolie and it is now fixed...well I think it is, next trial will tell.

(There was very little that *I* took away from the seminar that I didn't already know about as I have done a lot of personal study on clicker training methods etc, but I saw a lot of other people having 'wow' moments as they figured out all this +R stuff! hehe.)

I hope you got 'something' out of it Flyingduster, perhaps we should book you for seminars.

How did Kamal recommend you fix your SFE Pax????

I'd be interested in the "secret" too, please!

[PAX]

My dog moves on SFE as she would prefer strangers not to touch her. She has always been really timid and I've worked really hard to get her to like other peole but still can't get a SFE. She has no plroblem doing the excercise for anyone she knows. I believe she has a good uinderstanding of what she is meant to be doing. I also know she understands stand stay as I can throw toys, bounce a ball around her, whatever and she does not move. If I have a toy in my hand then anyone can do it as she is so focused on the toy, I can't get her through it without the toy.

First lesson,

At first we tried to feed her for being steady, I have done stuff like that with her for ever and it is not a big enough reward to her to put up with the stranger. She will take the food but not stand still for the stranger.

K said she is just being a Princess and doesn't want anyone to touch her and she needs to get over it, he could see she wasn't too bothered as she would still take food from him or myself.

I set her up and she moved, he took her off me and stood with her between his legs patting her, he then stepped away and did it again and again, after a few minutes I could see her just sigh and relax. He then held the lead and I set her up for SFE, we did an easy one and I verbally praised her but did not reward, then we did a harder one and rewarded.

Second lesson didn't go as well as the end of the first lesson but he said that often happens.

Third lesson she was brilliant, he shuffled his feet towards her, went over her very thoroughly, we did it at a bigger distance.

Forth lesson we just kept upping the excercise, he would jog into her, we got different people to do it, if she even slightly moved I blanked her and ignored her for a minute then set it up again. If she moved on an easy one then she had to do a harder one before being rewarded.

It was a bit more involved than that but that's basically it. I think for my dog it was having a consequence for moving, I had never done this to her, she understood quickly that she has do get on with it and do it.

She had done a brilliant job at training me to make it easier for her instead of me making it harder for her.

I was really lucky to get to spend the week with him and get this sorted as well as many other problems.