About Eva – Eva Bertilsson

Psst: If you are looking to book Eva for an event or consultation, go to Booking!

Eva Bertilsson is an internationally renown educator and behavior specialist with a master’s degree in behavior analysis and a life long learning history of animal behavior and training.

Ever since she started volunteering at her local dog club in 1994, Eva has been an avid teacher of animal-friendly approaches based in science and best-practice, and an eager learner always striving to further her knowledge and skills.

Eva works as a teacher, coach and mentor in a wide range of settings and with a variety of species, helping individuals and organizations apply behavioral principles to teach skills and enhance quality of life for the individuals in their care.

Collaborations

In 1998 Eva teamed up with likeminded friend and colleague Emelie Johnson Vegh on the dog agility field, forming Carpe Momentum – a very special collaboration with an extraordinarily thorough and detail-oriented approach to behavior and training. E&E” have developed strategies such as seamless training sessions and startbutton behaviors, they have written Agility Right From The Start and they teach together at Clicker Expo and are both TAGteach faculty.

Eva also works in many other collaborations, both with individuals and organizations – for example, educating Swedish horse training professionals within the organization OHR+, Exploring nuances of horse training and other matters with Angelica Hesselius, and teaching together with Chirag Patel (#stayliquid) as well as working with TAGteach and Fear Free .

Where might you find Eva?

Here are some examples of what Eva’s typically is engaged for:

Teaching seminars and workshop in in behavior & training
Consulting at animal care facilities such as shelters, educational facilities and zoos with domestic or exotic species.
Teaching cooperative care and Fear Free techniques to veterinary staff, groomers and animal care students.
Teaching in various educations for instructors and behavior consultants, with topics ranging from behavior science and learning theory to nuances in positive reinforcement training.
Presenting international animal training conferences and other events, for example at Clicker Expo and WOOF (typically co-teaching with Carpe Momentum colleague Emelie Johnson Vegh).

When her schedule permits, Eva also does individual coaching online and in person:

Mentoring fellow trainers and animal care professionals eager to leverage their understanding of behavior science and various training strategies.
Mentoring behavior analysts working with humans, transferring skills from the animal training fields into practice and research with human learners.
Consulting with pet owners, helping them solve problems, teach skills and enjoy life with their pets.

Furthermore, you’ll find Eva:

Running her Swedish membership group for husbandry/cooperative care training called Kul med Hantering (“Fun and games with cooperative care”)
Hosting webinars and other online learning opportunities in the nerdy ABC247.wtf webshop
Teaching TAGteach workshops and certification seminars
As a board member of the Swedish Association for Behavior Analysis (SWABA) and admin of their applied animal behavior special interest group on facebook, SWABAdjur

Eva also has a long history of inviting internationally renown speakers to Sweden, starting in the early 2000s when she and Emelie hosted numerous dog agility seminars with Greg Derrett and introduced Theresa McKeon and TAGteach to the Scandinavian audience. Eva has also hosted workshops with for example Ken Ramirez, Kathy Sdao, Susan Friedman, Clive Wynne, Susan Schneider, Ken and Debbie Martin, Laura Monaco Torelli, Joe Layng and Joanne Robbins, and she organizes the popular CCC Choice Control Communication conference.

Eva Bertilsson through the years – some highlights

1980s: Grew up with horses (and rabbits), mostly enjoyed bareback rides in the woods but also trained dressage, worked at an eventing horse stable and opted out of riding instructor’s school. Meanwhile she read every book in the library about dogs, behavior and training.
1992: Got started with reward based dog training with Nova Scotia Duck Tolling Retriever Sickan.
1994: Started teaching dog training classes at the local dog club in Uddevalla.
1994 ff: Avid dog sport competitor, first with top titles in competitive obedience with Sickan and phalène Misty, and then numerous agility championship titles with Misty and her son Soya
1997 ff: Attended her first clicker training seminar and was hooked. Later continued through Bob Bailey’s chicken camps, which also gave a first introduction to the field of behavior analysis
1997: Bachelor exam in psychology and education
1998: Started collaborating with Emelie Johnson Vegh, a collaboration that developed into Carpe Momentum
2000ff: Numerous articles (in Swedish) about positive reinforcement dog training details, co-written with Emelie.
2003: Article about Noise and Movement training, co-written with Emelie, published in American agility magazine Clean Run – introducing the concept of “make it happen through the handler”-behaviors, aka startbutton behaviors.
2003 ff: Organized yearly workshops with UK agility trainer Greg Derrett together with Emelie
2004: Organized the first TAGteach event in Scandinavia together with Emelie, hosting Theresa McKeon.
2003ff Teaching yearly at the Scandinavian Canis Academy‘s instructors’ courses together with Emelie
2010: Published the book Agility Right From The Start (written upon a request from Karen Pryor) in 2010, together with Emelie.
“Behavior that works as a start button” – startbutton behavior – is first mentioned in this book.
2010 ff Further university courses in ethology and in behavior analysis & autism
2011: Started teaching at Clicker Expo together with Emelie, early lectures including for example ”From One Reward To The Next”, “Noise and Movement”, “Smart Starts” and”Agility Shaping Procedures”
2011: First work with exotic species, cooperating with Swedish zoo Nordens Ark
2012: Co-hosted training conference and Ken Ramirez seminar at Nordens Ark.
2013? Hosted a book tour through Sweden/Norway with Susan Schneider, Science of Consequences
2013? ff Board member in SWABA, the Swedish Association for Behavior Analysis.
2014: Hosted seminars with Clive Wynne
2015: Co-hosted the Ethics of Creating Motivation workshop in Sweden, with Barbara Heidenreich
2016: Master exam in behavior analysis (”Learning in Complex Systems”) at Oslo Metropolitan (Thesis on separation related behaviors in dogs, supervised by Clive Wynne and Per Holth)
2016: Held the first Animals in Control lecture together at Clicker Expo together with Emelie and Peggy Hogan. This lecture re-launched the term “start button behavior” and initiated a widespread use of the term
2017: Hosted the first Scandinavian Fear Free event, with Dr Kenneth Martin and Debbie Martin
2017-2018: Worked as an upper secondary school teacher in Sweden, teaching animal behavior and training to animal care students
2018: Co-taught a Cooperative Care Camp in Sweden with Laura Monaco Torelli
2018: Organized the first CCC Choice Control Communication conference
2019: Became an ackredited speaker for FearFree(TM)
2019: Hosted workshops with Joe Layng and Joanne Robbins in Sweden
2019: Was one of the invited speakers at the ABAI (Association of Behavior Analysis International) conference in 2019 with a lecture on startbutton behaviors
2020: Presented at Mexican CICA conference
2020: Spent the spring with Theresa McKeon’s (TAGteach) and Chirag Patel, socially distancing in the countryside.
2020: Launched the ABC247.wtf webshop with online learning.
2021: Started the Swedish “Kul med hantering” cooperative care membership group
2021: Hosted a series of CCC choice control communication webinars
2021: Taught reward based training, husbandry, behavior analysis and TAGteach at the first reward based horse training instructors’ course in Sweden (OHR+)
2021: Started collaborating with horse trainer Angelica Hesselius in Exploring Nuances
2022: Started collaborating with Chirag Patel in webinars on “Liquid training” (contingencies everywhere, #stayliquid)
2022: Presented at the NordicABC conference in Iceland

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