Thursday, February 24, 2011

How to Clicker Train your dog

Use special treats:

Tiny pieces of hot dogs, placed on paper towels and nuked for 3 minutes until crisp
Freeze dried liver (available at pet supply store).
Cheese, cold cut pieces
No crunchy dog biscuits (they take too long to chew, and aren’t special enough)
First Step
Arming or
Charging the Clicker
:
Click once, and give dog a special treat within 3 seconds. Repeat 10-15 times.

Second Step
Checking your dog’s response to click sound
Wait until your dog or puppy looks away for a moment.
Click clicker once.Dog should immediately look at you when he/she hears the click. 
Third Step 
If your dog looked at you when he heard the click, you are ready to continue to the next lesson
If not, do first step again until Second step is successful.

Happy Clicking! Now your dog understands that click equals treat
Never, ever, click if you don't plan to give a treat


Now you need to put the clicking and treating in a training context.The Clicker is an event marker, also called a behavior marker.It tells your dogs in a clear and concise way what action you would like him to repeat , and which ones earn the click and treat. Sort of like playing the "hot and Cold" game when you were a child.

Getting an Offered behavior

This is a vital step to your dog's understanding and becoming a clicker trained dog. Do this right after you have done the above clicker conditioning.

Step one

Saying nothing, and having your clicker and treats on hand, just stand up and wait for your dog to sit. He will eventually, wait, be patient.

Step Two

When he sits, Click & Treat. Take a few steps, he should follow you, then stand still and wait for him to sit again. Click and Treat. Try to click the moment his butt hits the ground. Continue this, again say nothing. We want the dog to make the connection between what he is doing and receiving the C/T. We don't want to blab at him, he needs to make this connection on his own, thinking it through, to become a true clicker trained dog. You will see the usefulness of this step in later posts.

Once you see that he is repeatedly sitting, you will see that he understands what is going on. His sitting should become faster and have an expectant quality. Now he knows that the sit is the behavior you will click and treat.

Step Three

Now you will start to teach him the word for this behavior. It is called the labeling step. As he sits, say "sit", and C/T(click/treat). Practice this for three days, short sessions, 7-10 minutes, three times a day. On the fourth day, you can give the command "sit" and he will sit with no problem. Now you have your sit on command or often referred to as the "cue".

Happy clicking, Congratulations! You have taught your dog what the clicker means, and you are teaching him how to become an eager, and thinking learner in the future.








 












 

 

 

 




 





Wednesday, February 23, 2011

Planting the seed of Attention


One of the true seeds for a well trained dog is the ability of the dog to pay attention. Nothing can be learned without this important foundational building block. Start right away, no time to waste.
Start in the house or other non-distracting environment. Throughout your time with your dog, when he/she is near you, say his/her name, and when she looks at you, click and treat. Be sure your dog looks into your eyes, and make your treat a great one. Walk away, say name again, and when dog follows and looks at you, click treat again. Repeat throughout your time together, but don't overdue, spread this exercise out during your time together.
If you have a dog that is not very responsive to above method, try this alternate way of teaching attention. With a yummy treat in your hand, put the treat near the dogs nose, and then draw your dog's gaze upward to your eyes. Put treat near the outer corner of your eye, say name when dog follows treat to your eyes with his, and click and treat. Remember, yummy, yummy treats are important.
You are not only working on name recognition, but planting the seeds for a dog that will pay attention and thus be an exceptional learner for all future commands and work. http://www:commongrounddogtraining.com


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