talk to me about clicker training!

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michelleice

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Have a dog show in September with my mongrel staff x lab just paws in the park not crufts! but something we can remember her by when she goes. only looking to do something like young handler vet mongrel class

so the problem arises that dog having spent 5 years in Scotland in middle of no where off a lead she isn't really lead trained so up i went to pet shop

They suggested a choke chain which i cant use as she has a sensitive wind pipe, took her off harness as she kills my back.

So Ive come home with a clicker trainer and some treats Malta is 8 so not at the training age so im wondering if Ive spent £3 on something that isn't gonna work thank god it was just £3!

So anyone used them and had good experience with them? or am i wasting my time?

thank you
 
I enjoy it because its fun and i found it really easy to train all kinds of random stuff with the clicker simply because i did not need to be right there to give the treat. I could send the dog away, they do what i want, i click and they know a treat is coming as soon as i catch up with them.
 
Another vote for clicker training here! I clicker train Henry and it is very good.:)

Do really load the clicker first though, you need to have that conditioning of click=good=treat absolutely rock solid before you do anything.
 
It's good in that it is unambiguous and takes away all the emotion/hyperactivity/anger :p that we may unwittingly use when we praise or correct or talk to them at all.
I don't use it myself but I know a lot of people who do and who clicker train Schutzhund dogs up to the top levels, it's fab for puppies too.
 
I love clicker training, I find it's fun for everyone involved and as soon as you pick up the basic idea you can teach all sorts of things.

Are you interested in teaching an obedience heel or just stopping the dog from pulling on the lead?

If you want an obedience heel a good way to teach it is with targeting. Take a large hair clip and present it to your dog, i.e. put it close to her face where she is likely to turn around to sniff it. As soon as her nose touches it, click and treat. Repeat, repeat, repeat. Soon she will get the idea that if she touches the hair clip she gets rewarded, behaviour that is rewarded is re-inforced so she should get into a nice rhythm of touch, click, treat. Play around with this for a few days, gradually move the hair clip a little bit further way so she has to stretch to touch it, or walk a few steps to touch it, move the clip to the other hand, put the clip on the floor, etc. When she is used to touching the clip in all kinds of situations, start delaying the click to encourage her to keep her nose on the clip (don't change both parametres, e.g. either move clip around or expect her to do the behaviour for longer, but not both together). Once she is used to this, start putting it all together so that she learns to keep her nose on the clip until clicked no matter where the clip goes. Now attach the clip to your left trouser leg at the level of her nose and start again with touch, click, reward, building up to you walking and her having her nose firmly attached to the clip. Place the clip so that you get the perfect obedience heel. Then replace the large clip with a smaller one and eventually a tiny one (at each change start again from the beginning with targeting but this time the process takes should take a lot less time). Eventually when the behaviour is consistent with a tiny clip, name it and then you can do away with the clip altogether. Sounds time consuming, but if you do little and often every day you should have it in about 2 weeks.

If you want to stop her from pulling, this works wonders but you need to have an enormous amount of patience. Put the dog in a normal collar and lead or harness (whichever you works for you), and attempt to go for a walk. The moment she walks on ahead of you, stop. Do nothing, wait, she can pull, bark do whatever she likes, just ignore her. The moment she looks back at you to say "mum what are we doing???" click, treat, turn around and walk in the opposite direction from where you were going. The instant she overtakes you stop and repeat. This teaches her that if she overtakes you she loses out, you all go in the opposite direction, but if she stays with you then you move forwards. The frustrating thing is that for the first week or two you will not really move much and certainly won't manage to go for a walk, but if you keep it up it works really, really well. At some point she will realise that she must not walk ahead of you and you will see her reverse herself back into place by your side.

Good luck!
 
thanks hun got allot to think about she kinda walks to heel all ready more on lead we have problems but i can improve her heel walking.

Noticed though that the click makes same noise as my lighter so when i go for a smoke out side dog comes running out bless her!
 
How funny! You'll have to treat her every time you light up now!!!

Ages ago I used to keep the clicker on a low shelf and J used to go grab it, bring it to me and go "come on mum, click me!"
 
aww bless! my dogs not smart enough she thinks anything with clips is her lead even though i only use 1 purple lead on her now :S shes ran into a few glass door as well
 
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