Clicker Training Archives - Page 16 of 46

Penguins? Whales? Dogs? Yep, All Trained the Same Way!

July 10, 2013

If you’ve ever seen a Sea World animal show, visited a zoo, or been lucky enough to see a show at Chicago’s Shedd Aquarium, you’ve seen clicker training in action. While in the marine mammal show, they use a whistle instead of a click, the premise is still the same. It’s good old positive reinforcement training at work.

Wanna see it in action? Here’s Ken Ramirez from the Shedd Aquarium showing Kevin Tibbles of NBC News just how (and why!) the Shedd now has dogs in the aquarium!

Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

What’s positive reinforcement (clicker) training? It’s ridiculously simple. It’s based on this basic law of behavior: we all do what works for us. The click (or the whistle in the case of the whales) tells us what to do again, and it also tells us a reward is coming because we did that something.

The click speeds up learning. The faster your dog know what exact thing to do again — and earn a reward — the faster your dog will do it again. It’s a fantastic circle that gets lots of good behaviors happening in a relatively short period of time.

Here’s the coolest part: the more often your dog does something you like, the less often he’ll do something you don’t like! You can get rid of bad behavior simply by teaching your dog to do good behavior.

Dog Training is Like Weeding A Garden

July 8, 2013

We went away for the long 4th of July weekend and had a blast. When we returned home, unpacked, and sat on the patio to relax in the afternoon sun, I was dismayed to find that the flower garden, that I’d just weeded before we left, was overrun with new weeds!

How could that be? I threw almost as many weeds out of that garden as we had flowers! And now there were more weeds than plants in there.

Dog training is very much like weeding your garden. You can’t get by with weeding the garden just once. It takes weekly maintenance.

Ignore those weeds too long, and the weeding becomes tedious, even discouraging.

Those weeds will steal all the nutrients and your plants will suffer.

Hmm, yes gardening and dog training have a lot in common!

Taking your dog to a training class is definitely a good idea. All dogs need guidance in good doggie manners. But they will likely benefit even more from ongoing training.

Just as you can’t set a tomato plant in the garden, ignore it, and expect to gather a hefty harvest, neither can you give your dog one training class and expect a good dog to grow. Just like the tomato plant, your dog needs weekly work to help him develop into a well-mannered dog who listens to you.

And, just like gardening, the more you put into your dog’s training, the more rewards you’ll reap. I’ve weeded my vegetable garden every week, put some Sevin dust to keep the bugs away, thinned out the carrots so they can grow, put up tomato cages to support the growing plants, put up mesh for the cucumbers to grow, watered and fertilized it regularly.

Some of my neighbors do even more than I do to my garden. And, predictably, their gardens look better and yield even bigger harvests. You get back from your garden what you put into it, plain and simple.

You can’t skimp on dog training for your dog — unless, of course, you don’t expect to have a dog who listens to you and who has good manners. Your dog is very much like a garden. Take the time to give your dog’s education some tender loving care — and you’ll reap great benefits (great behavior) for many years to come!

Train Your Dog Like You Love Him

June 28, 2013

I’ve loved dogs since I was a little girl. I’ve always had dogs. I chose to make dogs my profession. Not because it’s lucrative (it isn’t) or because it’s easy (it isn’t that either). But because I want dogs to have the most fantastic life possible.

Dogs don’t get to choose where they live or how they’re treated. They don’t get any say in how — or even if — they’re taught how to behave.

Their entire life is in the hands of their owner.

Think about that for a moment. Their entire life. Every decision. Every consequence. Not up to them.

I started my training career using old-fashioned methods: I used a choke chain, I scolded, I corrected. I would also use praise, too, but relied most heavily on “fixing” what the dog was doing wrong.

I earned my M.A. in psychology and in doing so was immersed in the laws of behavior and learning. With this knowledge, I realized every living being with a brain learns the exact same way:

We repeat what works for us. This changed the way I looked at my dogs.

I quit looking for (and correcting) what my dogs were doing wrong. And oh! Did I start having a much better time with my dogs! I began catching my dogs when they were doing things I liked. Turns out, they very often did things that were good, but because I was so busy looking for the bad things, I didn’t even notice all the good.

I’ve sent silent apologies to all the dogs with whom I’ve crossed paths for the way I treated them back then. For the times when I didn’t understand how to teach them what they needed to know. For the countless times I used corrections instead of instruction. For all the confusion they experienced because of my lack of knowledge.

Back then, I didn’t know there was a better way. I was doing the best I could. That’s what fuels me now. When we know better, we do better. My mission is to reach as many dog owners as I can and show them how they can love their four-legged best friend and have a great life together. And it’s all about training.

So while I wouldn’t trade this job for any other, when I see dog owners asking their friends for advice to fix their dog’s problems and read answers like “squirt him with water,” or “the electronic collar worked wonders,” it makes my heart hurt. The dog isn’t “being bad” on purpose. He’s not trying to push the owner’s buttons. There’s almost always a reason for the behavior. Dealing with that bad behavior using corrections isn’t fair.

The simple solution almost always involves teaching the dog to do what you want him to do. And very rarely is the solution to punish, correct, scold, or discipline.

Here’s what I know: you love your dog. You don’t want to do mean things to your dog, you probably just don’t know what to do. In the absence of any other information, people resort to the one thing they do know: get rid of the bad behavior.

I’m here to tell you there is a better way. A way that will teach your dog what you want him to do. That in the very doing, will get rid of the bad stuff. You love your dog — train him like you love him.

This blog is full of easy, fun, and effective solutions to problem behaviors. Take a look around. Leave a comment on a post if you have a question. I want to help you love your dog even more than you do already. A little training goes a long way.

Service Dog Training: Boosting Enthusiasm

June 27, 2013

Ever have a day where you don’t really feel like doing any work?

Schooner, Great Dane service pup in training, feels that way every day. I gave you the lowdown on his challenges at our last visit to the service dog organization.

Here’s what I’ve been doing to help pump up his energy and enthusiasm level. If you have a dog who you might label stubborn, lazy or hard headed, try some of these ideas. You might see that it’s not any of those things, but merely an issue of enthusiasm.

Ways to Boost Enthusiasm

Go back to basics. I’d been excited about teaching Schooner as much as I could. Puppies are like sponges and I didn’t want to miss any teachable moments. In my haste to fill his brain full of the many service dog tasks, good manners, and precise behaviors, I might have fried his baby brain. I’m used to Labradors who can’t learn fast enough — they want more, more, more!
Cheerlead. I am normally a quiet trainer. My body is still. I’m silent. I let the clicker do all the talking. Schooner needs a little bit more excitement and encouragement. It’s been a challenge for me to squeal and carry on, but after a few tries, I’m getting pretty good at it.
Get physical. Surprise you? A clicker trainer saying “get physical?” What I mean is this: Schooner really likes to be thumped on the side, rather roughly. This kind of physical praise seems to really pump Schooner up. He gets excited and then looks forward to his next opportunity to earn some good ol’ thumpin’.
Work for food. I’ve cut Schooner’s food back by about 1/3. He earns that remaining 1/3 of his calories through high value treats when we’re training. High value means something different to every dog. For Schooner, it means leftover flank steak, summer sausage, and cheddar cheese crumbles. We’ll keep trying new food treats, as it’s good to have several really good options when training.
Leave ’em wanting more. With the Labradors, I’m used to longer training sessions. Most Labradors think a short training session is a joke — if they’re gonna train, they’re gonna really train! For Schooner, though, I’ve been setting a timer for five minutes. I stop about 15 seconds shy of the alarm. We’re done! Short and sweet.

Every service pup in-training that comes through our home teaches me something new. And for that, I’m thankful. And excited. It’s always fun to try new things, to be challenged, to figure new solutions.

Your turn: Have you had to pump up your dog’s enthusiasm? What’s worked for you?

Leave a comment below and let us know!

Clicker Training: What is It? How Can It Help YOU?

June 14, 2013

I’m excited to be writing the training articles for The Virginia Maryland Dog magazine. They are dedicated to providing the best quality of information and education on issues near and dear to dog lovers like you and me.

My first article is a quick primer on clicker training. In future issues, I’ll be writing about how to solve problems like pulling on the leash, barking, jumping on people, among other doggie bad habits. Because we’ll be using the clicker to solve those problems, this article gives you the down and dirty on exactly what you need to know about clicker training.

Download The Click is Quick. It’s a short, concise, and easy to read article. If you’re already well-versed in clicker training, pass the article on to a friend (or your students) who would find it helpful.

Fixing Your Dog’s Problems

June 13, 2013

Schooner, the service dog in training, had his monthly check-in at the service dog organization and we ran into some interesting dog training problems. A couple of comments from blog readers appreciated my honesty in writing about the problems. Yes, even professional dog trainers have trouble.

I’m already working on Schooner’s issues and here’s our plan for improvement.

The Problems

Lack of focus. Schooner was easily distracted and lost focus very quickly at the training center and at the mall.
Not able to perform simple requests. I asked Schooner to do the simplest of tasks without success.
Sociability. Sociability isn’t really a problem, but when it gets in the way of training, it’s something that needs attention. Service dogs can’t wander around and say hello to anyone at anytime.
Pulling on leash. In the mall, Schooner dragged me around quite a bit. Because he’s going to be a balance dog, his loose leash walking needs to be perfect!

The Solutions

Short, fun training sessions. We’re going to go way back to the beginning with Schooner and train in short bursts. I’ll counteract his lack of focus with these short, rapid-fire, really exciting and fun sessions. As quickly as they start, the training sessions will be over. With Labradors, it was almost a punishment to end a training session. With Danes, it seems that the sooner a session ends, the faster the learning and the happier the dog.
Find highly motivating rewards. Schooner is a bit picky, spitting out chicken — what I usually consider to be a fairly high value treat. In today’s training session, I worked quickly and his reinforcer was a canned dog food. The canned is smellier, has a wet consistency, and is — according to Schooner — pretty high value! Over the next few weeks, I’ll be trying lots of different foods (sardines, salmon, different cheese, some mushy foods (cottage cheese, yogurt, peanut butter, etc.) and even some play. We hope to ramp up Schooner’s enthusiasm with these rewards.
Out and about. Letting Schooner “watch the world go by,” will hopefully help with his lack of focus. Sometimes, it just takes “getting bored” with a scenario before a dog can work well. We’ll be planning some outings to the local athletic fields on the weekend. I’ll take a book for me, a blanket for him, and we’ll just hang out. We’ll head to the downtown areas of some local towns for varied activities and sights. I think these repeated positive experiences will help Schooner begin to settle down and be ready to work.
Step by step. The ideas above will all help slow Schooner down so he can pay attention to my pace and match it — instead of me trying to slow him down. We’ll also work literally step by step. I’ll take a step, then click and treat when he takes a step. We’ll repeat that until he understands that one matching step to mine will earn him a click and treat. We’ll then add another step to the sequence — so it’ll be two steps, then click and treat — and so on.
Deep, not broad. I’d been trying to introduce a lot of things to Schooner — from the basics (and there are a lot of basics!), to more advanced training tasks like pivots — and I think it was too much. He wasn’t able to master any of them, and when asked to perform even the simplest ones, he was unable. So instead of teaching many things, we’re going to focus on just a few. But those few will be taught to fluency, meaning: he’ll be able to do them anywhere anytime.

While this post is about Schooner, the service dog in training, it could just as easily be about your dog — many of my clients experience the same thing I did with Schooner. And this is exactly how I’d help them out, too.

What have you tried? How has it worked? What treats or rewards were you surprised that your dog liked?

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