jbsmomto1

Does anyone do it? Can you tell me how? I might want to try this with Ruby, she is pretty clever and seems to catch onto things quickly and pretty easily (except she insists on digging the carpet, no matter what I do lol).

The biggest thing I am worried about is, timing, I know you have to do it right at the exact moment, right?

highhorse

I use clicker for precise training and doing tricks. For instance, my trainer wanted to teach her dog to look as though he was saying "sausages" like in the adverts. So she used what she calls free shaping - waited for him to do something resembling this (licking his lips). When he did anything remotely like the lip licking, she clicked and treated. Gradually she withheld the click until he did something more like moving his mouth up and down, then again clicked and treated - she is well on her way to "sausages". I wanted to teach Inca and Coco to hide their faces, and waited for it to happen naturally. Although Coco might do this action, I knew Inca would not. So I helped it to happen. I put a tiny strip of post it note on their noses. When they went to wipe it off, I clicked and treated. At the very beginning, I would even click and treat when they lifted their paws. Soon I could get the reaction without the post it note when I added the command "face". All I've got to do now is to try to delay the face wipe into a face cover.

If you are into obedience training, you can teach recall without the aid of the clicker, but if you want to teach "down" at a distance, you can use the clicker to break down (shape) the moves that you want. I hope this gives you some ideas. By the way a button clicker (in my opinion) is better than the traditional ones. You get a better instant click.

One other thing, you have to be very precise when you click because if you are not, you may be telling the dog that you want something else. I made this mistake when I was trying to get Inca to go backwards without me following her. I put a treat under the chair and when she backed out, to see me and get another treat, I clicked. Unfortunately, I allowed her to sit before clicking and blocked any further backwards movement.

spoofan

Here is a very good link:
http://www.clickerlessons.com/

I have not used it,but then again I have not used much of anything...too lazy?
That's why I keep getting spoos.
They are smart and eventually figure it out by themselves.

jbsmomto1

I decided against it, to use clicker training would mean that I always MUST have it with me, my timing would have to be exact. I lose things lol...andmy reaction time isn't that great. I think Roo will be better off with the old fashioned way.

highhorse

Don't give up on the clicker. I don't always use it but find it fun when I do. At first you can get hung up on clicking at the right time or clicking by mistake. As soon as you relax, it just comes.

P Nalitt

I actually had a clicker when I first got Savanna but I would forget to carry it with me and when I would remember I noticed she had already picked up on the voice command so there was no point, but I really wanted to just do the clicker, because I thought it was cool to just click. Oh well, then I lost it

roxy25

I have started Enzo on clicker Training , I decided to use this method because he is so hyper ! I noticed with that he focuses better with the clicker. I can tell he understands that he wont get a treat until he does something correct with the clipper noise.

With clicker training you just click the clicker every time they do something you wanted and reward. I am not used to rewarding a dog so much this is why I have yet to use clicker on Enzo lol. With my GSD I would tell her a few commands and reward. With clicker training you have to reward every time they do something.

Here are a few more links

http://www.clickertrain.com/whatis.html
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IC367wKGi4M

she has a poodle lol
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-RKKnEwcTb0

WonderPup

Using a clicker doesn't mean you need to have it with you all the time. What I tell my students is that you use the clicker to teach the behavior and then you fade it.

For people who are uninterested in using the clicker itself I make them use the concept and replace the "click" with a vocal cue. The most popular word to replace the clicker with is "YES". You do everything just as you would were you clicker training only you use the word, (your positive marker if you want techinical terms) in place of the click. All your doing, with click or word, is "marking" the exact moment in time that your dog did whatever behavior you were after. The theory is that if you can snapshop the behavior the dog picks up on exactly what it is being rewarded for thus learning the behavior more quickly.

I personaly perfer to use a dog whistle,(adjusted so that I CAN hear it), just because my dogs are around other people and their clickers soooo often, but still revert back to clicker training from time to time. ALL of my dogs will work with just the vocal marker though.

pagan-poodle

clickers sound good I may get one for daisy Id like to enrol her on some classes but there are none in my area

jester's mom

I have a clicker, as I use it with horse training, and was going to start using it with my poodles... I have always had a doberman for many, many years and have never had to use a clicker for training them, but found that the poodles are going to need it. They are extremely intelligent but also have their "own mind" lol. They seem to LOVE the "are you talking to me?" look when called, looking up at me and then looking around deciding IF coming is what they want to do..lol. Anyway, I was going to start with the clicker training but I LOVE the idea of the whistle instead, I may go that way instead of the clicker... or maybe even use both as well as vocal so I have different positive markers to use in case I have one or the other or no marker objects on me. Thanks for the idea of using a whistle, I believe I will pick one up tomorrow.