Tag: dog training the fun way

Why click?

The Clicker is a wonderful training tool

Many people question the use of a clicker in dog training. You don’t absolutely have to have one, or use one, but it’s a useful tool and we think everyone should try it.

In our social media groups about dog sports competition, there are people who are “never-clickers.” Their arguments are that:

  • I don’t have enough hands
  • It can’t be used in competition
  • It’s one more thing I have to “fade” (stop using)
  • I always have my voice with me

Those are valid points. And if you’re absolutely opposed to the idea, you can do without.

One the other hand, the clicker allows:

  • Everyone training the dog to “sound” the same
  • Is instantaneous to mark good stuff
  • Lets you delay the treat
  • Improves your timing

The clicker is particularly wonderful if you have a fast-learning, fast-moving dog who loves to do “stuff” with you. By the time you can say “good” or “yes,” Fido’s already doing something else, because your feedback wasn’t fast enough. Think it’s not true? We’ll loan you Hope’s Torque, or Fran’s Simon for a 2-Minute Session. Those boys are hard to keep up with, even with a clicker.

Just this week, Hope decided to add a “bow” to Torque’s repertoire. She thought about how to teach it, figuring to use a small box. She’d reward for putting his hind legs on the box the first session. Later 2-Minute Sessions would add lowering his front end while keeping his rear up in the air.

Torque already knows “back up,” so Hope put down the box and Torque was already moving, backing up onto the box. She clicked as soon as both back feet were on it, signalling immediately to Torque that he was right, right then. If she had waited at all, his front legs would have been on the box as well, and the criteria for the new trick would have been unclear.

When your dog is used to working with a clicker, it’s a clear and immediate signal to him (or her) that he’s a good boy. And he knows (or will soon learn) to repeat the behavior that got the click. And was followed, in short order, by treats!

Once our dogs learn to think, are rewarded for trying, and have fun spending time with you, it becomes easier and easier to develop new tricks, or behaviors. It’s fun and challenging for everyone – dogs and people!

What does your dog’s name mean?

If your dog is ignoring you when you say his name repeatedly, there's a reason for that.

What would you guess is the most overused word in dog training?

No?
Here?
Leave it?
Sit?
Come?

All good guesses, but wrong. It’s your dog’s name.

Your dog’s name doesn’t mean much

By itself, after your dog has learned it, the name doesn’t mean much. If you’re just being goofy and making up silly songs to sing to your dog (like we do!), it’s a lyric you try to find lots of rhymes for. Just hanging in the air – it doesn’t give your dog enough information to work with.

Attention!

Calling your dog’s name should be used for attention as in: Hey Fido! Perk up your ears because I’m going to tell you something else! By itself, the name is not a command, and gives your dog no information.

But by itself it’s not a command, a correction, a celebration, or anything else. It’s the alert that should tell your dog that more information is coming:

Fido, come!

Rover, sit!

Spot, place!

Repetition becomes part of the behavior

One of the most common tendencies we see in our students is the habit of repeating themselves. Or adding an “oh!” to the dog’s name, as if that conveyed more information than just the name by itself. If there’s something you want your dog to do, just say it! 

And give your dog a second!

And give the dog a moment to figure out what the word is and take action.

Saying it again, before your dog has a chance to process the conversation, will lead to your dog assuming that the repetition is part of the behavior. That’s why we don’t “correct” errors – we start again. Otherwise the error and the “re-do” become part of the behavior.

A friend of ours has a Viszla who’s a very good dog. But his “mom” says “dog, stay!” at least three times before she leaves him. Consequently, if he hears “stay” once, or twice, he doesn’t do it. Three times is the charm for this guy. Because that’s what he’s been taught. Not on purpose, but nevertheless, it’s stuck.

It’s difficult to catch yourself – we all do it. We call our dog’s names and expect them to do something – stop eating dirt, come to us, sit, whatever. But without telling them what we want, how are they supposed to know? 

Dogs aren’t mind-readers! 

If you want to practice getting your dog’s attention – call his/her name. And reward when he/she looks at you. 

Whenever there’s something more you want your dog to do when you call, include that “something” when you call. Give him a chance to figure it out, and reward when he does. 

Old habits die hard

Our morning habit is to have coffee, semi-wake-up, and then go down to the basement to our training area and have some fun with our dogs.

Dogs thrive on schedules

Each dog gets a turn. And, since dogs thrive with schedules, they go in the same order every day: Booker, Tango, Torque, and Simon.

It does require a little bit of mental gymnastics – what works for one dog isn’t universally true. They each have their favorite “tricks” they like to do. And, at least once a month, if we can think of one, we like to teach a new one.

It’s easy for Fran to come up with new stuff to teach Simon – he’s just a year old and most of his training so far has been spent on the fundamentals: sit, down, stay, walk nice on a leash, release cue. But recently Fran’s been expanding his repertoire with some fun tricks.

Tango knows how to put his toys away

Fran has trained Tango (Brussels Griffon) to put his toys away, into a bin.

One of the fun ones we teach is “put stuff away.” Tango’s version of this one is the cutest, since he actually puts dog toys in a bin. He’s never cared about toys, so they work fine as training tools. 

It’s more problematic with the other dogs, who adore dog toys. We don’t have them lying around the house – we want our dogs to be playing with us when they have toys. So for the other dogs, we use a bunch of kitchen utensil odds and ends; spoons, strainers, ring molds, etc. 

Train one “spoon” by itself

We start training with one “spoon” by itself. The same training sequence always holds:

  • clicks for looking 3x
  • clicks for touching with your mouth 3x
  • clicks for picking it up 3x
  • clicks for moving with it in your mouth 3x
  • click for dropping it 3x
  • Clicks for dropping it in the bin  

There’s no deadline

The first day we may not even get the three “looking” clicks. That’s okay! There’s no deadline. It takes a while for dogs to understand that it’s okay to keep trying. And it may take a bit of time for the dog to figure out which part is getting the click. We have no way of knowing what dogs actually think – or how they interpret our interactions.

We started out…

We’ve been training a couple of decades now – and we learned in the bad old days when we never let a dog make a decision. And every once in a while, despite how hard we try, we fall into bad old habits. With Simon’s first try at “spoons,” he was a rock star. Whether he’d learned by watching the other dogs, it was just luck, or he somehow understands English, he got it – first time.

Resetting Fran’s brain

The test of whether a dog really knows something is whether he/she can do it again. So the next time Fran and Simon tried spoons, probably about 10 days later, he knew nothing. For whatever reason, Fran lost her mind and started saying things like “no!” when he started gnawing on the spoon – taking it from him. She put it down and started coaching him to “take it!” A quick question – “What are you doing?” stopped her in her tracks and resetting her training brain.

The old way of training was to force a dog to do something, repeatedly. Not let the dog make any mistakes, and certainly not let them choose anything. It was effective for people who could impose their iron wills on their dogs over the long term. It produced a lot of Obedience Champions.

We want our dogs to choose to abide by the rules

But it didn’t work for those of us who don’t want a permanent job watching every little thing our dogs do. We don’t want to dictate every aspect of their lives all the time. We want our dogs to be our buddies, who know the rules of the house and choose to abide by them. Just like we do.