What’s the most fun, versatile and quickest thing to teach your dog? It’s nose targeting, of course! Nose targeting means that the dog will touch his nose to your hand – or the tip of a target stick – to earn a reward, and it is one of the most basic building blocks of clicker training. Once your dog is trained to target and will follow your hand for extended periods of time, the sky’s the limit on the number of things your dog can learn. I love to tell my clients that targeting is like playing Jedi mind tricks on your dog. “You will come to me… Your nose will touch my hand… You WILL spin in a circle.…” All important and practical things for the Rebel alliance, yes? For me, the most fun thing about targeting is communicating with your dog without physical prompting or manipulation. How incredibly … Read More
I’ll Break the First Rule of Clicker Training…
…By dwelling on the negative, and pointing out what clicker training is not. Clicker trainers tend to focus not only on positive training with animals, but also on positive-oriented language in their dealings with clients, friends, family and peers. Rarely will you hear the word “no” or any of its derivatives in training or even everyday conversation. We’d much rather take a negatively-skewed comment and turn it into an opportunity to highlight the positive, and then strive for improvement. So I’ll summarize all the negativity very quickly… In clicker training: A click is not intended to serve as a punishment in of itself. A click is not intended as a warning that punishment is coming. A click is not intended to serve as a cue to a behavior. Recently, I’ve been thrilled to hear about other practical applications for clicker training, until I heard about how it was actually being … Read More
Baby, It’s Hot Outside
So, here we are… It’s undoubtedly summer. Just peeking your head outside the house starts the sweat beads dripping down the side of your face, it’s difficult to breathe between the hours of 9am and midnight, and even the thought of going out for ice cream sounds counter-productive. But somehow, it doesn’t seem to bother Fido. And if there’s a human in the house, Fido wants it to take him for a walk. Whereas I am the biggest proponent for exercise with your dog, one thing is for sure… There are definitely times that maybe outside activity doesn’t seem like the best or healthiest option for either you or Fido. When the temperature and humidity levels reach the dangerous point, such as when Heat Advisory warnings are issued, it may be time to seek some other inside options for exercising and entertaining your dog. Here are just a few ideas: … Read More
Functional Cues: Get Your Dog “Away” From You!…
…And away from your friends, your family, the pizza on the kitchen counter, the ice cream cone in your child’s hand and the unstable neighbor dog. Great effort has always been placed on training your dog to come to you. It’s even very common these days to see training classes specifically dedicated to “Training a Great Recall,” or getting your dog to come to you on cue, especially amidst distractions. And rightly so. This could be the single most important thing that you instill in your dog, and could very well be a lifesaver in an emergency situation. With all the emphasis on asking dogs to come to us, I believe that it might be arguably as important to train your dog to move away. Have you ever been bombarded by a pogo puppy immediately upon entering the house from a long day at work? Boing! Boing! Boing! Have you … Read More
One-Armed Positive Training is Easier
Easier than what, you ask? Training with leash-corrective methods, like choke chains. Let’s face it… we’re Americans. We’re always looking for ways to make life easier, aren’t we? This musing is really not intended to be disrespectful or a slam on anyone. My honest opinion is that choke chains aka slip collars are challenging to use. You must have exceptional timing to effectively change your dog’s behavior through positive punishment (adding punishment to change unwanted behavior). And two, you must be of sound physical strength and stature to use this training tool, as intended. Before we get to the real issue here, let’s go back one step. A good friend and colleague had said recently that it was refreshing to see a new generation of dog owners come through her obedience classes, one where individuals have no idea what it means to make a collar correction. If you fall into … Read More