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• Make it Fun! Always, always, always make training fun for both you and your dog. If it’s not fun, your dog won’t learn. Remember how hard it is to learn anything in school when the teacher seems mad or you feel scared? So, make a game out of learning to "come." Start at home where there are fewer distractions: Get a favorite toy or treat your dog likes (pieces of hot dog or cheese are great). Call your dog’s name, followed by the word "come," and do something fun to get the dog to come to you. When he gets to you, praise him and play with him with the toy and/or give him the treat.

Remember, if your dog is afraid of getting in trouble when he comes to you, you will have a hard time teaching "come." Make it fun!!!!

• Make your hands lovable! Never hit your dog or throw things at your dog. If you do, he/she will become afraid of your hands. You want your hands to be the best things in your dog’s world: for love when you pet it, for food when you give him dinner, and for safety when you need to hold him. Make your dogs LOVE your hands. Be gentle and be kind.

• Train, don’t complain! Instead of complaining that your dog doesn’t do this or that, show him/her what you want. But remember, a dog doesn’t understand our language (Spanish, English, Vietnamese, etc.), and they learn about the same as a 2-year old child. You wouldn’t scream "sit down" to a 2-year old child and expect them to know what it means if they’ve never been shown first! So, show your dog what you want, first. (See tips below on how to get your dog to sit without touching him.) Then, practice, practice, practice to make sure they really, really understand.

 The Hands-off "Sit"

• Get some tasty treats. Some dogs like Cheerios, some like cheese or hot dogs. Some will work fine for regular kibble. Experiment to see what your dog likes.

• Lure your dog’s nose up and back. Hold the treat just above your dog’s head. More than likely your dog will look up to see the treat. Move the treat back as your dog’s nose follows it. Kerplunk! Down goes his rear-end! Say, "Good sit" and give him the treat. It’s a basic law of doggy physics that when the nose and head goes up and back, the rear-end goes down! It’s that easy! No need to pull on your dog’s collar or push on his rear-end. Create a thinking dog by letting him decide to do what it takes to get that treat!

• If your dog jumps up to grab at the treat, simply and calmly say "Uh-uh," and start over. He/she will catch on pretty quickly that the only way to get that treat is to sit. Do this several times, and then start saying "Sit" as you lure him into position. Pretty soon, you can stop luring and just ask for the sit!

And remember, practice, practice, practice!

Clicker training is slang for "operant conditioning," a scientifically based way of shaping behavior. It has been around since the 1940s and has been used extensively in training marine mammals such as dolphins and sea lions. It has also become very popular in dog training circles where the trend toward more humane, positive training methods has been gaining momentum.

Clicker training is a way of teaching the dog that his/her actions affect what happens next. Instead of physically pulling or pushing a dog into a sit position, for example, the dog quickly learns that if he sits on his own, bingo! A reward worthy of his effort follows! And the best part is that physical punishment such as collar corrections becomes unnecessary.

Clicker training can be done without actually using a clicker. However, the dog often learns faster when we use this very unique sound to tell him that what he did at that precise moment was what earned him the reward. What we do is click when he does the exact thing we are looking for and then follow the click with a treat, a game of tug, or praise and petting. Once he has learned the behavior, you don’t need to use the clicker all the time — so you don’t need to worry about always having a clicker with you!

Clicker training is used to teach dogs tricks such as roll over, crawl, bow, hop backwards, ring a bell to go out, and a lot of other fun tricks. It is also used to teach basic obedience and to help eliminate problem behaviors such as jumping up on people, bolting out the door, or coming when called.

Find out more about clicker training. Call DogPACT and join in on this gentle, and fun, training. Your dog will love you for it!

Books and Booklets for More Information

Don't Shoot the Dog by Karen Pryor: the classic book that popularized training with positive reinforcement; explains the theory behind clicker training

Click for Success: Basic Clicker Training Guide by Lana Mitchell: a lot of information about basics (and not-so-basics) of clicker training and targeting

Just Plain Clicker Sense: What Works for Me by Shirley Chong: this booklet covers theory and practicalities of clicker training, with information about dog behavior as well; order by sending $9.50 + $2.50 shipping and handling to M. Shirley Chong, 708 Maple St, Grinnell, IA 50112

Magazine

The Clicker Journal: an excellent source of clicker information and stories ($18 a year)

Corally Burmaster, 20146 Gleedsville Rd., Leesburg, VA 20175 

Videos

Karen Pryor's Clicker Magic: Production quality is just so-so, but lots of good footage of actual shaping sessions of dogs, a burro, a cat, a fish

Gary Wilkes' Click and Treat: Better production quality, more of an instructional video than Pryor's

Links

Stacy Braslau-Schneck's clicker training pages: http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Academy/8636/Clicker.html

Helix Fairweather's Keeper pages: lots of the best articles on clicker training http://www.teleport.com/~helix/Keeper/

The Clicker Training Web Ring: http://www.webring.org/cgi-bin/webring?ring=clicktrain;list

Karen Pryor's home page: http://www.dontshootthedog.com

Homepage of click-l (see below) with lots of links to other pages http://www.click-l.com/

Email Lists

Click-L. Information on subscribing is found at http://www.click-l.com/

ClickTrain: send an email to majordomo@gcstation.net with no subject; in the body of the email write:

Subscribe clicktrain youremail@yourdomain.xxx

Warning: Both of these lists are very high volume!