Why Clicker Training ?
Clicker training falls within a
philosophy I have subscribed to for over 20 years. I do
not see dog training as that of a trainer who has
rights over the learner - human or canine. I see the
process as one of discovery, exciting opportunities and
pure enjoyment from both teacher and learner. I see
dogs come to the learning full of natural enthusiasm
and their body language displays pure joy when asked to
show me what they have learnt.
Dogs are very, very good learners
for the whole of their lives. They welcome learning,
relish problem solving and finish satisfied happy dogs.
This is a process which will
enhance and deepen your relationship with your dog,
through greater understanding, good communication and
with absolute trust.
Using the clicker helps you
understand exactly what it is you are trying to
communicate to the dog. The click is never ambiguous,
as the voice can often say “good boy” but
with a less than enthusiastic delivery it will sound
false, and the dog will sense it. We talk and talk and
talk to our dogs and the click successfully cuts
through all the waffle.
You have just come home and
wearing your posh frock, yes you are pleased to see the
dog, but only if they don’t jump at you. Asking
them to sit, hang on there for a moment, will allow you
to slip your hand into their collar, give the greeting
they have been yearning for and prevent them from
jumping up - THAT sit, that allowed a successful
result, gets a click. It is followed by a moment of
reunion, great reward. Good job!
To begin with it seems an
unnecessary training device that is more stuff to get
your head around.
No worry. All our classes follow
the clicker philosophy and you can pick up a clicker at
any time to suit you. If you want to learn the skills
we recommend the Clicker Trainers Course or the books.
It is truly a fascinating journey that will affect
communication at every level with people as well as
your dog.
The Clicker Philosophy
When we use clicker training we
look for situations that encourage the dog to teach
themselves what to do. We all remember the self taught
lessons for life, sometimes they are quite painfully
experienced, but they stick with us, whereas advice
given to us from well meaning predecessors seems to get
forgotten quite easily.
We take every care to avoid
making a dog’s lessons painful, they can be quite
brain taxing, but never painful.
Just the other day I found a
piece of chicken skin - ideal for sharing. The only dog
around was my 16 week old pup, Flink. She was watching
this morsel with keen eyes, I made a deal - “if
you can remember what YOU have to do when I say
“Hello” then you can have this piece of
chicken”. She looked at the chicken, looked at
me, consulted the data base and came up with the right
answer ... she sat!
This was her choice, solved her
way and worth all the effort. The sit would get the
“click” and she would earn the piece of
chicken.
Every day life is full of small
rewards. We learn to look for those moments and teach
the dog how to earn them.
My dogs love to charge out of the
door into the garden first thing in the morning.
Pheasants seem to enjoy browsing the shrubs, and of
course the Gordons are outraged at this. To enjoy that
opportunity to chase out of the door, ALL the dogs have
to stand or sit under control before the door is
opened. This means no whining, door scratching,
bouncing up and down or barking. When every one has
their enthusiasm under control, I click, and the door
opens.
Clicker Magic
The
clicker lets you separate the behaviour (leaving the
rabbit chase) from the reward, (arriving back with you
for a Big Hug).
The clicker works the same for
everybody in the family
The clicker lets us teach the
dogs tricks that we never thought we could -
“sleepy” (place your chin on the floor and
look at me in a very sad way)
The clicker works for EVERY dog.
It is science, not myth or legend. In fact it works for
every animal, including fish, rats, dolphins, killer
whales, horses, pigs, sheep (how did you think they
trained all the sheep in “Babe”?).
We say clicker training is
simple, but not easy. The principle is simple, using it
with full efficiency and effectiveness can take time to
learn ... but it is a great learning journey, one of
the best you will ever travel.
Clicker Training clicks itself.
This method is SO effective the dogs get it super
quick, and you can have a sense of achievement very,
very quickly. The more you learn, the more you teach
which builds a desire to learn and teach more!
©2008 Learning About Dogs, PO
Box 13, Chipping Campden, GL55 6WX. 01386 430189
