Mimimu, i am a willing student to be taught all about clicker training, please be my teacher!

[morethanyoubargainfor]

Today i have strted to clicker train my loopy but lovely lurcher!

All i hvae done today is click and treat, no commands nothing just click and treat. Is that right? He started trying to take treat in hand and i just waited until he stopped and then clicked and treated. He then took it upoon himself to sit and wait fro the click and then the treat! the boy has manners .

I am planning on doing this for the next copule of days and then start introducding other stuff

He is very bright (unlike my other lad who i tried to click and treat and he just walked off after 30 seconds and went to sleep!) so i really want to use his brain, he is also a willing student and wants to please all the time.

Any help gratfully recieved.

[Tortoise]

Olihan Not sure that would work, he is never in the right position, always dragging me along in front. If i stop he whines and pulls. It is a right pain when i need to stop to pick up his or Greyhounds massive poo!

[WoodRose]

I have been following this thread with interest as I am currently clicker training my 14 week old border collie puppy.

I have been using the "touch" method to teach her to heel. She is consistently good with this in the house and in training class. She is less reliable - but not too bad - in a quiet park.

My problem is she has noticed that cars do exciting things like MOVE and, being a collie, she wants to chase! Back in the dark ages when I last trained a collie not to chase, I was advised to squirt water at my dog whenever she showed interest in moving cars, joggers,etc. Can anyone tell me how I can clicker train my puppy not to chase? I would rather not resort to squirting!

[minimu1]

Please don't squirt your collie with water the clicker is great for car chasing.

I usually go to a bus stop with a seat! and sit with dog, every time you can hear a car approaching and it goes past click and treat.
Do this for a few minutes every day and very soon when the car passes you will notice that the dog turns to you for a treat.

When this is pretty solid when the dog is still, start to walk by the traffic, ideally this is good if you can walk on a path with maybe a hedge between you and the road.
When the car approaches again click and treat.

You need to watch your dogs reaction if he is getting stressed go back to the bus stop and build up slowly.

Couple of thins to consider -

some dogs are more worried by cars coming up behind them and then whoosing past - so maybe be on the side of road that is face on.

Some dogs actually prefer busier roads and are less bothered as when there are loads of cars it is less easy to fixate and chase.

Some cars are worried by the sound of the car and some by the wind as the car passes - work out which is your dogs trigger and click that.



Loads of fab click and treating going here - I am impressed

You will turn this around very very quickly if you are consistent and do short sessions regularly.

[chickchickchicken]

morethan - will you explain how you taught 'bow' and silent recall? i would like to see my 3 bowing!

re fetching ball. i am not expert but can share how i taught mine who are ball obssessed...firstly train in the house or garden not on walk, start with throwing a slightly less exciting object such as a toy, only throw it a foot or two from you, when they bring it back click and treat (i wanted mine to put object in my hand so taught that, you may want them to drop by your feet, up to you), then progress to throwing toy bit further away and adding the command 'fetch' and slowing building up to you doing the most exciting thing of all which is to throw a ball on a walk.

also tell dh not to pick up ball! if dog not all interested in bringing it back put ball in your pocket without dog seeing. either take a spare ball to try fetch again or go back to basic teaching fetch command in a less exciting environment.

only recommending above for dogs who are very excited by the ball and unable to concentrate on the command due to over excitement

[herladyship]

please can i join the clicker club..

honey (8 year old cross breed terrier) went to her first class last week. no truth in the old saying 'you can't teach an old dog new tricks' as she has easily mastered this weeks homework :)

got an 8 week old pup yesterday as well, he has settled really well so far and has spontaneously started sitting nicely at your feet when he wants a fuss (hoping this is a good omen )

[morethanyoubargainfor]

Chickchick, thanks i will tryu that, getting DH to listen will be the hardest to train .

Slient recall is just that, i will put a word to it at somepoint maybe. I just started off by letting him run and then i stood still ad said nothing, when he came runnning back and waited at my side he was clicked and treated. We did this about 5-6 times per walk, the time in between me stopping and him returning got smaller and smaller and now he comes back instantly when i stop, even if i am just tying my shoelaces or giving someone ddirections! He even does it with my friend who ccassionally walks my two for me. It really isn't anyything special.

With the bow i noticed that he does a bow like strectch when exited so i just started to click and treat whenever he did it. Now i have added and indication thats what i want, so i just fully flex my right foot and he bows! it is just like a 'play bow' they do with other dogs. He has his legs and head fully stretched so maybe not a real bow, but hey its good enough for us .

He picks things up really quickly, after he has tried the normal, i will sit, oh no that doesn't gett the click, i will bark, on no that doesn't get the click, i will bark louder, that really doesn't work, i best do what she wants then! then he gets the click and the treat and it is all good .

[minimu1]

Bowing can be taught in many ways.

1. Depends on how the dogs bend but some dogs if you hold a treat in front of them and move it to the floor will bow briefly before going into a down. Click the bow and throw the treat so the dog does not get into the down position.
   

1. Another way is to kneel down yourself but have one knee up and the same foot flat on the floor so you are making an arch for the dog to go under. Put dog on one side of your leg and treat on the other and the dog will have to bow to get under your leg click and treat. Do not put the treat too far from your leg or else it will go into a down.
   

To teach a good fetch a long hallway is good as there is no where else for the dog to go. Stand halfway up the hallway throw the ball move backwards as the dog comes towards you with the ball. I often have another ball in my hand to encourage the dog right back to me.

[ditavonteesed]

can I join you, after reading this earlier I dec8ided to give the clicker another go. have been really struggling with down as I have been virtually having to push her to the floor which I dont like. she is now following me round begging to do more training, we ahve been doing it all morning. I started with 5 mins charging clicker, she got hanf of that very quickly. then I held treat on floor till she went down, clicked and treated, after a few minutes of this I started just holding the clicker and the treats and she went down on her own. now she is doing it instantly to the command, in one morning. I cant believe how quickly this works.
definatly going to have to try heel work as she pukks constantly. she is already fairly reliable with sit and stay, wehat else could I work on?

[minimu1]

Great ditavonteesed glad you decided to give it another go - clicker training is the way to go!

Do give it a go for heel work I only need to have a clicker in sight and all dogs miraculously become well behave and all fall into line around me.

I put a hair tie (the stretchy ones like rubber bands) in the clicker and wear it around my wrist so it is easy to use and I always have it to hand if I need it. Obviously a must have accessory of this thread

Other things to try are a roll over - once the down is solid ask the dog to roll right over on their back either to the other side or just leave their legs in the air.

Flat - which is a down on the dogs side rather than on their tummies.

Twist and Twirl - the dog spins to the left or right different name for each direction

Back - the dog walks backwards - this is great for building muscles and coordination.


Do you have a gym ball? That is also great for dogs. Get them to balance on the gym ball, go down on the ball, put front legs on the ball. Great for stretching dogs muscles and coordination and balance.

Touch - get them to touch you hand with their nose.

That should keep you going until Sunday and we can add some more then!

[CalamityKate]

Hide eyes/Be shy - I know I bang on about this trick but it's a VERY impressive and funny one and my dog picked it up incredibly quickly. It looks far cleverer than it is

Get sticky label. Attach to dog's muzzle. Click/treat paw-swipes to get it off. Add cue word as soon as you can (when paw swipe is reliable) because I found the only bit where she got a bit "stuck" is when there was no label on her nose. Having a cue word sort of bridged that gap. Then just work on duration.

Look out for variations that you like and click those - you might well end up with a two-paw "Shy" which is adorable

[chickchickchicken]

herladyship - welcome. is your username a clue to your older dogs position in the household?

[chickchickchicken]

i love the sound of the 'hide eyes/be shy'. will try that tomorrow.

my youngest dog loves having his photo taken and have taught him 'pose' by clicking every time he cutely tilts his head to the side. now when he sees me with the camera he promptly sits and poses

[CalamityKate]

The beauty of clicker training is that it's so precise you can capture really difficult-to-isolate movements like a tail wag/eye blink etc. The only limit is your own imagination really :)

[CalamityKate]

OK since I'm drunk - my girl is on Youtube under "Boo being clever", being shy and shutting the door. It was very early days of her shutting the door - I can now send her from the living room but at the time of the video she was only at the stage of me being in the same room as her.

She was very keen to be shy because it was a recent thing, and they tend to "get stuck" at the latest thing they learned :)

[CalamityKate]

God I'm common

[CalamityKate]

LOL she's very confused by hearing me talk on the Youtube clip. She's like "Wait. What? I can hear you but you're not looking at me or moving your lips...."

[ditavonteesed]

awww bless. cooking sausages for our breakfast so going to put a few to the side for clicker traiing in a bit, cant weait to see if she has rememberred what we did yesterday.