“Clicker” Training Your Pet- Getting Started
What first in training?
Set It Up:
Lets say you got a dog that needs training or you just got a new puppy and want to teach them things, this is how you can go about teaching them the basics.
What you will need is something that motivates them to engage with you – a reward system in place, this is very important in dog training to let the dog know it did something right with something they like being followed by it (food or/and toys). Also, be in good spirits about this, it will require lots of patience to get your dog started but all in all, it is loads of fun.
Capturing Engagement
“Yes” for Reward:
A good way to start engagement is to capture disengagement to gain a start to the training session. A clicker or maker word can be used here. Gaining eye contact is important to reward. AS the dog gives you attention—“mark “YES” (or clicker), followed by reward with that treat to create the proper association to the behaviors’.
Holding the treat near your eyes to troubleshot eye contact . Add a cue so they know when to look at you vs follow the treat.
Lure Training
To Teach Tricks:
I prefer to use both hands as lures to start basic version of the tricks and a verbal marker. No need to use toys here yet. Keep a couple of treats in each hand and move your pup around from hand to hand. They tend to chase what is faster so moving your right hand slower to transfer to left would need to take the lead. Lure them in sit, down, stand, or/ and Spin them around, reward, then threw the legs, around you , and whatever creativity you have about that. Remember, AS the desired behavior happens, mark/ click, then follow it with treat! The Marker is to help them learn faster, it gives the proper TIMING to let your dog know. This is why clickers work so well with animals.
Likely best to gain speed and fluence with these simpler stuff before removing the lure. Don’t withhold the reward for to long at first, mostly if they do something new for the first time so they stay motivated. They need work into doing trick after trick to stay engaged with LOTS of reptation of reward with Lure and treat.
Happy Training
~ Amy
