Clicker training is a great way to communicate with your dog and provide positive reinforcement for desired behaviors. It can be fun for both you and your dog!
SSD recently held a clicker training class for our current puppy raisers and sitters, anyone interested in becoming a puppy raiser or sitter, and people receiving a service dog. Sixteen people attended the training!
In clicker training, you use a clicker to mark a behavior your dog has performed, giving him a treat after each click. The click tells the dog that he has done what you wanted him to do. The concept of using a clicker is similar to that of a camera - each click captures a moment of a behavior.
To be successful at clicker training, you must train yourself, as well as your dog. To help you learn how to use clicker training to communicate with your dog and receive the behaviors you want, we'll be running a series of posts sharing some of the basics of clicker training.
Check back next week for some clicker training exercises to help you use the clicker as a cue for delivering treats.
Friday, April 17, 2009
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I recently found your blog, and I want to say that I think it's awesome that you're promoting clicker training for training service dogs.
ReplyDeleteI was discussing the benefits of targeting the other day with someone who raises service dogs. The person agreed targeting (and clicker training) were useful, but said she couldn't use it with her dogs because she wasn't allowed to deviate from some sort of set curriculum she had to follow.
It makes me happy to see service dog trainers promoting training with positive reinforcement.
I like that how you said that to be successful, "you must train yourself!" So true.
Training the dog is usually the easy part, it's training the trainer that's usually more difficult.
cheers,
Mary H.
http://stalecheerios.com/blog -- a serial for positive animal training