Karen Pryor Clickertraining - Just for Shelters

Implementing a Clicker Program in Your Shelter: An Overview

Karen Pryor — Sat, 01 Jun 2002 00:00:00 -0500

Clicker training is fun and easy to learn, for animals and people both. The clicker is a consistent signal, giving the animal confidence, no matter who is clicking. From a click and treat here and there shelter dogs can learn desirable behavior such as sitting instead of jumping up at the kennel door, or being quiet instead of barking. Dogs that have learned how to "make people click" tend to become calmer and more confident, and thus more adoptable. Even two or three extra minutes spent clicking and treating an individual animal can be time well spent.

SHIP for Battered Mothers and their Children

KPCT — Wed, 01 Jun 2005 00:00:00 -0500

The six mothers and their 15 children are housed in a transitional living apartment complex for battered women. In many ways, these are the "lucky" families. These courageous women have made the difficult decision to leave their abusive partners. They have spent up to 30 days at the battered women's shelter and, subsequently, have made the even more difficult decision to not return home—ever. In seeking a safer life for themselves and their children, they live in TLP, the Transitional Living Project, run by the Greater Cincinnati YWCA. For up to two years the women are offered job counseling, employment support, skills training, and therapy groups.

Helping Shy Dogs Blossom Using Targeting

Dee Ganley — Tue, 01 Mar 2005 00:00:00 -0600

Shy dogs are an especially difficult challenge in the shelter environment because it is so hard for them to establish trust. We have found that teaching these dogs to target our hand can help many shy dogs develop confidence with people fairly quickly. You can't begin to try this method until there is at least one person (staff or volunteer) the shy dog has a little trust in.

Target training teaches the dog to touch his nose to some object or person for a click and then treat. (If the shy dog is very noise reactive, you may choose to use a "soft" voice marker or a muffled clicker)

FAQs for Shelters

KPCT — Sat, 01 Jan 2005 00:00:00 -0600

Clicker Training uses a clear, distinct signal that is unemotional and consistent. Animals learn quickly from an occasional click and treat, here and there, for desirable behavior such as sitting instead of jumping on the kennel door, or being quiet instead of barking. The more information an animal receives about its environment, the more calmness and confidence that animal will display. The calmer and more confident the animal appears, the sooner it will be adopted.

Success with Puppy Weaned too Early

KPCT — Wed, 21 Apr 2004 00:00:00 -0500

From Charleen Cordo: I am a member of APDT and have been clicker training and teaching clicker training in my classes for about the past 7 years now. I also have the youth at the Colorado Boys Ranch learning to use it. We work with shelter dogs whom we adopt out to appropriate homes through a program called New Leash on Life. These are "throwaway" dogs but they respond so well that they adapt readily and appropriately into their adoptee families after we work with them for 9 to 10 weeks.

New Hampshire SPCA Clicks for Life!

KPCT — Sun, 01 Jun 2003 00:00:00 -0500

Susan Carney is Community Programs Manager at the New Hampshire SPCA in Stratham, New Hampshire. Spurred by the success of other New England shelters, her organization is planning to incorporate clicker training in their program. Earlier this spring Susan wrote to our Shelter Resource Center, "I've taken the hints and information from your shelter pack and I think we will be OK. I am really excited about all that I have learned. I am going to try to take a crack at training the staff myself. Our first training session is May 6th."

Clicking Feral Cats

KPCT — Sun, 01 Jun 2003 00:00:00 -0500

Trying to desensitize and tame a hissing, feral cat, whether kitten or adult, can be a slow business. You can speed it up immensely with the clicker. Use a highly-preferred treat, such as canned tuna or any freeze-dried fish cat treat. Approach the cage, let the cat retreat, put a pea-sized treat in the front of the cage, click, and instantly back away.

Keeping Clicker Records

KPCT — Tue, 01 Apr 2003 00:00:00 -0600

A little clicker work goes a long way toward helping dogs adjust to kennel life. Many different people can work with the same dogs, if they all click for good behavior.

Volunteers Can Play the Clicker Game

KPCT — Sat, 01 Mar 2003 00:00:00 -0600

Clicker training can seem mysterious until you experience it personally.

Pick one person to be the subject, and someone else to be the clicker teacher. Use pennies, paperclips, or wrapped candies for treats. Send the 'animal' out of the room while the group chooses an everyday behavior: switch the light on, pour a glass of water, pick up a book, turn in a circle.

Shelter Volunteer: Clicker Training Changed My Life

KPCT — Sat, 01 Feb 2003 00:00:00 -0600

I wrote you months ago when I first read Don't Shoot the Dog. I wrote then that I would be a "clicker maniac"...guess it was an understatement.

Since then, I'm working towards my CPDT with Animal Behavior and Training Assoc., became a member of APDT, acquired an extensive Positive library, signed up on some really great online groups, and volunteer at the local shelter.

Teaching Adopters the Meaning of Click

KPCT — Sat, 01 Feb 2003 00:00:00 -0600

Now that the dog knows what the clicker means then potential adopters should know, too. Make clickers a part of getting acquainted. Show adopters how to hold the clicker, click it, and give a treat. Clicker dogs quickly focus on a person with a clicker. Two people can take turns calling the dog, clicking it, and treating, so the dog goes back and forth between them.

Click for Focus

Karen Pryor — Sun, 01 Dec 2002 00:00:00 -0600

Creating an atmosphere that's calm helps dogs get adopted. Try this simple focusing exercise as a first step. Put a good treat in your closed hand (e.g. a tiny cube of cheese) and put your fist against the wires. When the dog sniffs your hand, click and toss in the treat. Repeat twice, then put your empty fist against the wires; click for touching, and give the treat from your other hand.

Clicking in the Shelter: It's all about Communication

KPCT — Sun, 01 Dec 2002 00:00:00 -0600

From Nancy Lyon, Upper Valley Humane Society: For those who might encounter resistance introducing the clicker to their shelters, how about selling clicking as a method used to communicate and not call it a "training" method. We all want to get our shelter dogs to repeat good behaviors and stop repeating bad behaviors. In the shelter environment most of the dogs have a wide array of "bad" behaviors; most are the result of no self-control.

Tell Us About Your Shelter Experience!

KPCT — Wed, 06 Nov 2002 00:00:00 -0600

"We have been clicking around here for some time, but we are doing it more than ever now. We have decided to do more work in the kennels, despite the noise and confusion, and have had far better results than anticipated in just one week. We are planning to put together a video for you shortly with BEFORE and AFTER footage, since I think we will be able to show dramatic improvements in front-of-kennel behavior."

Sarah Babcock, Director of Education and Training, Richmond SPCA.

Clicking with Cats in the Shelter Environment

Karen Pryor — Tue, 01 Oct 2002 00:00:00 -0500

With cats we need not use the clicker to 'train' the cat in the traditional sense; we can use it to enrich the cat's environment, to give it some control over its world, and if possible to widen its own perceptions of that world. We are communicating to the cat so the cat can learn healthy ways to communicate back.

Online Discussion with Karen Pryor: Clicker Training in the Shelter Environment II

KPCT — Thu, 19 Sep 2002 00:00:00 -0500

Hi, everyone. Welcome again to our members from the first Discussion, and to our new members, thanks for joining us. Today we'll be continuing to talk about clicker training in the shelter environment. Since last time, I've visited and given clicker introduction workshops at several more shelters in New England, and I've had the pleasure of seeing how quickly a shelter can get involved. It doesn't require everyone's participation, just a few, to get things rolling. A handful of volunteers, and maybe one or two interested staff members, is enough to get those kennels quieted down, and start dogs and cats, and other people, learning to learn.

Online Shelter Discussion a Big Hit

Karen Pryor — Sun, 01 Sep 2002 00:00:00 -0500

Our first on-line discussion, "Clicker Training in the Shelter Environment," was a smash hit. Great questions, great solutions, great new ideas-and participation from all over the world.

Online Discussion with Karen Pryor: Clicker Training in the Shelter Environment

KPCT — Thu, 01 Aug 2002 00:00:00 -0500

This discussion took place via Yahoo. People joined the Karen Pryor online Yahoo Group ahead of time or during the day, and could read the posts as e-mail or at the Yahoo Group site. Over 300 people participated.

At the end of the day we closed the site, planning to keep it available as a read-only archive. We ran into trouble with that, but luckily our webmaster, Greg Parsons, had maintained a file of all the e-mails as they arrived. So, working from that file, I've been able to prepare an abridged text version of the day's discussion. I removed advertisements, headers and footers, and off-topic letters. I also removed a few questions by accident; I hope the content of the answers will make the questions clear. Please accept my apologies for any annoying or serious omissions or errors that may have occurred during this process. Whatever got left out is entirely my fault.

10 Steps to Become a Clicker Shelter...On Your Own!

Karen Pryor — Mon, 01 Jul 2002 00:00:00 -0500

The very first steps in clicker training are exactly the steps that shelters need most: not full-blown obedience training, just some simple techniques to reduce barking, improve calmness and confidence in dogs and cats, and make animals friendlier and more oriented to people.

Here are 10 steps that will help you be successful even without a clicker teacher:

A Cooperative Patient Is Just A Click Away

KPCT — Tue, 11 Jun 2002 00:00:00 -0500

Most pet owners are familiar by now with clicker training. Versions of the training, also known as operant conditioning, have been used to teach commands to dogs, cats, dolphins, and a number of other creatures. And now trainers have another use for it—controlling animals during visits to the veterinarian, or a stay at a shelter.