Karen Pryor Clickertraining - Just for Professional Trainers

Why Isn't Clicker Training on Oprah?

Aaron Clayton — Wed, 02 Feb 2005 00:00:00 -0600

For clicker training to become the peoples' choice, to reach the mainstream of America, clicker trainers need to recognize that we are up against a deep-seated cultural bias, one that severely limits pet owners' expectations from dog training. Our task is to help people replace that narrow vision with a broader vision and higher expectations, with "something more." We can do it if we can show people that clicker training uniquely delivers that "something more." With me? Keep reading.

Become Your Business's Chief Medical Officer

Aaron Clayton — Sat, 01 Jan 2005 00:00:00 -0600

The operating health of your training business can be powerfully assessed in 15 minutes by applying a few familiar concepts in new ways. You may not want to try brain surgery quite yet, but you'll be able to assess how well your business is performing, what its intrinsic growth limits are, and what the payoff could be from any improvements you may make.

Host a Clicker Training Seminar

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

Seminars featuring other top clicker trainers can be profitable, enhance your reputation as a top educational facility, and strengthen the bond with your customer.

Defining Common Ground

Melissa Alexander — Fri, 01 Nov 2002 00:00:00 -0600

What does "positive training" mean? If I polled fifty professional trainers, I would get fifty different answers. That's fifty active members of the dog training community-and very likely most, if not all, would profess to practice it.

So what? As long as each has his own definition, does it matter if it's not exactly like someone else's? Yes. It matters because without a standard, agreed-upon definition, trainers can't communicate with each other, and it matters because we've given clients no clear way to define or ask for what they want.

Dog Trainers: Tools for Dog Bite Prevention Week 2008

Joan Orr — Thu, 01 May 2008 00:09:00 -0500

Dog Bite Prevention week is May 19-25, 2008. According to the Centers for Disease Control and the American Veterinary Medical Association, most dog bite victims are children, and most bites are by the family pet or another dog known to the child.

Behavior Boot Camp: A New Clicker Training Certification Program

Julie Shaw-Lewis — Thu, 01 May 2008 00:08:00 -0500

I had my first experience with animal training more than 20 years ago, with my own dog. I attended a traditional training class, which used a method I called "yank and thank." We waited for the dog to "get it wrong," then yanked on its choke collar and promptly "thanked it" by offering praise. This method makes as little sense to me now as it did then, but at the time I knew of no other options.

Clicker Training: The Fad that Became a Technology

Julie Shaw-Lewis — Thu, 01 Nov 2007 00:00:00 -0500

The first dog I trained was my own dog 22 years ago. I attended a traditional training class, which I tagged "yank and thank." We waited for the dog to "get it wrong," then yanked on its choke collar and promptly "thanked him" (praised him). It makes as little sense to me today as it did then, but at the time I knew of no other options.

Independents' Day: Challenges Facing Independent Trainers

Aaron Clayton — Sun, 01 Jul 2007 00:00:00 -0500

Today, independent training businesses face significant obstacles if they want to remain independent entrepreneurs.

Karen Pryor Academy: Clicker Training the Way It Ought to Be

Karen Pryor — Fri, 15 Jun 2007 13:58:46 -0500

In May we announced the launch of the first educational course of the new Karen Pryor Academy for Animal Training & Behavior. The Academy is set up both to spread the word about clicker training and to teach people to clicker train the way we think it ought to be done.

How to Train Scent Discrimination for Obedience Competition

Morgan Spector — Thu, 01 Mar 2007 00:00:00 -0600

Scent discrimination is one of the "advanced" obedience exercises, but it is actually one of the easiest to train. Why? You are working with the dog's single most acute sense: smell. Although the word is politically charged, in behavioral terms "discrimination" simply means a choice made on the basis of established criteria. In the case of scent articles, that criterion is the handler's scent ("find the one that smells like me").

Lawyer Ditches Legal Briefs for Clicker: Meet Morgan Spector

Miranda Hersey Helin — Wed, 01 Nov 2006 00:00:00 -0600

We're proud to announce Morgan Spector as a new member of the outstanding ClickerExpo faculty. Morgan established Best Behavior Dog Training in 1995 to apply clicker training methods to competition obedience training. This work ultimately led to the writing of his popular book, Clicker Training for Obedience. We recently spoke with Morgan about his career and the status of clicker training today.

Clicking with Inspiration: Gemini Dogs

Miranda Hersey Helin — Fri, 01 Sep 2006 00:00:00 -0500

It wasn't until 2000, however, when eight members of the Gemini training staff attended the APDT conference in Houston, that clicker training really "clicked." As Paul remembers, "We sat around and talked about it and said 'It's truly more effective and it's better for the dogs. We're going to close our eyes and jump.'" Looking back, Paul is proud of that decision. "It took guts to walk out of Houston and say 'We're going to throw the choke collars out and order some clickers.'"

School for Puppies: Positive or Negative Experience?

Kay Laurence — Sat, 01 Jul 2006 00:00:00 -0500

Puppy class is probably the most popular class among instructors, particularly for the inexperienced enthusiasts. I would like to examine exactly what a puppy class can provide to meet the main purpose of education (of the owners) and prevention (of behavioral issues).

Use Your Education in Becoming a Service Trainer

KPCT — Fri, 01 Oct 2004 00:00:00 -0500

The following correspondence was written by five experts in the field of training, in response to a request for advice on starting a training career. The experts' advice is so full of good ideas and resources that we thought many others might benefit from publishing the e-mail trail.

So You Want to Be a Dolphin Trainer!

Karen Pryor — Thu, 01 Jul 2004 00:00:00 -0500

Hi Karen, I am in the 9th grade and live in California. I just finished reading your book, Lads before the Wind. We had just been to Sea Life Park this summer, so the book was a double treat to read. I am doing an essay for my Honors Language Arts class on the ideal job for me. I know you are busy but wanted to ask you some questions.

Just How Good ARE You? Clicker Trainers' Testing Program

Karen Pryor — Sat, 01 Nov 2003 00:00:00 -0600

Kay Laurence, founder of the British clicker company Learning About Dogs and the magazine Teaching Dogs, has pioneered a new way of assessing the clicker skills of individual trainers. The program tests the trainer's abilities, not the dog's performance. The test is valuable not so much as a measure of achievement but as a clear-cut way of finding out what you know and what you still need to find out, a very difficult thing to judge for oneself.

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.