Karen Pryor Clickertraining - Competition

ClickerExpo 2008: So Much to Offer

Karen Pryor — Thu, 01 Nov 2007 00:00:00 -0500

Another season of ClickerExpo is coming! In 2008, ClickerExpo will be in Los Angeles, California, February 1-3 and in Lexington, Kentucky, March 28-30.

Click and Play: Using Play as a Reinforcer

Angelica Steinker — Mon, 01 Oct 2007 00:00:00 -0500

Dogs smile. Just like people, dogs pull the corners of their mouths up high toward their eyes, partially open their mouths, and smile. In 1872, Darwin wrote of the universality of facial expressions in The Expressions of Emotions in Man and Animals. Roughly 130 years later, Dr. Patricia McConnell authored For the Love of a Dog in which she compared human and dog facial expressions using the methods developed by Paul Ekman, the world's leading scientist on the topic. The truth is out: dogs smile, and, of course, experience emotions.

Agility: Teach Your Dog to Enjoy Movement Underfoot

Deborah Jones PhD — Wed, 01 Aug 2007 09:25:11 -0500

An obstacle that can cause a great deal of difficulty for agility dogs is the teeter. If you think about it, it makes absolutely no sense to run up a board that slams to the ground when you reach the top. Any smart dog would have to wonder why he should do such a ridiculous thing.

The ClickerChallenge Comes to Switzerland

Simone Fasel — Sun, 01 Jul 2007 00:00:00 -0500

The first-ever ClickerChallenge in Switzerland took place the weekend of May 19-20, 2007. It was quite an exciting event—and what an exciting evolution clicker training has been through in our country!

Dog Field Sports: How to Hunt Without Killing Anything

Jim Barry — Sun, 01 Apr 2007 01:00:00 -0500

Among the American Kennel Club (AKC) breed groups, the Sporting Group is by far the most popular, and these dogs are bred to hunt. But don't be discouraged if you have one of these great sporting dogs but you're not a hunter. You can choose from a variety of field sports, including both organized and individual activities that will put your dog's talents to good use.

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").

Clicker Training a 2 on / 2 off Contact Behavior on the Dogwalk

Deborah Jones PhD — Thu, 01 Mar 2007 00:00:00 -0600

Having a solid, reliable 2 on / 2 off contact behavior on the dogwalk is a great advantage in agility. The 2 on / 2 off is a clear, specific position that most dogs find easy to learn and perform. It also requires the dog to wait until you catch up and release him, which allows for better handling of subsequent sequences. My method for training this behavior involves early foundation skills, clicking for correct position, feeding in position, and back-chaining.

Fun with Your Dog: Mushing on a Bike

Robin Shen — Thu, 01 Mar 2007 00:00:00 -0600

Mushing with your dog is exciting—and a great workout for both of you. Here's everything you need to know in order to get started.

Will This Dog Hunt? Positively. A New Outdoorsman's Guide

KPCT — Thu, 01 Feb 2007 00:00:00 -0600

For many outdoor enthusiasts and dog owners, hunting for sport or competing in field trials looks like a fun activity to enjoy with their dogs-but the traditional techniques for training great "gun dogs" involve shock collars, ear pinching, and other force-based methods, which can turn off even the most macho enthusiasts. But what if those methods weren't needed?

Managing the Treat-Free Competition Ring

Melissa Alexander — Thu, 01 Feb 2007 00:00:00 -0600

Q: How do I move from food treats to praise only?

Blazing a New Trail: Training Gun Dogs

Aaron Clayton — Mon, 01 Jan 2007 00:00:00 -0600

Dogs have assisted humans in hunting for sport since the Middle Ages. Today, many gun dog trainers are still using well-worn, ancient training techniques-traditional methods that often involve force and pain. As with any area of animal training, however, the impressive results of all-positive clicker training are clearing new territory.

Meet the Master of Freestyle: Attila Szkukalek

Miranda Hersey Helin — Fri, 01 Dec 2006 00:00:00 -0600

In his day job, Attila Szkukalek is a biochemist in Norwich, England. In his private life he's a husband, father, and dog training instructor. To the rest of us, Attila with his dog, Fly, is the best freestyle trainer and performer on the planet-UK freestyle champions that perform regularly at Crufts and throughout Europe. Attila and Fly's performances are a powerful ambassador for reinforcement-based training. Attila is also one of the newest members of the ClickerExpo faculty. We spoke to Attila recently about his career, and his success.

When Excited Becomes Rude

Emma Parsons — Mon, 01 May 2006 00:00:00 -0500

Emma Parsons, canine aggression expert, tells agility enthusiasts how to put clicker training to work to calm and focus their dogs during competition in Clean Run magazine: "When Excited Becomes Rude" (PDF).

Will You, Won't You, Will You Dance with Me?

Gale Pryor — Sun, 01 Jan 2006 00:00:00 -0600

Whether you know it as canine freestyle or heelwork to music—or you've never heard of this new dog sport at all—the time has come to dance with our dogs.

Dog Responding Slowly to Cues

Melissa Alexander — Sat, 01 Oct 2005 00:00:00 -0500

Q: My dog is responding slowly to the cue. How can I get a faster response?

Does the Click End the Behavior?

Gale Pryor — Sat, 01 Oct 2005 00:00:00 -0500

It seems straightforward: we click to mark a desired behavior, and then we reinforce. The act of reinforcing the behavior necessitates a change in action: the horse eats the treat, the dog plays with its favorite toy, and the animal in the process of being reinforced no longer performs the behavior for which it was clicked. The click, therefore, ends the behavior. The phrase has become a widely-repeated tenet of clicker training. Yet, is it true?

Helix Fairweather on the Art of Dog Play

Gale Pryor — Mon, 01 Aug 2005 00:00:00 -0500

Helix Fairweather became interested in the skills dogs need—and too often do not have—to play happily with other dogs. She decided to launch a series of Dog Park play sessions to allow skilled dogs to teach other dogs the art of playing and to teach handlers the observation skills necessary to understand canine communication.

Does the Animal Know the Behavior?

Gale Pryor — Wed, 01 Jun 2005 00:00:00 -0500

Sometimes this question is asked in a different way: Will I have to continue clicking and treating forever? In asking either question, what we really want to know is: When are we done? When can we call a behavior trained once and for all? The answer to these questions is (like most not-so-simple questions): It depends.

"Clicking" With Cues: A Powerful Tool in Agility Handling

Karen Pryor — Tue, 01 Mar 2005 00:00:00 -0600

Here's something people often don't get, and not just in agility training: cues—the signals you give your dog to tell it what to do—can be clicks. If your cue tells the dog to do something it understands, and something with a guaranteed positive outcome or reinforcer as a result, it becomes a potential reinforcer in itself. And you can use it to shape behavior.

Honor and the Honor Roll

Karen Pryor — Tue, 01 Feb 2005 00:00:00 -0600

We have an Honor Roll on our current website. There are hundreds of dogs on the list, plus some cats, rabbits, and birds. There are numerous perfect obedience scores of 200; lots of obedience degrees, agility titles, and search and rescue and disaster dog achievements (a clicker-trained FEMA dog searched the Pentagon on 9/11). And yes, there are OTCh dogs too. Take a look.