Karen Pryor Clickertraining - Teach

How to Stop Unwanted Barking

Melissa Alexander — Sun, 01 Apr 2007 02:00:00 -0500

When you deal with barking, it's important to look at the whole situation. Barking is sometimes a symptom of another problem—for example, fear, boredom, or stress. If you fix the problem, the symptom will likely go away. However, if you simply treat the symptom, the problem will just manifest itself in a different way-one which may be worse! Treat the problem not the symptom.

Training Your Dog to Sit

Melissa Alexander — Fri, 01 Sep 2006 00:00:00 -0500

Q: I'm trying to teach my dog to sit, but she's not really getting it quite right. What should I be doing?

Housetraining Your Puppy

Peggy Tillman — Mon, 01 May 2006 00:00:00 -0500

Your goal is to teach your puppy the right place to eliminate. Here's how to potty train your puppy with clicker training.

Training "Leave It"

Emma Parsons — Sun, 01 Jan 2006 00:00:00 -0600

Q: I have a rescue Border collie/lab mix. He is about 5 months old, and an absolute delight. He picks up things very easily and constantly needs a job. We have been working on clicker training and we both really like it, but I have a couple of "positive training" questions. First. How do I train "leave it"? Second. How do I train him not to chew the house up? Third. How do I maintain the bond that I have developed, but have him listen to other people?

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.

Dog in the Kitty Litter

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

Q: How can I stop my dog from eating cat poop?

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.

Child Guests Scared of Dogs

Karen Pryor — Sat, 01 Jan 2005 00:00:00 -0600

Q: During the holidays last year, we had a young relative visit our home who was terrified of our dog, who is a little excitable but very good natured. I couldn't seem to convince the child—or his parents—that there was nothing to be afraid of. What can we do for such encounters in the upcoming holiday season?

Clicking for Cancer

Miranda Hersey Helin — Sat, 01 Jan 2005 00:00:00 -0600

The olfactory power of dogs has made headlines again this month, with new research supporting our canine friends' ability to "sniff out" the presence of cancer. While these findings continue to astonish many, one aspect won't surprise fans of operant conditioning: the dogs in this study were clicker trained.

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.

Overcoming Fear of the Clicker

Karen Pryor — Mon, 01 Nov 2004 00:00:00 -0600

Q: I've successfully clicker trained my dogs in the past, but I now have a retriever who's scared of the clicker. The sound bothered him at first, and now he won't respond to anything I've tried—he heads for the hills as soon as I take the clicker out. What can I do?

Preventing Jumping on Strangers

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

Q: Can you give me some pointers for using clicker training to stop my dog from jumping on visitors? I have gotten her to stop jumping on family and frequent visitors, but new people are at her mercy.

Clicking with Birds

Melinda Johnson — Wed, 01 Jan 2003 00:00:00 -0600

Join this great online list and find out how to clicker train your parrot or other bird. Here's a message from Melinda Johnson, the author of our book on clicking birds, Clicker Training for Birds. Yes! Clicker training works for birds too. Birds were among the first animals ever to be trained by B.F. Skinner and his assistants.

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.

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.

Clicking a Deaf Dog

Karen Pryor — Sun, 01 Jul 2001 00:00:00 -0500

The best example of a clicker trained dog that I know personally is Lynn Gardner's Aussie rescue named Maggie Mae, in Ontario. Maggie's owner has trained her to recognize over 200 cues, and often does clicker demos with her in schools. Maggie's click is the blink of a flashlight, just a regular pen light pointed at her; and most of her cues are American Sign Language words. The trainer holds the light in one hand along with the target stick if using one; and treats in the other, just as we do with target and clicker. The dog has to be watching the trainer to see the blink, but she watches very carefully, you may be sure! Once when Maggie was sitting in front of Lynn, at attention, Lynn gave her a hand signal, and the dog rolled over on one haunch and scratched herself. I couldn't help but ask, "What was THAT signal?" "Relax," said Lynn.

How to Teach Give: A Winning Recipe

Leah Roberts — Thu, 01 May 2008 00:10:00 -0500

By the time most dogs get to my classes, their owners have already taught them that when they get hold of something special, it's going to be taken away. Most of the time, the owners get upset, yell, and force the object out of their mouths. So, when dogs find that deliciously smelly dead squirrel in the yard, they are more likely to hide the squirrel under the couch than allow their owners to catch them with it.

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.

How to Tame Your Kitten, Clicker-Style

Joan Orr — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 03:00:00 -0500

From tiny tigers to diminutive panthers, all with entertaining antics and adorable little faces, kittens are one of the great joys of life. But young cats are not just charming; they can be formidable as well.