Karen Pryor Clickertraining - Fun & Handy Tricks

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?

Holiday Hide and Seek with Your Dog!

Aidan Bindoff — Sat, 01 Dec 2007 00:00:00 -0600

Experienced dog owners and trainers often note that every dog needs a job. A dog with something meaningful to do rarely gets himself into trouble.

Hunting for clothespins is a task that is easy to teach, and gives your dog the opportunity to solve a problem and complete a significant job. Once the behavior is trained, it's something you can do every day without breaking a sweat or putting aside much time, yet your dog will work really hard and will finish the exercise happy and satisfied.

How to Teach Your Dog Left and Right

Aidan Bindoff — Sat, 01 Sep 2007 00:00:00 -0500

This is a fun exercise that is handier than it seems at first. You'll set up two targets at a distance, and teach your dog to go to either target—left or right—on cue. Later, you will set up similar exercises to bring more general meaning to the cues "left" or "right."

A dog that understands "left" and "right" has a terrific skill for many competition venues including agility, herding, mushing, water dog, and retrieving. This understanding would also be handy walking on trails—and service dog owners could think of a dozen or more applications for "left" and "right."

Mission Impossible? How to Train "Never Ever" Behaviors

Aidan Bindoff — Sun, 01 Jul 2007 00:00:00 -0500

There is a popular term used on the Yahoo Training Levels group: "never ever" behaviors. This refers to seemingly impossible behaviors that the trainer thinks will "never ever" be trained. The funny thing is, they almost always end up being achieved!

An Easter Egg Hunt for Your Cat

Bill Peña — Sun, 01 Apr 2007 01:00:00 -0500

Finding ways to keep an indoor cat entertained and active can be difficult. However, with a little creativity and a clicker, it's easy to come up with new and fun ways to enrich homebound animals.

Train Your Bunny to Sit in an Easter Basket

Joan Orr — Sun, 01 Apr 2007 00:00:00 -0500

Enjoy spring with a real Easter Bunny—yours! Here's how to train your rabbit to climb into a basket and stay there, as excerpted from Getting Started: Clicking with your Rabbit by Joan Orr and Teresa Lewin.

Chase the Dot: The Ultimate Cat Sport

Karen Pryor — Thu, 01 Mar 2007 00:00:00 -0600

Pet stores sell lots of interactive cat toys you can use to amuse your cat: feathers on springs, battery-operated mice, and so on. We sell a few toys of our own, too—the Kong Swizzle Bird Cat Toy, the Kong Tennis Ball Mouse, and the Cat Dancer. One of the best toys in the world for most cats, however, is the laser pointer, which you can get from any office supply store.

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.

Teach Your Cat to Play Piano

Karen Pryor — Mon, 01 Jan 2007 00:00:00 -0600

It's easy to teach a cat to play the piano; I've often done it in other people's houses, with their cat, as a sort of after-dinner amusement. Here's how.

Training Your Dog to Lie Down

Melissa Alexander — Sun, 01 Oct 2006 00:00:00 -0500

Q: How do I train my dog to lie down?

Training a Steadfast Recall

Melissa Alexander — Thu, 01 Jun 2006 00:00:00 -0500

A recall can save your dog's life. It can stop her from running in front of a car, or from chasing an animal into the woods. It can call your dog away from a tempting but dangerous delicacy she has just discovered.

What? Train a Rabbit?

Joan Orr — Sun, 01 Jan 2006 00:00:00 -0600

Rabbitsâ€¦ furry and lovable, of course; quirky and silly, sometimes; full of energy and mischief, undoubtedly; but trainable? You bet! You're probably training your rabbit without even realizing it. Is he litter-box trained? Does he come to see you when you go to his cage? Then you've already taken your first steps.

Teaching an Old Cat New Tricks

Bill Peña — Fri, 01 Jul 2005 00:00:00 -0500

My wife and I have a eight-year-old cat named Phoebus, whom she rescued as a kitten. When she found him, he was one week away from being put to sleep by the local shelter; his mother had leukemia, and of his entire litter, only he had survived. He's a great cat, with a firm but sweet disposition, and, until recently, he had never been clicker trained. He did all the normal things you want a cat to do—use a litter box, hunt mice, play, purr—but he also did some of the normal things you don't want a cat to do.

Teaching the Pawing Behavior

Karen Pryor — Wed, 01 Sep 2004 00:00:00 -0500

Q: I train animals for films & TV commercials in Australia. I am currently working on a job and the clients have just added a behavior to their "wish-list," at very late notice (I have 5 days to train it). ... The clients have asked that she "dig" on a flat wooden surface. I have been trying to get her to dig for a treat in dirt, but that is really not working so far (she is hungry, not starving). What else can I try?

Cowboy Up

Aaron Clayton — Mon, 01 Dec 2003 00:00:00 -0600

Cowboy Up. Hmmm. â€¦Catchy slogan. Could I provide some choreography-based interpretation to that phrase? How about bucking up in the air like a bronco? What could be more cowboy than that? Off we went to learn. Of course, Tucker being a clicker dog we would do this the clicker way (see below for teaching instructions).

Play the Cup Game

Karen Pryor — Mon, 01 Dec 2003 00:00:00 -0600

Here's a simple exercise I gave to the DogRead online list, to introduce people and their dogs to the clicker philosophy.

Sit on the couch. Put a paper or plastic cup on the floor. Now, using clicker and treats but not throwing the treats near the cup, can you get your dog to knock the cup over and knock it around the room? Try it!

Exercising an Active Dog, Right at Home

KPCT — Thu, 01 May 2003 00:00:00 -0500

Here's a quick clicker trick that gives dogs a lot of exercise without wearing out a person—useful when an owner's mobility is impaired, or if you're short on recreational space. Also useful for shelters and kennels.

101 Things to Do with a Box

Karen Pryor — Thu, 01 Aug 2002 00:00:00 -0500

101 Things to do with a Box: A Good Exercise for an Older, Suspicious, or Previously Trained Dog

This training game is derived from a dolphin research project in which I and others participated, "The creative porpoise: training for novel behavior," published in the Journal of Experimental Analysis of Behavior in 1969. It has become a favorite with dog trainers. It's especially good for "crossover" dogs with a long history of correction-based training, since it encourages mental and physical flexibility and gives the dog courage to try something on its own.