I have a 8 month old Chocolate Lab who we cannot get to settle down when other people or animals enter the picture. She obeys pretty well the first time or two using the clicker and treats, but then totally ignores us and goes her own way - jumping on people and running off with whatever distraction (i.e. other dogs) come her way. She seems to have gotten wilder in the past month. We take her for at least 1-1/2 hour hikes/runs everyday (sometimes twice a day) so she is not a dog desperate for exercise or company. She just likes to jump and play - to everyone's dismay. She will only work with me and the clicker/treats for short time spans - then does her own thing. When we're so far from the house (on these walks) it's a dilemma how to "positively" deal with her so she "gets it". Any advice? I don't want a juvenile dilinquent dog. Is 8 months too late to break these habits that have arisen?
Dogs
DogRead
By Karen Pryor on 03/01/2002Being the February author of the month on DogRead, the on line dog-related book club, was an incredible rush. Click to Win did not come off the press until well into the month, so we started with some simple clicker exercises which, as people began receiving their books, became more complex and more directly related to the show ring behaviors of gaiting, stacking, and displaying confidence and good temperament.
Clicker Enthusiast with New Ideas
By KPCT on 02/01/2002We know dogs need to be acclimated to doing their work in new places, but in this letter Andrea Kiss restates it from the dog's point of view. If dogs really do associate what they learn with the place they learn it, then it makes sense that in a new place the behavior disappears. Instead of being frustrated—"But he does it perfectly at home…" you might expect to "re-teach" any new behavior a few times in various environments. (In my own observation, even just changing direction in your own living room, facing the dog north, east, south, and west, "reteaching" the behavior four times, can make it easier to take that behavior on the road. KP)
Launch of Click to Win: Clicker Training for the Show Ring
By Karen Pryor on 02/01/2002The big news this month is the publication of my new book, Click to Win, Clicker Training for the Show Ring. This is a collection of my articles from the AKC Gazette on using the clicker to give your dog the skills to do its very best in the show ring, time after time. It also includes three articles on the experimental master class I taught here in Boston, an article on clicking puppies in the litter, and more.
Using the Clicker for Two Dogs
By KPCT on 01/02/2002From Eileen Laber: I have read Don't Shoot the Dog and Morgan Spector's book Clicker Training for Obedience. I am unsure about using the clicker for two dogs. When one dog is offering a behavior and the other is doing nothing, and I click and treat the dog offering the behavior, am I diluting the effect of the click for the dog that is doing nothing. Sometimes the dog doing nothing comes to me looking for the treat. In a "training" situation, I think the dogs can figure out which dog is getting the click, but when we are just looking for the dog to do something cute, both dogs respond.
