Recently I was appointed to the board of the B.F. Skinner Foundation. The annual board meeting is held in Boston, and usually there's a reception afterwards at the Skinner family home in Cambridge, for members of the board and other people who share an interest in the work of the foundation. At the most recent reception, I was talking to a woman I'd met at the same gathering two years earlier, a museum curator with a special interest in scientific instruments—an interest I share. However, on this particular evening she didn't want to talk about her work, she wanted to talk about her cat.
Karen's Letters
Teaching People Teaching Dogs
By Karen Pryor on 06/01/2005Our six class members were experienced "lure and reward" dog trainers. Some were also experienced in correction-based training. Most had been exposed to some clicker training and had used it, but had never really adopted it. Our goal was to enable these six trainers to understand enough about clicker training to be able to teach others to use the curriculum. And we had two days.
Have You Ever Been Right, 47 Times?
By Karen Pryor on 05/01/2005On about the tenth or twelfth ping, the handler took her chocolate, pocketed it, and then suddenly looked at the Clicker+, pointed at it, and said "That's for ME!" I nodded and smiled, "You've got it!" And she did. We'd finished the training, as far as I was concerned.
When she left the stage, the dog was glued to her side. She spoke to the dog before going down the steps, and she went back to her seat without jerking the leash once. Ping!
ClickerExpo
By Karen Pryor on 04/01/2005I am so very pleased to announce that we're embarking on a third season of ClickerExpo educational conferences. It's the continued and increasing chorus of enthusiasm from the attendees and the faculty that drives the collective energy needed to put on these conferences.
Honor and the Honor Roll
By Karen Pryor on 02/01/2005We 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.
