4H Dog Obedience Week 2
Thanks to everyone, for all the hard work you put in last week. Your dogs looked great.
You've all got clickers now. So let's take a second and think about how we are going to use them. What does a clicker do. Well it doesn't tell the dog to do anything, it doesn't give a command, it doesn't get his attention. What it does do is tell a dog when he has done something that you like and will reward/reinforce.
Use the clicker to catch your dog being good, click and treat. If you do that the dog will offer you more and more of what ever behavior you are clicking. Remember how I asked Rusty if he was ready to work? I said his name and he rushed over and sat in front of me, and looked up at me. I clicked for eye contact. I backed away and he followed, again he sat in front of me, and I clicked for eye contact. I wasn't commanding him to come, I wasn't forcing him to do anything. I asked him a question, "would he like to play with me?" And he answered by coming and sitting in front of me. I clicked and the click told him he had given me the correct answer. Each click was immediately followed by a treat! When I could predict that Rusty was going to follow me as I walked backward, I could begin to name the behavior, I named it "Come." So to get Rusty to come to me, at this point the cue is the word "Come" and my walking backward. Click and treat when he gets to me.
If you pair "Come" with "Sit" you now have a short chain of behavior. We build longer and longer behavior chains to get to the point where we can compete in 4 H dog obedience at the County Fair. When we started to teach down, we used a treat hidden in our hand. We first got the dog to sit, click and treat. From the sit bring an treat hidden in your hand down toward the floor, his nose will follow it and his front legs will slide forward, you click for his elbow touching the floor. Give the treat quickly after you click.
You can also use your clicker to help with Heeling. Begin by walking backward, I bet your dog will follow you. Click and treat when he does. After a couple of trys and walking backward and getting clicked and treated for it your dog will be very eager to follow you. Now you turn this into Heeling. Do this by walking backward with your dog following you, as you are walking backward turn right 180 degrees, and quickly continue walking forward. Now you and the dog are both going the same way, take a couple of steps with him at your left side and click and treat. Once you can predict that he will stay at you left side for a few steps, after you turn, you can begin to name the behavior, "Heel " and click and treat for it.
At first we are only going to go a few steps, before the click and treat. Once he is getting good at this, you can try to start heeling with him sitting on your left side. Cue him by saying his name and the word "Heel", step out with your left foot and click and treat after a few steps in the correct position.
We have a lot to practice this week, don't forget sit / stay. Your going to use treats to increase the duration of his sit stays. Guide him into a sit with your hand and a hidden treat above his head click and treat as he sits. Do this a couple of times and you will notice he doesn't even get up after your treat is given he is willing to sit and wait for more. I would now get the sit. Go ahead and click and treat for that. Then put up your hand as a stop sign and step in front of him. Count to 2, "One," "Two" and feed him another treat. Pivot back into heel position and pet your dog as you say "All done, " now he is free to move.
Repeat this several times every day and gradually increase the count, until you can count to 30 between treats. Feed in front when he is in the sit/stay, and pet quietly when you return to him. This is one place I do not use the clicker, I think the dogs do better with just treats on this exercise.
Now don't worry that we are feeding your dog too many treats. We have a lot of time to train and gradually fade away most of the treats. I will be talking about how we can do this in the coming weeks.
