Being 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.
The rich daily feedback was a heady experience; almost never does an author meet readers in this continuing interactive way. Then the fact that people were learning in leaps and bounds was a thrill for me as a teacher and researcher. Many other well-known and distinguished clicker trainers chimed in now and then to help a beginner or clarify a technical point. Melissa Alexander, Morgan Spector, Shirley Chong, the terrier ladies Carol Whitney and Carol Dunster, and many more I am immensely grateful to all of them. And it was amazingly helpful for people to be able to read each others trials and successes, doubts and victories, across the month.
Sarah Morgan, a Dalmatian breeder and show handler in Ireland wrote a final post that described most eloquently what an unusual experience we all had.
This month has done to me what (more)"101 Things to do with a Box" does for a dog. It has really opened up my creative thinking and given me the confidence to try something new. This confidence gives me the flexibility to work with MY dogs, whose idea of rewards and approaches to learning are NOT textbook, and not even shared with each other... The shared exercises were particularly good eye-openers to the wide variety of approaches used. So thanks again to everyone.
And especial thanks to Treshell and Tomas for providing this forum." Amen to that.
If you want to dip in, the entire month is in a searchable archive on www.dogread.com.
Here, for fun, is one of the many, many innovative accomplishments of the month.
The owner of these Tibetan terriers used the clicker to teach her older dogs to sit, quietly, in the kitchen for a treat. Then she read the posts on learning by observation, and tried out her puppies. Sure enough, the puppies copied the elders and were soon sitting for a treat, and sitting longer. Then she raised the criteria: ALL the dogs have to be sitting before anyone gets a click and a treat. Yes, not only did the dogs catch on to that, but if some older dog wasn't sitting yet the puppies ran over and poked it! "Hurry up, do your sit, we're all waiting!"
I am off to London this afternoon, to launch a new line of clicker books at Crufts, the huge dog show in the UK (12,000 dogs.) See you next month!
Karen Pryor is the founder and CEO of Karen Pryor Clicker Training and Karen Pryor Academy. She is the author of many books, including Don't Shoot the Dog and Reaching the Animal Mind. Learn more about Karen Pryor or read Karen's Letters online.
Post new comment