The 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.
AKC Gazette publisher George Berger wrote a glowing foreword for the book. The book is full of wonderful color photos from the AKC files, showing people and dogs looking great and having fun at dog shows. Our great designers, Karen LeDuc and Matt Kanaracus, of CoDesign, Boston, have made this a truly gorgeous book.
Our company president, Aaron Clayton, and I, went to Westminster last week to launch Click to Win. Things started off with a bang Sunday night when some of the articles in Click to Win won the prestigious Maxwell Award from the Dog Writers Association of America.
Click to Win was featured at the big dog show vendors, Cherrybrook, and a ton of copies were sold. Cherrybrook now carries Click to Win, Peggy Tillman's Clicking with Your Dog, Step by Step in Pictures, and our basic clicker kit for dogs, so look for them next time you are at a show!
From a behavior standpoint, the most amazing thing to me was the change in the handling. Even three years ago a self-stacking dog was a rarity, and 90% of the handlers fiddled with the dogs constantly. Now, maybe 50% of the dogs self-stacked. While some handlers still knelt by their dogs and manually forced them to hold still during the times they were waiting in the ring, many, many others interacted with their dogs face to face --playing little games, reinforcing a stack and eye contact with an occasional word and tossed treat. They were keeping the dogs busy and focused, just as I had suggested in the Gazette (you can read how to do it in Click to Win.)
The dogs were happy-looking, almost all of them, and the judges, I thought, looked happier too. They may not be using the clicker per se, but a lot of folks have seen the edge you get in competition with a free-moving, happy dog, and they're making it happen.
During February: Daily online advice from Karen Pryor on the internet
Click to Win has been chosen by DogRead.com, an on-line book club, as the February Book of the Month. Every day I am on line, helping people get started clicking their show dogs. I am answering hundreds of excellent clicker questions, and people are really making progress with their dogs. You can join the list or catch up on the archives by going to www.dogread.com.
Try this Clicker Game
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!
Here are some DogRead participants who succeeded!
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.
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