Standing in for Karen
I'm Emma Parsons, author of Click to Calm: Healing the Aggressive Dog, writing this month at the invitation of Karen Pryor. When Karen asked me to help her through a busy time and write this letter, I happily agreed despite the fact that I, too, am swamped with work!
Karen and I are both busy with plans for the upcoming ClickerExpo season. Both ClickerExpo conferences will prove to be extraordinary events, with many innovative topics for discussion and advanced courses planned by original and new faculty. At least half of the program is completely new! Also keeping us busy is Karen Pryor Academy for Animal Training & Behavior—now up and running with the first influx of eager students.
Time crunch
Many of us lead busy lives and there seems to be a perpetual shortage of time. That makes it easy for me to choose a topic to write about this month: How do you train your dog when you simply have no time? What we must be talking about is "clicker training on the run!" This topic is one close to my heart; I have recently acquired a 16-month-old papillon named Wylie-Rae who, regardless of my hectic schedule, still needs to be worked.
The essential clicker
The answer to my "how-to" question is a simple piece of advice: carry your clicker with you at all times! You never know when you can fit in some quick training. If you find yourself without a clicker at one of these opportune times, you can always use a verbal marker, which is not as precise as the click, but informative nonetheless. If you can click, you can very quickly communicate to your dog that you liked the particular behavior he just exhibited—anywhere, anytime. Although a click commonly leads to a treat, it can also lead to a favorite game or a favorite activity. Vary the reinforcers that you give to your dog for best results.
One way to build clicker training into your schedule is to use one of your dog's meals as the reinforcement. Instead of setting down your dog's food bowl, ask him for certain behaviors and then hand feed him the kibble. In this kind of session you can teach him to sit, down, roll over, or perform any other behavior that you might want him to learn.
If your dog is not familiar with the behavior that you are asking him to do, teach him by luring him into the required position, click once as the behavior happens, and then follow up with a treat. For example, you can teach your dog to sit by holding a treat above his nose. Click just as his back end hits the ground. Feed him your treat. Be sure to work in a quiet environment first, and then slowly increase the distraction level as the behavior becomes more reliable. Our busy lives are full of distracting places and people; use those situations as opportunities to add more complicated dimensions to training behaviors.
Capturing fun and practical behaviors
Don't forget that you can also capture your dog's behavior, again in everyday living situations. Behavior that is marked will more than likely repeat itself; as the dog performs the behavior again, add a cue right before it happens. Two of my friends have creatively taught their dogs to shake and stretch this way. Amanda taught her German shorthaired pointer, Riley, to shake on cue. After giving a bath, and right before Riley would shake off the excess water, Amanda inserted the verbal cue "Twister." When Riley shook, Amanda would mark that behavior. It did not take long before Amanda could cue Riley to "Twister" and have her shake her entire body when asked!
Cassie taught her rescued dog, Max, a number of helpful behaviors. Max will bend into a play bow when Cassie throws both of her hands into the air. This is the body signal for stretch. She has also taught Max to "swallow" medicine on cue as well as to "jump" over puddles. Because I feed my dogs in their crates, I will tell Wylie to "kennel up" right before I put in his meal. I make sure to click just as he runs into the crate. I can also use this cue to indicate that Wylie should enter his crate in the car or get comfortable in the soft-sided Sherpa bag I carry him in over my shoulder.
It takes only a clicker and a keen eye, and the ability to steal moments of time, to teach your dog to do a variety of behaviors. Mark the behavior that you want your dog to do again and ignore the behavior that you don't.
Any questions? Do you have time-saving training tips to share? Hope to see you at ClickerExpo, where we can chat about your successes and challenges!
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