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New to clicker training and needing all the help I can get.

I'm going to be detailed here because then people will probably be more able to help, so sorry in advance for the long text. Also, sorry for any mispelling, I'm not english.

I've had dogs for the past 16 years, two Portuguese water dogs (that died of old age this past year) and a now 8 year old cocker mix. When I got these dogs I was raising children, didn't have much time or energy, and they were never properly trained, but still they were fine inteligent reliable dogs that did as were told on an instinctive basis. I now have a 5 months old puppy, Sara, a Cão da Serra de Aires / Portuguese Sheepdog (they look like smaller Briards), and this one I wanted to really train well from the start. So then I find out that the nearest obedience school is 35 km away. Go there, and it's really old fashioned training, choke collars, punitive reinforcement. Not for me and my pup. So I start reading everything I can get, surf the net, and begin training her myself. At first I didn't know if I could do it, but it's going surprisingly well. Sara is very inteligent and learns quickly, and happyly doesn't seem to have any negative behaviours (apart from normal puppy stuff, still likes to jump a bit on me when excited but is getting much better). I train with positive reinforcement, use treats and praise.

I came across clicker training while doing this net surfing, and in the past 3 months came from "I've never heard of this" to "I would like to give this a try". It means learning clicker training at the same time I'm training her, all by myself. I'm not even sure if there's someone teaching it in Portugal, and for sure there's no one near where I live. I learn quickly and so does Sara, so I think we can do it, but would like some tips. She already knows a lot (for a 5 months old puppy trained by an unexperienced trainer) and I don't know if I should introduce the clicker with comands she already knows or with something brand new. Also, how to make the dog understand that this is the new training way? What problems generaly arise from switching training methods?

For what she already knows, as it might be helpfull with your tips: sit, down, stay (I've noticed that she may break a stay to follow me but has never broken it to go do something else), come, touch (the hand, we haven't begun with the stick yet), leave it (great inside, good outside if I say the comand BEFORE she actually has the disgusting thing in her mouth), look (is begining to get it), shake hands (this was funny, I sat on the floor with her sitting in front of me and kept thinking of ways to make her understand the idea while thinking "this would be much easier with a clicker" but she actually got it in 5 minutes), go to bed, loose leach (she's getting very good at this) and heel while of leach (she gets it but I'm not asking for long stretches yet). Although she knows these comands, some are very basic yet and need a lot of work and upgrading the dificulty. So how do I work with a learned behaviour with the clicker?

I guess that my main question is this: considering that I'm a beginner self-teached trainer  should I just leave clickers alone, as it would be yet another new thing to learn, or are there good chances of success with my limitations?

Thanks in advance for any answers.

thanks Christina!

Your tips are most welcome. I had already ordered the book "Click for joy", and had also read Karen Prior's 15 tips, I'll look out your other sugestions. I was kind of worried that I would only confuse the poor pup, but she's so young that I'm sure that we will be able to learn this together.
Teresa

jump right in there!

You and your dog will love clickertraining!
A few tips:
the i-click clicker is easier to handle than a boxclicker - at least I think so
go to a room without your dog and practice. Click the clicker and move one pea or legoblock or whatever you've got from one bowl to another. Repeat until you can do it fast and remember Click, *then* treat. Don't move your hand towards the treats until *after* you have clicked.
Then find something your dog loves, cut it into peasized bits (as a beginner you might want to make them double that size, for easier handling, for your sake, not the dog's sake ;o) )
Click and then treat. Repeat until the dog looks for her treat when she hears the click. It takes somewhere between 5 and 15 clicks with most dogs ;o)
Then start out with a target exercise, it is one of the easiest to start with.
On this site Karen Pryor has posted 15 tips for starting with the clicker. Those are great.
For books, I would recommend... hmm there are so many good ones...many beginners love: "clicking with your dog step by step in pictures"
I particularly like Morten Egtved and Cecilie Køstes new book, it comes with free videos. (i think it is called in English: the four secrets to becoming a supertrainer)
When you have the basics a great book for supplemented knowledge and answering questions are "click for joy" by Melissa Alexander
The new book "learning games" seems very good. I only jsut got my clammy hands on it, so I haven't actually read it yet.
Also look for Aidans article on this site about the 300 peck method.
Look at the videos on this site, there are much to learn from watching others train ;o)
I would start with new behaviours then when both of you are used to the clicker you can start to polish off her alredy known behaviours, or you can teach them all over again easily.
Don't give up, for some clickertraining comes naturally, for others it takes a bit of time to learn the basic skills of handling the clicker, treat, maybe a leash, getting the timing right etc practice makes master ;o)
have fun on the journey!
Christina