I bought a clicker to prepare my two elderly dogs for the arrival of a 12 month old addition
to the family. The progress was slow but successful who says you cant teach old dogs new tricks.
The little one arrived today for her first visit and I did clicker training with her at the same time
as the older dogs. She responded immediately even though she has not been previously clicker
trained. Her visit lasted two hours, and at one point I called her and she would not respond as she
was distracted by all the new smells, however, one click and she was at my side waiting for the reward.
She is a lovely little dog and given time and 'clicker training' she will fit in beautifully to our household.
Clicker training is a great
Clicker training is a great way to train your dogs, and kudos to you for preparing your older dogs for the new addition!
Be careful though, about what you click. For instance, in your post, you mentioned that you clicked when the dog did not respond to you. What did that teach the dog? The click is not a recall signal, it is a marker that says "there, what you did right at that moment, that's why you're getting this reinforcement!" So if you use it to recall the dog when he is ignoring you, you are muddying the waters about what it means, and possibly even reinforcing behavior you don't want.
Work on teaching a dynamite response to his name by saying his name and clicking for that first movement- don't wait until he's coming back to you, or even looking at you, you want that first muscle movement or ear twitch that signals the initial recognition of his name. Later you can start delaying the click until he's looking at you, or starting to come back, or is even all the way back, but not yet.
Good luck with your new guy, as well as the oldsters!
Susan Mann, Brodie, Kyp!, and Arie
New dog
I am an advocate of the clicker training, as it is an humane and efficient tool in making your dog a
respectable member of the pack