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Clicker Training for Obedience

Staying Positive in a Reality Show World

By Julie Gordon on 06/01/2010

Editor’s note: Premises for reality shows seem to be unlimited these days, so it came as no surprise when reality television went to the dogs. Greatest American Dog, which debuted on CBS in July 2008, featured twelve extraordinary teams of dogs and owners from across the nation, living together and competing against each another to determine who had the best-trained dog. Each week, the dog-owner teams competed in different training challenges, and each week a panel of three judges voted one team off. The last team standing earned the title of “Greatest American Dog” and $250,000.

Podcast: How to Put An End to Counter-Surfing

By Aidan Bindoff on 12/01/2009

Listen to Aidan's podcast (available at the bottom of the page) to find out more about How to Put An End to Counter-Surfing. Read the original article here.

Who Started Clicker Training for Dogs?

By Morgan Spector on 03/01/2009

A question was posed on the ClickerExpo Yahoo Group e-mail list recently: "Who started clicker training for dogs?" Here, Morgan Spector supplies the answer.

How to Train Scent Discrimination for Obedience Competition

By Morgan Spector on 03/01/2007

Scent discrimination is one of the "advanced" obedience exercises, but it is actually one of the easiest to train. Why? You are working with the dog's single most acute sense: smell. Although the word is politically charged, in behavioral terms "discrimination" simply means a choice made on the basis of established criteria. In the case of scent articles, that criterion is the handler's scent ("find the one that smells like me").

The "Drop in Motion"

By Morgan Spector on 01/01/2001

From Chapter 3 of Clicker Training for Obedience. While this is primarily useful for the obedience exhibitor, it is an invaluable safety net for the pet owner as well.

One of the biggest bugaboos in competition obedience training is the drop on recall....How do you get the dog to be alert to drop without losing speed on the recall? How do you keep speed on the recall without losing the drop? It is the stuff of which murky legends, rumor, and innuendo are made. One top handler is reputed to hit his dog with his hat. Some handlers use a throw chain. Some now advocate using an electronic collar. The grain of reality in all this is that the drop on recall is probably the most common cause of failure in the Open A ring.