So you've become a clicker trainer! Naturally you are very excited. You want other people around you to stop using punishment-based methods and start clicking. So you introduce the clicker at your dog club or high school or wherever you are using it. And guess what: people not only don't change, they get mad at you.
clickers
On My Mind: It's Not What You Do. It's How You Do It.
By Karen Pryor on 05/18/2010It’s a sunny spring afternoon in New England at the annual meeting of a group of animal behaviorists. I’m sitting on a folding chair alongside a small corral, watching some demonstrations with horses. My friend Tim Sullivan, curator of behavioral husbandry at the Brookfield Zoo in Chicago, is sitting on my left.
We’re watching a demonstration of clicker training. A calm old police horse is led into the corral and turned loose. The trainer stands on our side of the fence. She has a clicker, a bucket of feed, and a huge target stick that looks like a toilet plunger, with a big padded lump on one end.
Dog Bite Prevention Week: Free Resources from Doggone Safe
By Joan Orr on 05/01/2010During the third week in May, the U.S. Postal Service, the American Veterinary Medical Association (AMVA), Doggone Safe Inc., and other organizations will be calling attention to one of North America's most commonly reported public health problems: dog bites.
Should You Use No Reward Markers? Examining the Debate
By trainer@canines... on 04/01/2010What is a No Reward Marker (NRM), and is it a useful tool or an awful mistake?
Should a good clicker trainer use an NRM, and, if so, when?
It’s out there, lurking. At times you feel it stalking just behind you. At last it springs as someone asks, “Why don’t you tell your dog it was wrong?”
The NRM debate has been reopened once more.
The debate arises in cycles, but next time you’ll be prepared for it, no matter how stealthily it creeps.
Fun with Rats
By Karen Pryor on 03/09/2010I loved Lucy
When I lived in the Pacific Northwest, I kept a brown and white pet rat named Lucy. She would come when called, so I could give her the run of the office. She was a delightful pet, cozy, chatty, and full of enjoyment of life. When I moved to Boston, I re-homed her with a neighbor’s little boy and he loved her, too.
