For a long time I've been wanting to do something 'more' with my boy Alfie.

Tess is almost 9 now, and though she enjoys a good belt around the garden and long gentle strolls (she'd have you believe she was half that age!), I can certainly see her age catching up with her these days.
So, with Alfie being almost 5 years old and with bags more energy, I thought I'd try something rewarding and fun.
Alf can already 'stand' on command, and has been/ is wonderful in the show ring because he started at such a young age.  But I've always wanted to do more.

So, I decided to have a little 'go' with some clicker training.
Done lots of reading, researching and so on, so that I get the steps absolutely right.

I bought the little 'machine' a few months ago, and then for various personal reasons, didn't have the time to dedicate each day to begin the training.

However, over the last couple of days, I've been working with Alf just to get the first baby steps started.

We've started with just a stationary 'heel' in the sit position (which he has down pat already).
I'm only clicking and rewarding when he looks up into my eyes.  Initially he was searching around for the treat, because he knew exactly where it was!
Now after only two, fifteen to twenty minute sessions he knows where he is supposed to be and what he is supposed to do to achieve his reward.  It's fantastic!
We even did a very little bit of moving forward to, though I'm not going to try to do too much at once!
But I took half a step and he shuffled alongside and sat immediately, then looked up to my eyes and click - reward.  Wonderful!

He's so excited and happy afterwards, and I guess as much as anything, that is because I feel the same way.

So enjoying this rewarding experience, just wanted to share and wish I had tried this a long time ago :)

Baby steps, but loving it :)

Excellent :-)  I too love clicker training!

My rather staid, arthritic 10 yr old girl gets terribly excited when i get the clicker out.  She starts offering me all sorts of behaviours, going through her whole repetoire.  Just rewarding her with treats without using the clicker didnt have the same effect on her at all :-)

Clicker training is just brilliant. I quite liked it when I first started, but didn't really understand the fuss, and was a tiny bit disappointed. Then, I found out just how amazing it is when I did some different stuff - e.g. holding the dummy without mouthing, accuracy, and retrieve to hand. So easy, so, frankly, wonderfu!!

My two favourite books on the subject are the Pryor one, a good intro, and the one by Melissa Alexander, Click for Joy. A bit more advanced, goes into the science stuff but in a very interesting way, so as to make the training easy. It has been my bible :)

Clicker Gundog by Helen Phillips is another very good one!

Well done Tessies Tracey :)

Sound like you and Alfie are really enjoying this :)

It is fun isn't it. My puppy is partially clicker trained, it only took her 5 minutes to work out that the click was the sign of a treat coming. She already knew quite a few commands, but it really enables you to refine a behaviour, so instead of any old sit, you can click and treat a nice prompt straight sit. Instead of mad bouncing heelwork you can reward calm heelwork without her kicking out her front legs like a min pin! And so on. I keep wishing I had the time and energy to use it more. I ought to get it out for our home training sessions, even though we don't tend to use them at club because a dozen clickers all going off at once might confuse!

I love clicker too, it's such fun and best of all Vic absolutely loves it! Such a lovely way to train, he really enjoys the 101 things to do with a box game too. The other night my OH left an empty box on the bedroom floor, when Vic came in and saw it he was so excited he immediately started throwing tricks with it, my OH was laughing his head off because he's never seen that game before, he thought the dog was having a funny 5 minutes till I explained :)

Thanks all for your encouragement :) and also for the book recommendations, I'll give them a read!

Thanks mastifflover, we really are enjoying this experience together.

> we really are enjoying this experience together

And that is what its all about!  :-)  :-)  :-) 

Well done, I've been thinking of trying clicker training on one of my girls and hope I can manage to get some good results too. :-)
Paula xxx

It's really worth it Paula, well so far it is! lol

From what I've read, and the short sessions I've done with Alfie, the key is clicking at the right time.
Worth reading up about and searching the net.
Hope you get on ok! :)

>the key is clicking at the right time.

Yes absolutely and one of the things that really helps is to have the right clicker too.  I have a push button type that I've fixed to a stretchy wrist band which I really like but I tried a different one recently which I couldn't get on with.  It was a bit like a piece of flexi tin inside a box!

Whenever I get my clicker out they all get excited but my most advanced dog (KC Good Citizens GOLD) goes into a frenzy of performing every single thing he knows delivered in 60 seconds!  It's a delight to watch and testament to the power of kind, reward based training.  After his intoductory routine he sits back with a goofy grin and an air of expectation waiting to start.

Thanks for the reminders, I must get the pup booked onto his next course - he's currently taking advantage of my busy state and he's playing Jenga with the wood pile again! :)

I'll have to bring his mummy for a visit to sort him out :-)

>my most advanced dog (KC Good Citizens GOLD) goes into a frenzy of performing every single thing he knows delivered in 60 seconds!

You see, I'd have a problem with that - I simply don't want my dog performing a routine without being told to!

Not a problem :-)  You simply tell them what you do want them to do.

I would have to untrain that performance in the same way that you untrain barking or manic circling when you get ready to go for a walk; by putting the clicker down again until the dog was calm whenever it was picked up, and waited for instructions.

Yep, that would work too :-)

How would you avoid that situation happening in the first place (prevention is always better than cure)?

It's only my more experienced dog that tends to do it anyway but i just put her in a sit, stay before i get the clicker out of my bag :-)

When i remember to do so :-)

That's still dealing with the problem, not preventing it. How would you keep the dog reacting to the owner picking up the clicker as calmly as it would to a hairbrush or a mobile phone?

Ah well you see I wouldnt want that to happen.  It's very useful for me that the clicker is greated so enthusiastically by the dog :-)

Hi Jeangenie

I've encouraged the routine by not discouraging it - and laughing.  He knows I find it endearing :)

To prevent it from happening I'd choose a start position, which interestingly is what I did in a class situation.  It was only at home I allowed it to go to pot...

...actually as soon as he finishes his clicker dance he sits and waits to be formally asked for the next behaviour.  I know he gets very enthusiastic about training and it suits me to let him 'shake it off' before we start.  That's a personal thing though and not related to the clicker element.

> xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">I'd choose a start position  - which in our case is the sit, stay :-)

I too find it endearing that my older girl gets so excited by clicker training.  I don't really need to teach her to do anything new now.  In fact mostly I do a session with her so that she doesnt feel left out when I've been training my pup :-)