Well after reading all of your tips and advice i have decided to clicker train our rescue lab, i feel she is established enough with us now to not have to worry about anything else, so i feel she is ready to start training, question is how ??
i want to make sure that i get this right with her from the start so..
I have the clicker and the liver is drying out in the oven as we speak.... what next ?
All help will be appreciated
Thanks
Donna

You can choose to capture or to lure.  for older dogs it may be better to try luring with food first eg a sit, click the ACTION and treat.

do not wait until the dog has sat before you click, you are clicking the INTENT.

After 3 attmepts with food, use same shape fingers without food, C & T, you can then change the shape into a hand signal, once the behaviour is strong you can then add a verbal cue, wait a second and then use hand signal.  Generalise ie in different place and in different geography in relation to you ie behind you to the side, away from you etc etc etc

Then choose another behaviour.

Hi tohme,
She has just turned one year old this weekend just gone,
but up until us getting her at 9 months old she hadn't been taught anything and was not interested in food what so ever (seems she was beaten for taking food) in the last three months we have not put a lot of pressure on her, we have just let her get settled and learn to trust us (as she wet herself everytime my partner looked at her originally).
So i suppose although she is a year old she is more like a puppy in a lot of ways, she has picked up a couple of things from watching our GSD, and we have tried to be consistent in everything we do with her (esp her jumping up) but she doesnt know a great deal.

She does know what sit is so do i use a verbal command for that or do i follow your steps and act as though she doesn't know the verbal command for it ??

Also i have read about charging the clicker am i right in thinking that to do this all i do is click and treat without her doing anything ??
If so how long do i do this for before starting training with her ??
Thanks
Donna

If you have never used the clicker then you must "charge" it, just throw bits of food and click when she eats them.

After two or three sessions if you click whilst she is eating she should look around for the food, as soon as you see that "sudden" reaction to the clicker you know that she is charged so to speak.

The whole point of clicker training is to get the behaviour first long before you put a cue in.

You can recue her sit to another word such as egg for example, this will demonstrate whether or not you have been successful in your quest.