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Reintroduced Clicker Training


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Hi guys, as the title says I haven't used a clicker for about 4 years. I did use one with both my dogs when they were younger. So thought I'd drag it out & along with an empty box & see how we go. Well Sonny looked at the box once, I clicked & treated. Then he started offering up a few of his tricks, all good but then he started screaming right at me in what seemed like frustration & barking his head off. Should I do nothing & wait until he shows interest in the box? He seems hell bent on focusing on me & the treat bag. How do I redirect that? I did throw a treat or 2 to try & change his attention. I moved around as well. Am thinking he doesn't know what I am asking of him perhaps???

Edited by BC Crazy
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If you haven't done anything with it for that long you'll probably need to 're-load' the clicker. It's as simple as click treat click treat click treat click treat rapid fire click treat party! So Sonny can remember to associate the sound of the click with a treat. Remember that clicking is capturing the exact moment that he offers/does the behaviour you're after, and if he doesn't remember what the click means he might be getting a touch frustrated :)

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Yeah Better. I think you may be onto it. He really threw me with his overwhelming excitement at the very first click. I thought he may of forgotten the sound after 4 years or so. I was wrong & he was pretty full on. So I'll reintroduce it gradually. Maybe several short sessions a day. He is so used to taking direction from me & focusing directly at me but with clicker sessions Sonny has to think things through & work out what it is he has to do for it to pay.

All I can say is our neighbors had better put their ear muffs on LOL.

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Also you might need to really break it down...some things I do...relax in a chair with the treats behind me and out of sight. Grab a cuppa. Or a glass of wine. Relax. C&T the tiniest increments - glance, look, stare, paw the box. With Zig I sometimes pay one treat for the same behaviour and a jackpot for trying something new. Really short sessions. Get in 6 treats in rapid succession and take a break. Video!

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If he's so focused on you, have you considered using a marker word (as in YES!!!) instead of a clicker? If he's super handler focused then that might work more in your favour rather than using a clicker. We use them here, because I'm a complete klutz and cant wrangle a clicker/leash/dog/treat all at the same time :laugh:

You would just need to 'charge' your marker word in a short click treat session as you would the clicker.

And as TSD says, go slow. Raise the criteria gradually

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Also you might need to really break it down...some things I do...relax in a chair with the treats behind me and out of sight. Grab a cuppa. Or a glass of wine. Relax. C&T the tiniest increments - glance, look, stare, paw the box. With Zig I sometimes pay one treat for the same behaviour and a jackpot for trying something new. Really short sessions. Get in 6 treats in rapid succession and take a break. Video!

Yes, yes & yes :) Take him right back to loading the clicker, hide your treats behind your back & don't point the clicker at him like a remote control. Small sessions to start with & finish with a party before he gets frustrated

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I usually mark with "yes". I would like to change things up sometimes.

TSD, wine sounds good ;) Gosh I may have overwhelmed him.

Hope I haven't ruined his reunion with clicker training too much. I do find he does get frustrated at times with most training. To be fair he has taken a little bit of a back seat as far as one on one training goes because Stella has taken every inch of me. Since I seem to have her going along OK atm I am going to get cracking with Sonny. I know it's never to late to restart training but I think I need to channel some of his excitment & frustration. Somehow ???

Edited by BC Crazy
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Aiden3, I was thinking I may of started poor Sonny at the top :o No wonder he was screaming at me :laugh:

OK so start off simple. Hand target sounds good.

Sheena, I did have the treats hidden & we certainly ended with a party. I forgot the treat bowl was behind me when I stood up I knocked it flying :laugh:

TSD, I will try & video him. Its uploading onto the computer I'm unsure how to do. Showing me age now.

I haven't had any formal dog training lessons as such. So I just read up where I can & have a go. Always seemed to struggle previously juggling the clicker plus treats but I'm finding it easier with each time I try it of late. I was amazed with Sonny's 'bring it on' response even after I just clicked once, he remembered that distinctive sound. I can see it will be much more effective with him than using my voice.

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I just bought this & I am dying to try it out...seems like such a good idea belt/lead clicker & these look just as good or even better, but they didn't have them when I made my purchase Treat pouch with built in clickers I am really tempted to buy one anyway to add to my collection :laugh:

Also...not sure if this is any help to you, but I wrote an article & put it into PDF format for those wanting to use a clicker...go to this link Introduction to Clicker Training & scroll down to the PDF file.

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When the dog is frustrated just walk away. Go back in a few hours. That way he learns that chucking a trick tantrum isn't productive.

Our newest trick is to put a paw on a lifted foot, kind of fun to walk back wards going touch, touch but has taught the terror to Paw things when he is frustrated. Why does my dog always have to go that one step too far?

Now when he starts doing the crazy paw thing I just walk off. Somehow I know that's going to come back to bite me too.

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Sheena, your website is great. Very informative. DIY agility equipment is interesting. I am going to start doing a bit of agility with Stella in our backyard hopefully so make be stealing a few of those ideas for jumps & weaves. Thought she would love to do that. I have to learn how to start them off. She may or may not ever get to an actual course but I still would like to teach her the right way just in case. We haven't much room so we wont be doing anything too much but at least it's a start I'm thinking.

Hankdog, Jake is smart boy learning all his tricks. I think I will just keep up these really easy, short clicker sessions till we can work through this tanti stuff.

Edited by BC Crazy
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Sheena, your website is great. Very informative. DIY agility equipment is interesting. I am going to start doing a bit of agility with Stella in our backyard hopefully so make be stealing a few of those ideas for jumps & weaves. Thought she would love to do that. I have to learn how to start them off. She may or may not ever get to an actual course but I still would like to teach her the right way just in case. We haven't much room so we wont be doing anything too much but at least it's a start I'm thinking.

If you could PM me your email address, then you are welcome to the student notes that I have done up for my Foundation Agility Class. For the first couple of months I was very good putting notes together for them, but have been a bit slack lately, what with holidays, trials & wet weather. You are welcome to copy any ideas off my website. I originally put the website together, to help those wanting to start out in agility & it has grown. :) When I first started I got no help from anyone & certainly no encouragement to start trialing :(

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When the dog is frustrated just walk away. Go back in a few hours. That way he learns that chucking a trick tantrum isn't productive.

Our newest trick is to put a paw on a lifted foot, kind of fun to walk back wards going touch, touch but has taught the terror to Paw things when he is frustrated. Why does my dog always have to go that one step too far?

Now when he starts doing the crazy paw thing I just walk off. Somehow I know that's going to come back to bite me too.

OMG, I love Jake more and more. He is the master of mind games. Who the Hell said Bulldogs are dumb was not paying attention :rofl:

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When I first started clicker traiming with my kelpie she sometimes got super excited and started barking at me. I simply told her to lie down and after 5 seconds of silence we would start again. If she had of kept barking I would have stopped, time out for a little while.

mind you, I do keep it happening and pretty quick. but the barking behaviour that you see at agility trials sometimes would drive me crazy and so I never let her bark in frustration.

Have fun, I really should clicker train more stuff.

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Thanks skip☺

Quick update. Sonny is going well with the clicker. He is just so focused. So much more than if I were just using my voice. I keep lessons very short & try to end before he gets frustrated. He offers up lots of behaviors & he seems to thrive on these sessions. Stella also loves it. Anything to do with treats & Stella is 100 % focused ????. I have been unwell the last 4 days but hoping to restart again tomorrow.

Edited by BC Crazy
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