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thank you for the great info we are looking to start a small obedance class with our local church group i would love to be able to copy and distribute your lessons
sinserly harry a marsh
Harry – sorry for the very delayed response! You are welcome to use these lessons for your church group, as long as they are non profit & you have my information (Name, Greenwood Dog Training School & Clickerlessons.com) on each page.
Hi, I was hoping you could help me…..I have began clicker training with my new puppy. I am using your lessons, and they are working wonderfully. The puppy is responding magnificently. The problem I am having is, the puppy is distinguishing between “training time” and other times, and is only responding wonderfully while training. Getting his attention, or sit stay down, other times, he really is not interested. I have found this to be true with an older dog who we rescued from a shelter. She has been trained well, and knows all commands, while “training” does great, otherwise chooses not to listen. My older dog is obviously treat driven. How do I break this? And how do I transfer training responses to all the time, with the puppy? Your response would be greatly appreciated. Your lessons are wonderful! Thank you
Danielle,
I am glad to hear the training is going well! Please don’t make the mistake of expecting too much, too soon, though. At the beginning, your pup is definitely working to earn those treats – they are his reward, or reinforcement, for figuring out what you want & responding to your cues. At the beginning, they are actually part of the cue for him as well, which is why you might find he won’t respond without them at this point. The key is to go slowly and have realistic expectations… remembering, especially with the younger pup, what it takes time to l learn things. The average kindergartner doesn’t learn to read in 5-6 sessions! Here are the steps:
• train any new behavior in a quiet place so your pup can focus
• have a reinforcement that the pup is willing to work for
• once the pup is responding well, start training in a variety of quiet locations (at first the pup will associate the actual room as part of the cue)
• carry that clicker & some treats with you while at home, so you are ready to ask for & reinforce behaviors. If you make a big production of getting the training supplies out, your puppy will associate that & know that only responses he gives at that point will be reinforced. You want him to learn that his correct responses will ALWAYS be reinforced by you.
• be prepared to perhaps back up a few steps in the training for any behavior, review the steps, then continue progressing
• start adding in more natural distractions, again, being prepared to perhaps back up a few steps in the training as a review if needed
• once you are getting the responses you want at least 80% of the time, start being more variable with your reinforcements
- instead of C&T’ing a single response (e.g. “sit”), ask for 2 or 3, then C&T at the end (i.e. “Sit, Down, Sit”.. C&T”)
- be variable in what the reinforcement is, especially when not using the clicker. Have your pup earn everything good in his life!
some examples:
- pup has to hold a brief sit stay before you put his dinner bowl down
- pup has to make eye contact before you open the door to let him out to pee
- play tug o’ war, then ask pup to release the tug toy & sit for a moment… then continue the game
- use your imagination… what things does your dog find reinforcing? Praise, gentle petting, a game of fetch? Use all of those things as reinforcements!
A lot of this is described in the lessons – look at the end of the Sit, Down & Stand page as well as the Advanced Training page. Best of luck & have fu