My Response to a Reader – What do you do when clicker training doesn’t work?
I have this survey I give my email subscribers to find out more about what they are working on with their dogs and how I can help them. If you haven’t taken it yet, go here to give me your feedback! Here’s the latest question from a subscriber: “How you have used the principles and…
The Dog Trainer Spectrum
Watch out! I’m going to use labels to describe dog trainers in this post! Read at your own risk! I am on a lot of Facebook groups. The forum-like setting creates a great environment to interact with many different people and trainers from all over the globe. There’s nothing out there like it. I recently…
Now, Instant, Immediate, Prompt, Instantaneous or Eventually
Why are prong collars and e-collars so popular despite the obvious physical and psychological harm they do to dogs? It’s because they give instant results. Unfortunately, positive reinforcement based training takes repetition for the dog to learn and change. Despite it’s proven long term effects on behavior, it doesn’t give the results as quickly as…
Stimulating Endorphins While Training Your Dog
Ever eat ice cream when you are down? Does it make you feel better? It should brighten your mood because eating comfort foods stimulate endorphins in your brain that give you that “feel good” sensation (unless you are one of the rare people that hate ice cream that is). The endorphins are natural stress fighters…
Can Your Dog “Leave It”?
Have you taken the time to teach your dog to “leave it”? If not, here’s your chance! [Just in time for the holidays! ;)] “Leave it” can be a lifesaving cue for your dog. It can prevent the dog from eating fractured, cooked chicken bones, moldy hamburger on the side of the road, or even…
Using Treat Delivery to Your Advantage
How you deliver the treat during training can make or break the lesson. I’m going to go as far as to say treat delivery is just as important as your timing with the clicker. Take a look at this video. Can you see how she delivers the treat where she wants the end behavior to…
Guest Post: My Crossover Training Event
I am honored to publish a guest post by Shade Whitesel (Shade’s Dog Training), a nationally recognized Schutzhund trainer. She has been working in Schutzhund/IPO for 15 years. Shade has achieved 100 points (a perfect score) in Schutzhund Tracking with two dogs. Her current competition dog is Reiki vom Aegis, who in his off time trains for French Ringsport…
Another Crossover Story: Knowledge is Greater Than Force!
This is Jason Currie’s story about how he crossed over to positive reinforcement methods. Visit Jason’s website here: http://k9solutions.webeden.co.uk/ I’d like to tell people about my journey from the stone age training methods to modern science based training, a term often used for this is “crossover trainer”. Some see us as bleeding heart liberals or tidbit…