Here are some videos of my walk this morning with Loker. He never had a loose leash like this with any kind of correction collar and it is a joy to see him do something because he actually WANTS to! I am so happy for this challenge in my life – for my sake and for my dog’s sake!
In this video, I use a clicker to mark the behavior I want then follow it by a treat for the dog as the reward. This allows him to know WHAT he did right and that something right got him a yummy. The reward in this case – steak fries! I wasn’t gonna eat them so I figured why not?!
Clicker training is so easy that anyone can learn. Unlike correction based training, you don’t have to worry about doing it wrong and screwing up your dog. It is simple and once you have master the timing on the click, you can use this on any dog, for any trick, any where! Unfortunately, in this video you can’t hear me clicking. I am clicking for every few steps on a loose leash. Keep in mind I’ve already been working on him with this so I am not clicking as often as our first loose leash walking session. You can also see that when I stop, I want him to sit automatically in the video: Loose Leash Walking 2. He offers sitting at the heel position sometimes but I am reinforcing anywhere he sits when I stop. Also, I catch myself leaving my hand in the treat bag – this is not good as it encourages the dog to look at the treat bag waiting for treats instead of making eye contact with the owner. I am still learning! 🙂
Here are the videos:
Here is a “How to” video that you can use for your dog!