Soo, a few may have seen my post in the welcome thread. We picked up Enzo last week at 8 weeks old, as a family pet, he's settled in very well to his new home so far, eating fantastic, just started introducing junior food to his diet and he seems to really enjoy it. He's also sleeping well through the night. He already loves retrieving and when we have our five minutes of play he happily runs to get his toy and bring it back all tail wagging, although not so keen on letting it go yet We read lots and lots before we picked Enzo up but a lot of scan reading info and nothing too focus'd on one area. Since we picked him up, mainly myself have been reading the labradorsite non stop! Although I've owned dogs before never have I used a c&t method but although it sounds quite daunting, I'm also intrigued and quite excited to see how well trained Enzo can get, So, I guess it starts here I started charging the clicker today randomly alternating between cheese squares and doggy treats so he doesn't start to expect a certain treat on every click. I'm using the 5 step technique as written by pippa and will follow most of her guides through the training process, judging by what I've read so far. Big thanks to pippa (I think) for having so many different pages of advice to get lost in. Hope to learn, participate and get lots of advice during my time here. Here's the customary pic of the little guy
He's a little cutie...I've loved the clicker ...it has really helped me with my first dog....it sends such a clear accurate signal to them that they've got it right.....my dog is nearly 4 and he jumps right up from the deepest snooze when he sees me pick up the clicker and treat bag..... Best of luck just try something really easy at first like a nose touch to your hand or a sit ,even if you have it already you can tighten/ speed it up ...enjoy your training x
Thanks both that's his innocent 'I don't do anything wrong' expression haha, I do like his jet black nose, it's teddy like. @Dexter thaks for the tip, he's not really trained to do any thing yet such as sit etc so I will more than likely be starting with that. Would you also say sit, once he has sat, or just c&t with no voice input as soon as he has just randomly sat down, as much as I've read it hasn't got that kind of detail. I'd prefer to say sit as it comes natural but don't want to confuse him for future training.
What an absolutely beautiful boy. With C&T I introduce the verbal cue later. Mabel could already do the basic commands when I went on a clicker training course. I tend to use it for shaping behaviour. For example when I taught Mabel to go to her bed, I'd click for looking at her bed, then touching it with a paw, standing on it, then finally lying on it. Then I introduced the cue. So once she was touching her bed I wouldn't then click for looking at it. I also always treat whenever I click. I hope that makes sense as it is a bit rambling, sorry.
Enzo is a real beauty. Coco & I love the clicker, it really speeds up learning for us. We don't use it at our training classes, but I do at home. For example, we have been struggling with "stop (down) half way on recall" in class- today I introduced the clicker to this task at home & he's coming on very well. I use the cue-word at the same time (but I don't think that's the best - as @Pilatelover says). I can see Coco anticipating what's coming next, which isn't really ideal..but we're getting to our goal fast.
Hi pilatelover, yes that made perfect sense, thanks for your input it's very appreciated. What kind of time scale was you introducing each new click with regards to the going to the bed.
Thanks @edzbird. good to hear first hand experience of it working. We will be taking Enzo to classes and was wondering whether or not to use the clicker there if I was using it at home. There seems to be various ways of using it along side cue-words. I was thinking of using cue words along side as I would be the only one using the clicker, our 6yr old would not use it so when sit is trained I'd like Enzo to be able to also respond to the little uns "sit" Enzo loves to sit anyway, I'll be out of treats in no time!
I've always set aside two definite training sessions a day with Mabel with the odd simple little training session wherever possible. Regarding going to bed I didn't actually use her bed but a blanket, and she soon learnt that as I put the blanket on the floor it was a "bed" and she would race to it. . (Interestingly she will lie on anything when the cue for bed us given) I would click each time any interest was shown in the bed. To start with it was few and far between but once she got the idea it was quick succession. I've actually found it really useful for example when she needs to be weighed at the vets I put a towel on the scales and say bed and she jumps on the scales. Without the towel she will not get on the scales not even for a treat. If you fancy any reading material take a look at Karen Pryor, she makes an interesting read.
Thank you for such a detailed reply, that's great. I think I'll follow what you have done and set aside a dedicated training time, that sounds like a good idea. Also re Karen Pryor, I will look into her, thank you
Whether you're luring, capturing or shaping a behaviour, you want to leave adding the final cue until the behaviour is guaranteed. Let's say, you're working on a sit. You'd probably start by luring the pup's nose up, and as the bum started to move down, click. Very quickly moving to a "fake" lure, where you use the same hand movement, but only pretending to have food in there, and clearly treating from the other hand. When the pup was responding every time to your hand movement, this movement is basically a visual cue, and you can replace it by using the "new cue, old cue" method. So, you'd say "sit", then make your hand movement, and C&T the sit. Gradually extend the time between the verbal and visual cues and see if your pup understands that the word is the new cue, which would mean they sat on the word. You may have to go back a few steps a few times to get the association.
@snowbunny thats a brilliant help there, as much as I've read about the C&T method it's still hard to picture using it in real life and the order to do things. What you have written there is exactly what I have needed to hear! And it's what I will follow. Thank you. With going to his bed, crate etc etc, would you lure there, it's a very fine line between luring and bribing form what I can make out.
So I'm on day two of charging the clicker with Enzo. He's so funny, I'm not sure if it's a good or bad thing. As soon as he sees the clicker and treat bowl in my hand he's at my side, I click and treat a few times and trying to follow pippas guide of doing it when he's doing something different so he doesn't associate it with a certain thing he does... But he just sits at my side, so I'll ignore him so he darts to a new position in the room and look at me to see if that will work, then get a toy, then finally will lie down seemingly bored so I call him and click again. I'm C&T through out all the things he's doing. Is this right and ok to continue like this today, tomorrow ?
when I charged my clicker, I was following a youtube video, which just had the dog sitting still in front of me & I would c&t - say 10 times (treats behind me,out of sight). Then repeat a while later. So he wasn't actually doing anything while the clicker was charging. It didn't take many repeats.
Look up the Kikopup channel, she has loads of great clicker training videos - some fun stuff, loads of useful stuff. Luring basically is bribing to some extent, and that's OK, as long as you fade it quickly enough. You don't want to be stuck with a dog that will only work for treats. So, with going to a bed, for example, I'd start with luring him there, C&Ting as soon as he gets his feet on it. Then start tossing the treat a short distance to the bed, again clicking as soon as his feet make contact, and making an obvious pointing motion you throw. Then, after a handful of goes, fake the toss; when he goes to his bed, click and treat from the other hand. Stay on this bit a long time, so he understands that just because you're no longer throwing the treat, he still gets a treat for following the direction of your hand to the bed. Once he's doing that consistently and with confidence, you can add your verbal cue, as before new cue-old cue: "On your bed"...point...C&T behaviour. Then "On your bed"....pause...point...C&T behaviour. Gradually increase the pause to see if he'll make the connection and go to his bed on the verbal cue. If not, go back to the step without the verbal cue and repeat that a few more times before trying again. You want to keep the success rate really high with your final cue, so the pup has it firmly in his mind what the association is.
@Sim you've encouraged me to buy a clicker and start charging it - 2 sessions so far. I had been using "YES" as my marker but it's hard to keep my voice consistent. Xena's a little older than your Enzo (12 weeks) but we're by no means advanced in our training. I'm also following Pippa's guides, we can learn together
Hi @Xena Dog Princess , nice to know I've inspired somebody haha I'm having my doubts about clicker training now, Enzo seems to be picking things up fairly quick so I'm unsure whether adding another training style into the mix is really necessary. I'm in a quandary about it at the moment. He's never messed the house, goes into his crate and sleeps at 11pm every night no bother and sleeps the night, no mess so no need for clicker training there, I've already started to get him sitting and lying following the same training style as the stoney YouTube vids, I've also been doing this while playing fetch with the little guy, he loves bringing it back and already started dropping the kong ball in return for a treat while I'm adding the drop cue slowly. I haven't started getting him used to a lead yet, but hopefully this will go rather smoothly to, just by using the treat and not moving if pulling technique. I'm probably being very naive but I'm struggling to think where or what benefits I'd get by adding a clicker to the mix at the moment. I've also bought an acme whistle to start recall training, I was about to start searching for answers for a few questions I have regarding that.
