As Harley is injured and is on rest, I have decided to learn clicker training and to TRY and teach Harley! I've just read about paws in the box and am going to try and get her doing this by next week. Any tips or suggestions about what else we could do would be gratefully received
Once she can target, you can extend that, too - teach her shapes, for example, and have her target the right one.
Having used the clicker to teach Coco to bow (he now bows when I bow - so cute!), I am currently teaching him to roll over - the clicker really speeds things up for us.
Really good ideas - we have been trying to teach roll over for months with no success so will try with the clicker .....thank you
Just done our first session. We practised sit - she is really strong at this usually so I walked away then stopped and the minute she sat in front of me I clicked and treated. I did this about 6-7 times and I think she got it as she started looking towards my hands as she was sitting to see if I was going to click and treat. We then moved on to walking through 2 poles (this will help with agility - pole weave) as she usually jumps around like a looney when we usually tries this. I clicked and rewarded every time she walked through the poles. She then started doing it without me asking then looking at me as if to say 'where's my click and reward mum' I left it at that as I didn't want to overload her in one go. I'm planning to do at least 4/5 short sessions every day, progressing to having 4 paws in the box by next week!
That's fab! I hope you enjoy it! The 4 paws in a box thing is a bit dated now. I think the more up to date view of clicker training is shaping should be minimised and luring is preferred. Certainly at ClickerExpo last year my clicker was barely used! Everyone was luring and using the click only to mark the last little bits precisely once the behaviour was nearly there. Because if you shape something you reinforce a lot on the way to what you want. And that reinforced behaviour is then there to stay in some way... My own experience of Charlie very much is in line with this - I get all sorts of behaviours that I rewarded 'on the way' to something popping up, including the dratted 4 paws in a box. No, Charlie, I do not want you to stand in any box you find, thanks very much. Particular not the kit boxes at Gundog training.... And indeed with Betsy on clicker retrieve she has a hugely strong 'drop the dummy' behaviour on the way to only drop on the click. I do worry whether I will 'train this out'.
That's interesting, Julie. I hadn't realised there was a shift in the thought process. I've mainly lured for most things, because it's just easier, but when I was first studying clicker training material, it seemed luring was the poor relation to shaping. Food for thought.
Both Barbara and I noticed it at ClickerExpo - and in every workshop, every instructor said 'put your clicker away'. And there was a definite anti 'clicker mad' thing going on. Yep, shaping is out, I reckon. Unless you can click for pretty much nearly what you want as the end behaviour.
Interesting!! I guess that makes sense. I'll admit to being secretly glad if that is indeed the case....Simba and I are hopeless at the shaping thing.
Harley is getting on really well with the clicker. We gave up with 4 paws in a box........we got the front two in quickly, but that was it. We have been working on the contact with 2 paws on / 2 paws off equipment such as the seesaw, dog walk and A frame. I used the back door step to start with and she got this quickly, we then moved on to a plastic box, again she got this but I did need to lure her onto the box to start. My hubby made a ramp out of wood and painted the bottom half so we are now using that. My hubby is going to make a small version on the dog walk to help us practice more. Harley gets really excited when she sees the clicker coming out as she knows we are going to do something exciting I do tend to lure with treats into the position I want her in before clicking. Not sure if I'm doing it right, but it works well for us.
Well, as per the previous conversation, it seems like luring it where it's at! How about some video of Harley showing how smart she is?
Once I work out how to video on my new phone I will get my hubby to video us (only got it yesterday morning as mine died and I lost all my photos and videos of her )
Noooo! Well, in future, you need to back them up by putting them on here. We don't get enough Harley photos/videos
