Our Puppy: The Good, The Bad And The Ugly

[aussielover]

how does clicker training work?

You "charge" the clicker by making the click noise, then immediately rewarding the pup (usually food, but can be some other high value item). You repeat thhis say 50 times, so that the pup begind to realise that the "click" is ALWAYS follwed by a reward. It is important to always reward as the clicker never lies...

The advantage to this is that you can more easily (well for most people) reward tiny improvements and you can use it at a distance and it is a very distinctive sound that can be easily recognised and not otherwise commonly used. Many competition and service dogs are trained in this way and you can achieve amazing results.

In theory, you can do basically the same thing by using a word like "yes", however sometimes the tone of voice changes and emotions come accross in the voice making this less reliable (imo).

[koalathebear]

Most people use 'yes' as their marker word - I do I never say it during the day, it's always 'yeah' or 'yep' or 'uh huh'.

Heh, that makes sense to me - it just seemed very funny in the context of her talk because when she was saying: "Don't use a common word" I was expecting "expelliarmus" or "transubstantiationalism" or something

See you on Sunday

Yes ... I shall try to wave as I go past while tearing around the grass chasing after my crazy hyperactive pup

cw_ew: The names of your two babies always makes me grin. Jane Austen and Supernatural? Or are there other influences.

nekhbet:

your dog is a baby. Try and keep that in mind. You sound like first time dog owners so remember - your dog is a living creature that uses its teeth, tongue and nose to explore and express itself.

Thanks for the assurances. I guess he is still a baby. He looks a lot more grown-up than when we first got him but he's only 4 months old .. He's my OH's first dog (he's a cat person) and he's technically my second dog - but my first dog was a family dog and as a kid, I have to (shamefully) confess that I didn't take much responsibility for our dog. I'm trying very hard to do the right thing this time around.

His berzerk sessions are a working breed dog letting out its energy. Remain calm, give a little squirt with the water bottle then after a few seconds redirect to a toy.

That makes sense - I suppose with the kelpie/bc combo he was always going to be manic He does have the ability to be quiet and calm for long periods of time - it's just a bit disconcerting when he 'transforms' ... like the hulk!

corvus: Hee hee. I wish I could meet Erik. I've heard so much about him and he sounds like SUCH a character. He could probably make Elbie behave anyway

Edited June 24, 2010 by koalathebear