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Clicker Training Greyhounds


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Okay, here's the deal, I'm starting obedience for my two greys but I'd like to get some basic clicker training going first.

These two are retired racers and are 2 years old. They aren't obedient and don't even have recall LOL They are like big stoopid cats hehe!

I need some basics on clicker training... do I 'çharge' the clicker or not? How do I do it???

I've googled clicker training but I wanna do it for FREE!

Any help would be MUCH appreciated.

Ta,

Imogen

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Guest Tess32

Charge the clicker by click and treating in succession (don't make them do anything for it) until you notice they visibly alert at the sound of the clicker.

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Cool.... thankyou... I'll update when I've got it to that stage, would you mind helping me with the next step after that?

How long does it generally take to charge it up? Suppose it depends on the pooches right? Is it possible to clicker two doggies at the same time or am I pushing it?

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Guest Tess32

I would do it seperately at first because you are learning too :D

It depends on the dog. Some get it within a few clicks, others don't. Some only seem to 'get it' when you start requiring a behaviour I've found. On average it really should only take a 5-10 min session.

Just see how you go, heaps of people here to help :)

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They lounge with me in the loungeroom, so I'm thinking if I click at random intervals and treat right away, they will get it pretty quick... or should I do an intense 10-15 min session instead?

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With Stella I did click-treat-click-treat-click-treat-click-treat-click-treat-click-treat-click-treat-click-treat-click-treat-click-treat-

Waited a minute til she was looking away and - click - poor girl nearly got whiplash spinning around to look at me :D

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Well... they are pretty good at knowing when dinner is ready, its usually a good time to get up and head towards their bowls when they hear the spoon "clang-clang" on the side of the bowl (I clang after stirring to get the last of the mince off) they should get the clicker thing!

I'll get the rapi-gel out for the whiplash... just in case :D

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Jack the boofer got the hang of the clicker within minutes.

If he can do it, any dog can! :)

Now he's freezer-trained (open the chest freezer and he comes running), microwave-trained (*DING!* means dinner is thawed, according to Jack) and he's trained to detect the difference between work shoes and the sound my sneakers make when I'm getting ready for a walk! :(

Or maybe it's me who is trained ... :D I think so.

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Hi. If you are interested in clicker training the best resource is this site, it has loads of links - http://www.k9events.com

Once the clicker is charged begin with a simply trick like this one - http://www.clickertraining.com/karen/artic...e&itemnumber=20 - My dog Bella is the Brittany on the beach. Karen Pryor taught people on line about clicker training and I was lucky enough to be participating (you don't get that chance every day). This exercise was great to teach the person and the dog about the clicker. You might start with the dog looking at the cup, then one step toward it etc building up to knocking the cup over etc.

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I remember trying the 101 things to do with a box trick ... I was so convinced I had taught Jack to get a particular toy out of the box.

Nope. I had only taught him that staring at the box (very intently!) would get him a click. Back to square one for us!

The best hint I've followed with clicker training is to imagine the clicker is a camera.

You have to click at the precise moment of the desired behaviour, to get a snapshot of the moment into your dog's head. Click at the wrong moment, and you've saved the wrong 'picture'.

I think someone on DOL mentioned that and it's stuck with me (Tess32, perhaps, or Clicking Mad, I can't remember!) :(

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I couldn't get a clicker last night... I'll try again tonight. I don't know that I'll be able to do much in the way of training tonight though, my partners kids are down (chaos) and it one of their birthdays so I've been planning to make a 'fish' cake in a bed of blue jelly and all!

The weekend sounds like a good time to play with the pooches... as long as the kids don't decide to'help' LOL

I need an EASY trick to start with... I heard about 'look at the spot' trick. Where you get a post-it note and stick it to yourself, say on a leg or something and teach the hound to look at it. Any other easy but useful ideas would be much appreciated for my first commands.

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The first one I did was "look at me" in a heap of different environments.

Then we did shaking hands and high-fives, which Jack now does allll the time :(

Once he "gets" a trick, he really gets it!

Have fun! The weekend sounds like a goer.

And can we have pics of the fishy cake, please? I love fancy cakes :)

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I think 'look at moi' is a goer for now. So I can get their attention when they are being goofy.

LOL I dug my own grave with the fishy cake... I only cook one if their birthday falls on OUR weekend. The youngest has had 2 cakes with us and the last one was a snake complete with choccy drop scales. He went home and told him mum (who made an ordinary cake and dumped lolly snakes on top LOL not the same) ANYWAY, the oldest is HANGING for his own novelty cake now so I'm doing him a bream because he likes fishing. It has toffee tail and fins (already made) and a jelly ocean to lay on (already done) and it WILL have jersey caramel scales (already sliced and cut into shape LOL)

ANYWAYS... I'll get piccies.

post-7113-1148610919_thumb.jpg

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Hand targettig is really easy to teach.

Once the clicker is charged, put a treat in your hand, (hold it in place with your thumb against your palm) when your dog's nose touches it click and treat. Repeat several times, then start getting them to touch your hand without the treat in your hand, then click and treat. When you think they know it add the cue like 'touch'. Move your hand into different positions to check how well your dog has learned the behavior.

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Imy, I'm just starting clicker training too

I have been teaching nose targets (if they bring their nose to touch my 2 pointed fingers, they get a click and a treat)

They got that quickly and now we are doing a target stick (touch the end of the stick and get a ct - click treat)

They learn so quick, it's great, but I feel like a goose when I muddle it up!!!

BTW I LOVE your cake, how cool is that!!!

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That sounds like a good one pax... would be good for teaching drop later on too... especially since they have to 'fold up' like a card table to get to the ground!

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Teaching 'touch the hand with the nose' is a nice one to start with once you've charged the clicker. You have food and clicker in one hand, then hold out the other hand. You can 'shape' it by first clicking and treating any look by the dog toward the target hand, then once the dog gets that, up the criteria gradually so that you only c/t a nose touch. Once you get that reliably, you can hold the hand out further from the dog and/or higher/lower. Once the dog has it, you can put the cue "touch" on to the behaviour. Then you can start transferring that to other things - like target plates, target sticks, post-it notes etc.

One of the things I love about using a clicker is that it's precise - really makes you think what you're trying to get the dog to do, and break it down into small steps heading towards the final behaviour.

Another of the nice things is that it sharpens up your timing - but it's also forgiving - if you goofed, the dog doesn't get hurt, and you can undo pretty easily.

And of course, the dogs love to work for their click.

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Yup, I'm going to start with nose targeting... well, looking in the gfeneral direction first, then touching from there... The touch will be nice one to start with as these boys have learnt to 'poke' things off the coffee table by themselves... I'd like to teach them to do it on command so they don't wanna do it all of the time (luckily they don't CHEW the stuff)

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