Chapter THREE--The Secrets of Becoming a Supertrainer: Let's Discuss!!!

[Adina P]

We're on to Chapter 3: The Secrets to Becoming a Supertrainer!!!

You may have already read this chapter or just starting--either way, please share your thoughts here.
This chapter was a bit more 'technical' than the first 2 and hopefully got you thinking carefully about how you will approach your training plans.

I'd love it if everyone tried the "Tennis Ball Exercise" for timing and reported your findings.

Also plan something simple to train and come up with a training plan...if you share it with us...even better!

[Adina P]

I plan to try to use a post-it as a target to get Rosco to close a cabinet door...and I will use the plan in the book as it looks like a good one!

[Bette & Obie]

Chapter 3 is a bit harder for me to grasp especially the not nagging or luring part. We tell Obie to sit (something he knows well) & he sometimes just looks as us instead of sitting so we say it again or several times (nagging) before he responds. If he sees us pick up the clicker or open the treat jar he will perform as long as he knows there's a treat. The other day in the park he sat on his own before a couple of people he thought had treats (he must have smelled them!). Throughout the day he will offer behaviors on his own even though we aren't in the training mode & of course he expects a treat. Should we give him one? This is a chapter that I believe will need to be read a few times before it sinks in. I have tried the tennis ball exercise but no matter how far away Obie is, he hears the click & comes running - he has amazing hearing & to him click = treat whether he is performing or not!

Yesterday we received the Click-a-Trick cards (9 cards with different tricks on each) along with a clicker. They are a wonderful tool. My husband is in the process of teaching Obie "Speak and Shhh!" in 7 easy steps which is on one of the cards. We are progressing slowly but it has only been one day. If we keep at it, we believe that eventually we will have a dog that doesn't bark at every bird, squirrel, or neighbor he sees! The cards will be a great addition to the clicker training course. As yet we haven't come up with any other behavior to train (setting criteria/steps to accomplish) but will try to do so in the next few days. Never having trained an animal before it is a little daunting...

[Adina P]

Let us know how the tricks work out! Sounds fun =)

If you have to nag...it probably means training broke down somewhere...but my first though:
Was sit originally taught to him using a lure? If so I might try to reteach it without a lure...with NO command. And maybe call it something else -- when you get to the point of adding a verbal cue.

One of the big problems with luring, besides the dog expecting you to show it what to do and missing the point of clicker...is that the treat becomes part of the cue. And then people have a hard time weaning off the treat as a signal to do something. Then you have dogs that only sit for treats.

If he offers behaviors during the day that you LIKE and would like to use later...then click and treat. If not then ignore him. It's part of the concept of "stimulus control" -- once you've put a behavior on cue (given it a name and he understands the cue and responds to it) is for that behavior to ONLY surface when you give the cue. You can only do that if you ONLY reward when he does the behavior because you told him the cue. He learns that there is ONLY a reward if momma says "take a bow" not if he does it as a treat-begging behavior.

However, until something is on cue...if he does something that you think you can use later...feel free to click and treat if you like it. But the clincher is that you have to click that SECOND he does it...if he bows and you don't have the clicker hanging from your wrist...it's too late. Ignore it at that point. Or work on teaching a verbal marker (YES!) for when you don't have a clicker.

Some behaviors you can train:

-Back up (walk a few steps backwards)
-Go to your bed
-Close the door (to a low cabinet).
-Shake (the way dogs shake after a bath or when wet)
-Wave (goodbye/hello)
-Heel (as in finding heel position from anywhere...The Canis team has an AWESOME video showing how it is done -- just go to the download place and log in and watch it!)
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[Nancy Greenberg]

Duffy and I are progressing along. always looking for more behaviors to click. Just as an aside....I've downloaded the book and have begun printing it off so I can read it away from my laptop. Have just discovered that the portions in yellow are not downloading properly...the right edges are being cut off, therefore not readable. anyone else having this problem? any solutions? would appreciate some help! thanks! Nancy

[Adina P]

We use a program called "Fine Print" that allows you to print multiple pages onto one page and shrinks the whole thing for this purpose. There is a free version too and this is the site you can download it on--use the "download now" (NOT the buy now) option for the free one: http://www.fineprint.com/products/fineprint/index.html