What behaviors are you trying or have you taught with the clicker?

[Maryann,Roo and Tigger]

My dogs have successfully learned touch with their nose and crawl a short distance. Also learned to touch with their paw and "go to" for a short distance. Have not worked on any back chaining yet. i think I am going to try to get them to "kiss" by having them touch the stick end from opposite sides and then remove stick.

[Nancy Greenberg]

I've been trying to teach Duffy to lie down but am not having much success! He seems to want to get up when I give him the treat. I'd like him to lie down and stay down while I give him the treat. He's great with the sit, stay, "go to place"(mousepad), targeting the stick, nose to the post-it note. Won't shut the drawer with the post-it note on it, but goes and touches his nose to it. If I don't click and reward him for it, he seems to lose interest and tries other ways to get his "click, treat". I must be doing something wrong....or am I just a little impatient? It's kind of strange....as soon as he sees me put the clicker on my wrist he goes into performance mode and will do just about anything, so I would like to "cash in" on this eagerness and ask more of him, but I don't want to go too fast and confuse him.

[Maryann,Roo and Tigger]

It sounds like you are having great success! What you want to do now is to back chain the behavior. To keep him lying down make him wait longer and longer between the click and the treat. If he is reponding 80% of the time to "Lie Down", it is time to wait to click. Say "Lie down" and click and treat a few times. Then Say "Lie Down, wait and click, bend and treat. Technically dogs are supposed to hold the last command until given another or released. Assuming that you are just working for pet perfection like I am, try adding "wait" to the "lie down" wait 2 seconds, bend, click, and treat. You do not have to bend, but I am impatient like you are and I think bending to place the treat at the lying down nose level is a good clue to him that to get his treat it would be helpful to stay down. If he gets up at the click you keep the treat at floor level so he has to at least get his nose back down there. Increase 2 seconds to 4 seconds to a minute to during dinner VERY gradually. Then treat. When he really has it, you can add the release "okay" and he can get up for his treat. It is back chaining the click treat behavior, you are teaching him to wait for you to bend and click then replacing the bend with okay. Where you are right now is at the beginnning of the backchain ( he gets up and gets his treat) which is actually the end of the behavior, you have already added "Lie Down" and you want to add wait in the middle. You always treat at the end of the behavior and begin working backwards through the whole behavior. I bet Duffy gets it immediately if you remain perfectly still ( so you don't give him any unintentional signals,) no click for two seconds. Then click and treat. If he does get up before you click, stand very still and ask him to l
"Lie Down" again. Asking to "Lie Down" again is fair because he knows this behavior and it is time for him to "guess" that you want him to wait a bit. he has to do this new part "wait' to get his treat. As you have learned once he gets it he'll really have it. That's the greatest advantage that I see so far to clicker training. Then click and bend and treat. Maybe this will help you when you reread the backchaining in the book.

[Adina P]

It's okay if he gets up after you click. The "click" says he got it RIGHT and he's DONE for that repetition. So if you want him to lie down for a few seconds longer...don't click right away after he's down. Click after 1 second...then 2 seconds...then 3 seconds until down means what you WANT it to mean. But as soon as you click...it is appropriate for him to get up. In fact I would actually toss the treat for him to get up and GET so that if he offers down again I KNOW for sure he's understanding what it is he's supposed to do that session.

It would happen in this order:
Duffy offers a down--> Click --> Toss treat to the floor --> Duffy finds and eats treat --> Duffy returns and offers down --> Click --> Toss treat to the floor --> and so on. When he is offering exactly what you WANT him to do repeatedly and consistently...then you can start to say "Down" right as he's doing it. Then after a few sessions where you SAY it AS he's doing it...you can start to say it a second before he does it when you know he's going to do it...and so on. Then if he does it at least 8 out of 10 times on cue...you know he understands that "down" means for him to lie down for 3 seconds (example).

[Anne & Mr. Haley]

I have taught Haley to shake paw, lie down, bring his Frisbee back and release it, also tennis ball. We did the post- it- note on the drawer which was successful except that he would not touch drawer hard enough to close it. Haley and I are working on the hard one – nail trimming. So far in two days I have gotten to the point he will let me touch/hold his paw, touch the nails with my fingers and stick my fingers between the pads. Next it will be touching his nails with the tool (hopefully the Dremel instead of nail clippers). Before using the C/T technique he would not let me touch his paws other than the “shake”

[Maryann,Roo and Tigger]

Good Job!!

[GBK]

Two great success stories for my Buddy :)

He hates to have his collar and leash put on because he know his bratty little sister will grab onto the end and pull him around by it. He now watches me grab my clicker, I ask him to sit, click and treat as I put the collar around is neck, voila, no more dancing with the dog and grabbing for his neck when we go out!

The other day our neighbors put up a new umbrella for their outside table, it floats above our backyard wall. Buddy went nuts, it is his yard, what the heck is that, bark, bark, bark, run inside to all the rooms push the blinds away and bark and scratch at the windows. OMG, if I hadn't started clicker training and worked with him, I would have pulled my hair out on Monday. Started inside and the minute he turned his head from the window, click and treat. Heads back towards the window again, turns his head, click and treat. Did the same in the bedroom, worked like a charm, took us about a half hour of work between rooms and outside. He was calm, we went outside and played, he looked at the umbrella a little, but left it alone from then on. Saved me from taking a day off for a wild child..... Now he only notices it when the wind blows.