LESSON 1.
AN INTRODUCTION TO CLICKER TRAINING YOURDOG
Hi There Bedli/Dog Owners,
I am sending this early because there are so many new baby Bedliescoming to Bedli homes and I am getting requests as I finish it!
You can read much more sophisticated introductions to ClickerTraining than you will get at this corner. I will leave thesophistication to the experts.
There are 3 elements:
1. The dog
2. What the dog will work for
3. The Clicker
Clicker Training is based on the positive aspects only of aScientific method of training called Operant Conditioning.
Clicker training focusses on the positive reinforcement aspect ofthe field of Operant Conditioning. In other words, we reinforce abehavior that is already happening so that it will be repeated.
Now let's put the above three elements together in a trainingplan. You have the dog and what he will work for ie food, toys,games, petting/caressing and now we need something to connect the twoto behavior and that is the Clicker.
In order for the clicker to work, the dog must associate it withthe things he wants to work for. For simplicity's sake, we will startwith food. Most Bedlies love food. Most Bedlies are food motivatedand it is this motivation that is going to lead to success.
How do you get the dog to associate food with the clicker - that'ssimple. You do what is called, "Loading the Clicker". This is fullydescribed in the next lesson which was requested yesterday! Isn'tthis great - Clicker by popular demand! Just to give you a briefoverlay ...
until the dog starts looking for the food before you click. Nowyou are in business, as the saying goes!
In Operant Conditioning/Clicker Training you only reward the goodbehavior, the wanted behavior and you ignore the bad or wrongbehavior.
Your Bedly understands this more than you will realize atfirst!
What is most important for your dog is that he be a happy camper.Food and toys and games makes him happy and that is what we have.Clicker Training is a game for your dog; sometimes he wears thetraining hat and sometimes you wear the training hat!
There is something else. This is a happy time that you spend withyour Bedli and there are only positive things going on here. Thereare absolutely no aversives!
Throw away those choke chains (just think about the name)! Put ona quick-release collar, a nice 6' leash (thin leather 1/4 inch isbest but braided nylon will do to start) and a big smile on your faceand load up your pockets with treats and toys and off we go to to theClicker Corner to have fun!
The old fashioned method worked dogs until they were wrong; sothat you could correct them for being wrong; so that they would avoidbeing wrong. Clicker Training works within the dog's level of abilityand reinforces them when they are right.
Pretty easy stuff, isn't it? Now there is a fancy term list cominglater but it all, pretty well, comes down to this.
Bedli loves and cookies all around,
alison underhill
THE CLICKER CORNER
Bedlington-L@LME2.LME.Mankato.MSUS.EDU
Sidney, BC
Babe: "I trained her all by myself"
Tilly: "Here, have a cookie, dummy."
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