Not food motavated and such a brat!

[QuickSilver]

That's so cool. A lot of people take pictures of Thor, I find myself hoping he makes it into a local paper some day.

Do you feel like the training is helping? Is she learning new commands, or getting better at her current ones?

[QuickSilver]

It's cool you are using a clicker, by the way. I would love to use one with Thor, but he is scared of the noise.

How far do you plan to take her training? Here are some things I wish I had imprinted right away:

* Start work cue: This just tells her training is going to begin. Someone here says "Homework!" and you can add a sign if you wish. Thor cues much better to signs than to words. For a long time, he didn't seem to understand that words had any significance to him at all, and he still seems to think about half of my verbal commands mean "Sit".

* End TASK cue. So once you have her Sit or Stay reliably, you don't want her to decide for herself when she is finished. I unfortunately trained Thor on the cue "Okay", which he responds to very well, even when it is not directed at him. So if he is sitting and I tell someone "okay", he gets up. You might try "That'll do".

* End ALL WORK cue, meaning you are finished with training. That means (1) treats/training is finished. It will also come in handy when you have taught her the Come command. Thor responds to Come very well, gets his treat, and then immediately rushes back to whatever it was I called him away from in the first place. You want to teach your dog that her default mode is to be hanging out and waiting for her next command. For this, you can use "Go Play!". You can do a little "shoo" motion with your hands, or slap them together in a way that says "all finished."

Make sure to use Go Play! consistently to release her. Even if she starts out by rushing off on her own, say "Go Play!" to associate the words with her action.

Hope this helps.

[Nancy1999]

We took a clicker training class, and I found the clicker was not the best method of training for me. The idea with the clicker is to train them that the sound of the click is something good, and they will get food if they hear the click. I had a problem clicking at the exact moment of the proper response. For example, if you are training to sit, the click has to happen as soon as their butt hits the ground. I was always holding the clicker upside-down or I'd get excited and say Yes, instead of the click, and the click took too long coming for proper reinforcement, so I stopped using the clicker and substituted the word "yes" instead. I also used the word uh-uh, and it just means what he's doing won't earn him a treat. It's different than the word no, which means, "Stop that behavior." Dogs have to be hungry to train, and the hungrier they are the more they will listen. If you feed normal meals, and then try to train with treats, you have to up the food value too much, they might work for one or two treats, but then want something even yummier, or the get bored, so I train Joey with all of his breakfast and half his evening meal. I didn't do this during the trick training class, and Joey gained a pound in six weeks, it was a pound that he didn't need, and took some time to get it off, but it has made him much more interested in his regular food.

I found that Joey learns hand signals so much faster than verbal commands, and I have to be very aware of subtle movements my hand makes, because he associates these with a different trick rather than my words. If I use long words, like rollover, I try to do it sing-songy link so it's distinctive. My advice is to learn the hand signals yourself first, so you will be consistent. You can make up your own, or use the ones many trainers use.

Here's a good link that describes some simple tricks and how to teach them. Remember, training should always be fun, we worked on one or new two tricks a week in two short daily sessions, always ending with something he knew, so he could leave with positive feeling. Try not to link all the tricks together and reward after each trick in early training, otherwise some dogs, when told to sit, will sit, roller over, crawl, play dead, and give you a high five. Later, you can teach medleys! Dog Tricks! Shake, Crawl, Beg, Kiss, Roll Over, Bow, and more!

[chachi]

Originally Posted by Nancy1999

We took a clicker training class, and I found the clicker was not the best method of training for me. The idea with the clicker is to train them that the sound of the click is something good, and they will get food if they hear the click. I had a problem clicking at the exact moment of the proper response. For example, if you are training to sit, the click has to happen as soon as their butt hits the ground. I was always holding the clicker upside-down or I'd get excited and say Yes, instead of the click, and the click took too long coming for proper reinforcement, so I stopped using the clicker and substituted the word "yes" instead. I also used the word uh-uh, and it just means what he's doing won't earn him a treat. It's different than the word no, which means, "Stop that behavior." Dogs have to be hungry to train, and the hungrier they are the more they will listen. If you feed normal meals, and then try to train with treats, you have to up the food value too much, they might work for one or two treats, but then want something even yummier, or the get bored, so I train Joey with all of his breakfast and half his evening meal. I didn't do this during the trick training class, and Joey gained a pound in six weeks, it was a pound that he didn't need, and took some time to get it off, but it has made him much more interested in his regular food.

I found that Joey learns hand signals so much faster than verbal commands, and I have to be very aware of subtle movements my hand makes, because he associates these with a different trick rather than my words. If I use long words, like rollover, I try to do it sing-songy link so it's distinctive. My advice is to learn the hand signals yourself first, so you will be consistent. You can make up your own, or use the ones many trainers use.

Here's a good link that describes some simple tricks and how to teach them. Remember, training should always be fun, we worked on one or new two tricks a week in two short daily sessions, always ending with something he knew, so he could leave with positive feeling. Try not to link all the tricks together and reward after each trick in early training, otherwise some dogs, when told to sit, will sit, roller over, crawl, play dead, and give you a high five. Later, you can teach medleys! Dog Tricks! Shake, Crawl, Beg, Kiss, Roll Over, Bow, and more!

Mine respond better to hand signals also

[RachelandSadie]

Originally Posted by QuickSilver

It's cool you are using a clicker, by the way. I would love to use one with Thor, but he is scared of the noise.

How far do you plan to take her training? Here are some things I wish I had imprinted right away:

* Start work cue: This just tells her training is going to begin. Someone here says "Homework!" and you can add a sign if you wish. Thor cues much better to signs than to words. For a long time, he didn't seem to understand that words had any significance to him at all, and he still seems to think about half of my verbal commands mean "Sit".

* End TASK cue. So once you have her Sit or Stay reliably, you don't want her to decide for herself when she is finished. I unfortunately trained Thor on the cue "Okay", which he responds to very well, even when it is not directed at him. So if he is sitting and I tell someone "okay", he gets up. You might try "That'll do".

* End ALL WORK cue, meaning you are finished with training. That means (1) treats/training is finished. It will also come in handy when you have taught her the Come command. Thor responds to Come very well, gets his treat, and then immediately rushes back to whatever it was I called him away from in the first place. You want to teach your dog that her default mode is to be hanging out and waiting for her next command. For this, you can use "Go Play!". You can do a little "shoo" motion with your hands, or slap them together in a way that says "all finished."

Make sure to use Go Play! consistently to release her. Even if she starts out by rushing off on her own, say "Go Play!" to associate the words with her action.

Hope this helps.

i use the clicker method without the clicker, we use "Yes" and "Wrong" for our clicker and markers

[Lula-Mae Famous]

Lula and I just got back from the Vet.
Poor girl has been put on a bland diet becuase she isnt argreeing with her new kibble. I have been ordered to home cook her food for the next few days but I may just continue this as she LOVES chicken now. I have been boiling chicken breast with a clove of garlic and she goes nuts over it as a training treat.

I think I may take the advise to have her do tricks for her meals and end the training with her dog bowl full of "treats"! haha. She will love that, I just hope she doesnt loose interest in her meals as quick as she looses interest in her treats.

She is doing great with her training now that I train before her dinner. Everyone is so impressed when I have her do tricks (I think mostly due to her size). We are still under 2lbs at almost 4 months. I cant wait till she gets bigger!

we have "come", "sit", "down", and "pretty" (sit pretty) down and will be starting on "circles" today.
I would LOVE to get her to do "bang" for play dead. Someday....

[YorkieMother]

Originally Posted by QuickSilver

It's cool you are using a clicker, by the way. I would love to use one with Thor, but he is scared of the noise.

)

Just a few thoughts. Clicker is a better marker when working fast shaping and more acturate. When I work aggression it fast and hard and ugly so I tend ot forget the click and just keep feeding the behaviour I want and see that is good.
If we are in full flip out which is rare we are to busy doing damage control to click.

That said it is still better to use a metalic click to mark and if the dog is afraid try several other methods. pen click, I click is softer, in the pocket, under duct tape, just some thoughts.
If using a word yes and wrong come up in normal conversation to much and should be avoided think up a fake sound not word related at all to use. Some use a tongue click.

JL