having trouble with clicker training
 

I am very frustrated. I am getting my puppy in a couple months so i decided to try some clicker training on a few friend's dogs. I tried a labrador and today a Wire Hair Terrier. Both very nice dogs. i tried "wave" with the Lab because she knows "shake" and other commands. She was so confused.
I tried to get the Wire hair to sit. She is VERY skittish. A rescue, and although a nice dog...jumps away a lot just from little sounds. Everytime I put the treat over her head to try and get her to sit...she either backs away or jumps up. I can't get her back legs to bend. Again, she looks confused after a while.
My last Yorkie could sit, laydown, roll over, play dead, jump through legs and over sticks. I manually helped him to learn how to sit and did this with a few friends dogs and they got it within 30 minutes. It's frustrating because the books and video are telling me not to manually "sit" them or "lay" them down..
suzie

How are you using the clicker?

Remember the clicker is only a positive re-enforcement/marker, and it is almost the same as saying "Good dog". And for it to work in the first place you have to teach the dog that when it hears the "Click" it mean "Good boy". You probably know this through the video.

Also, did you "load the clicker"? In other words, did you spend your first session doing nothing but teaching the dog that click means treat?

I did the "Click" and treat. Trust me when I say for some dogs it takes more than 1 lesson before they understand what it means. :confused:

BTW, I love using the clicker with targets. Great for working long distance with your dog. Using it right now to teach my dog to got out 50 feet, turn around and sit.

Sorry, I was asking Yorkieskater...

got Molly to sit...kind of use clicker training
 

Yes to all the above questions. :-)
Well, I got Molly to sit BUT i did not do it the exact clicker way. What I ended up doing is when my father
was sitting in the chair next to her, as i was holding the treat right
over her nose he would gently put his hand on her butt. *She started
to understand. *He started to say "sit" even though I know you are
supposed to wait to add the command. *It's like something dawned on
her...oh...you're asking me to do something. *I tried two more times
putting my hand gently on her butt to stop her from moving back and i
did start adding "sit" against what I know I'm supposed to do. *She
was showing understanding in her eyes. *this morning, it took 3
minutes if that of me doing this again. *Now she is sitting every time
we ask her to sit without anyone doing anything and we only have to say it once. yes i did use the clicker to mark her "sit" and I think it did help but she didn't get what i was trying to get her to do until I added the command. she was looking at me like...okay...give me a treat...what is it that you want. Once we assisted her and asked her she was very willing to cooperate.
I know I did it wrong...but maybe I'll try laydown the "correct" clicker way.

What you did was not incorrect at all! Purists like the capture & shape method, but it isn't incorrect to lure or to gently place them in the desired position. I've used all three methods depending on what I'm training.

Good job! Keep up the good work!

I see a cross over trainer...
Me too and I still have trouble not helping.
As long as it works and it is not hurting lureing and guiding is fair game. Oops spoken like a crossover trainer. I use hands off only though.

Try Clicker Training for Obedience By Morgan Spector. This is written by a crossover trainer from the old training methods to clicker.
He was a good reason to go clicker and he tells it right at the start.

Joy