This morning I took Indra outside to train her a little. She was bored and running around like crazy, so I wanted to use her energy and focus on heeling.
(No worries, I pretty much recovered and my back is doing okay. I have to build up muscles though. That is a given, because if I don't the same thing will happen in a couple of months again.)
Hah! What was I thinking? She had no focus at all. Everything else was more interesting than me, especially the Kong I wanted to use as reward. Boy, did she obsess over the Kong. She even refused the treats and wanted to get to the Kong. So I tried something new. I conditioned her on the Kong and it didn't take long until she figured out what I want from her. Even though she always worked for her treats when she was younger, now that she's getting older she changes and the treats just don't work anymore.
I walked towards the gate, she jumped up on me, circled around me and just wanted the Kong. I made her sit and started heeling all over again. THERE! She focused and heeled. Click and I rewarded her with the Kong. We did it over and over and over and she realized that it is much easier to get the Kong when she is heeling next to me.
Granted, it took me a while to figure out where to put the Kong. I know some people that have ball-driven dogs and they use the ball. They hold it right over their chest, others have it in the armpit. I've tried the chest but it didn't work for us, so I put it into my left armpit and whenever I clicked I just let it fall. It worked perfectly.
It's amazing how fast dogs learn when you've got the right reward. At the 22nd of July, Indra turns 6 months and I can't lure her with treats anymore. It's unbelievable but the Kong is just more interesting and why not using her obsession to train her?
I've been reading up on Clicker Training a lot and have been talking to people that tried Clicker Training their dogs with treats and they didn't get very far with it and just stopped. They thought it wasn't for their dogs. What they didn't realize is that you can use ANY toy that your dog obsesses over and condition them on it.
One dog was absolutely ball crazy. That guy let that dog chase the ball for hours and hours and hours. He tried the clicker and just because the dog didn't do well on the treats he stopped doing it. I guarantee you, if that guy would use his dogs ball obsession and re-condition him... he'd be surprised how fast and quickly everything would go from there because not every dog is a food-inhaling-machine.
So if you tried the clicker and it didn't work for you because of the treats but your dog is obsessing over a ball, or loves to play tug-o-war with a sock, rope, towell... than use whatever works for your dog instead, and even if you use the sock to play tug-o-war. Try and see how it works.
For me, it worked wonders to re-condition Indra on the Kong and it's not the first time I had to re-condition a dog. Zenzy was conditioned on treats but it didn't work for her either. So I used her ball obsession instead.
(No worries, I pretty much recovered and my back is doing okay. I have to build up muscles though. That is a given, because if I don't the same thing will happen in a couple of months again.)
Hah! What was I thinking? She had no focus at all. Everything else was more interesting than me, especially the Kong I wanted to use as reward. Boy, did she obsess over the Kong. She even refused the treats and wanted to get to the Kong. So I tried something new. I conditioned her on the Kong and it didn't take long until she figured out what I want from her. Even though she always worked for her treats when she was younger, now that she's getting older she changes and the treats just don't work anymore.
I walked towards the gate, she jumped up on me, circled around me and just wanted the Kong. I made her sit and started heeling all over again. THERE! She focused and heeled. Click and I rewarded her with the Kong. We did it over and over and over and she realized that it is much easier to get the Kong when she is heeling next to me.
Granted, it took me a while to figure out where to put the Kong. I know some people that have ball-driven dogs and they use the ball. They hold it right over their chest, others have it in the armpit. I've tried the chest but it didn't work for us, so I put it into my left armpit and whenever I clicked I just let it fall. It worked perfectly.
It's amazing how fast dogs learn when you've got the right reward. At the 22nd of July, Indra turns 6 months and I can't lure her with treats anymore. It's unbelievable but the Kong is just more interesting and why not using her obsession to train her?
I've been reading up on Clicker Training a lot and have been talking to people that tried Clicker Training their dogs with treats and they didn't get very far with it and just stopped. They thought it wasn't for their dogs. What they didn't realize is that you can use ANY toy that your dog obsesses over and condition them on it.
One dog was absolutely ball crazy. That guy let that dog chase the ball for hours and hours and hours. He tried the clicker and just because the dog didn't do well on the treats he stopped doing it. I guarantee you, if that guy would use his dogs ball obsession and re-condition him... he'd be surprised how fast and quickly everything would go from there because not every dog is a food-inhaling-machine.
So if you tried the clicker and it didn't work for you because of the treats but your dog is obsessing over a ball, or loves to play tug-o-war with a sock, rope, towell... than use whatever works for your dog instead, and even if you use the sock to play tug-o-war. Try and see how it works.
For me, it worked wonders to re-condition Indra on the Kong and it's not the first time I had to re-condition a dog. Zenzy was conditioned on treats but it didn't work for her either. So I used her ball obsession instead.
The Dog Handler
6 comments:
Miley never has focus. We have been up for an hour and she is already driving me NUTS!
I know that feeling. Indra was driving me crazy when she was three/four months old. She was running around like crazy and kept running and messing things up. No focus at all. That is when I used treats to teach her focus.
How about eye-contact? Does she make eye-contact?
I have tried the clicker training and it seemed weird to me, maybe I wasn't doing it right.. haha. My puppy seemed to respond okay to it though. I have to say however; Arai is a great listener but I can not for the life of me get him to stay or heel! I work with him every day and he just isn't getting either one. Any tips?
I think that most people start out training with treats because almost every book and most trainers suggest training that way.
And it's a great way to go, BUT ...
(1) not all dogs are food motivated. Some dogs will work for toys. Others will work just for praise.
(2) even a food-motivated dog may be reluctant to take treats if the distractions are high enough (but the treat value doesn't increase) or the dog is stressed. A lot of dogs that initially go into group classes won't take treats in class.
The LEVEL of reward is really important, especially since different situations require different levels of reward.
Both my dogs will work eagerly for treats at home, especially if I haven't fed them yet and we're training prior to feeding time. But I have to ramp up the value of the reward in other situations.
For my Malinois, there is no better reward than ball-on-string, which we use ONLY for training (at home and away) and which goes away when we're not using it. And it's always a shared toy (meaning, I hang on to it and tug with it, rather than just throwing it and letting her run off with it).
Besides reward value, I've noticed that a lot of people really don't understand the purpose of the clicker or how it's used in training because a lot of trainers don't understand it, either (I've noticed this at PetCo, sad to say) and it's often not clearly explained in books and on websites.
A really large portion of dog owners I meet who USE a clicker that was given to them in class or that they bought have never been told the clicker needs to be "charged", ie the dog needs to associate that CLICK means a reward follows. They simply start clicking for the behavior - which, most dogs eventually understand, but it's an overly complicated way of getting there.
And a lot of people mistake the clicker as the reward or to be used in place of a command and then are disappointed that their dog isn't "learning".
My pup is a Golden retriever, chow mix. He is almost 9 months old, so maybe I am looking at starting too early. He has already learned sit and lay down, it took one day to house break him. He is VERY smart for a puppy I feel. I tried the clicker and for about a month, he just never really seemed to get it. He acknowledged it but never associated it to the treat I would try to give him.
Now I am using his kong, or nylabone.. which ever he seems to favor that day. I reward him with it when he does stay but it's rare. He will only stay when it's feeding time. I make him lay down on the floor a few feet from me while I check the water, scoop the food and what have you. He will stay until I place the bowl and I tell him it's okay to go eat. That is the only time though.
it is not to early. Not at all. They earlier you start training and shaping a puppy they easier it is. Of course they should have a chance of being dogs, and explore like puppies do and shouldn't be just little robots but it is good to start early on.
How long have you "charged" the clicker? How much do you feed him a day? Have you tried to not feed him the night before and than "charge" the clicker the next morning?
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