obdience, agility, and clicker training

[dab_20]

My mom and I got a couple clickers at petsmart today. How do you clicker train?

Also, I am thinking about putting Sam in obdience and agility later on. I would do agility with molli, but she runs away and gets extremely distracted by other dogs... and she's afraid of large dogs. Well, does Sam have to know certain commands before he goes in obedience? Do they have to be a certain age, because he's still a puppy, but too old for puppy classes. Thanks for the help in advance. :)

[tessa_s212]

Classes are an excellent place to learn!

Nope, the dog truly doesn't need to know anything before going to a class, but I like to be ahead of the game and come to class with an already pretty well trained dog. ;) Some things I'd work on while waiting to get into an obedience class are sit, down and stay.

You can start agility training at any age! Before actually ever introducing the dog to equipment the dog should know basic obedience, as well as have a good foundation for agility. It is important that the dog knows an attention word. With all the new and fun dogs at class, you will find this will help alot. You can also teach your dog to follow your hand and to circle left or right on command.

No jumping, weaving, or extreme agility training until at least year old. You CAN train for the tunnel, and teaching the puppy to walk across some kind of raised plank can be very useful. Also, some swear by a buja board(google it).

As for hte clicker training, just google it and you will be able to find TONS of information!

[Jessika]

Clicker training is really easy once you (and your pups!) get the hang of it.

You will first need to start by "charging the clicker". This is basically just clicking the clicker and giving them a treat about 20 times a day for a week. This will teach them that a click means they get a treat. Eventually they will start paying more attention to the clicker and less attention to the treats! When you get to that point you can start training!

When using to TRAIN, you click the instant they do a desireable behavior. I suggest working on one command at a time until they "get it". If you were teaching to sit, for example, you would put them into a "sit" position and immediately click when their bottom touched the ground. Then reward!

Remember though with clicker training you MUST reward every time you click, even if you click by accident. ;)

[dab_20]

Thanks everyone! Jessika, once I do that click 20 times a day thing and get a treat for a week, when I train him do I still use treats? Or just click the clicker?

I am going to put Sam in Obedience first, then we will start agility. Hopefully I can put Molli in obedience so she can be more socialized also, and learn more commands. The only commands Sam knows so far is he can sit (still working on it, though) and I can walk over to his kennel with him and say 'kennel!' and he will walk in and lay down.

[Jessika]

When you train, you will still use treats. Charging the clicker only tells them that they will only get a treat when you click the clicker. So instead of anticipating a treat, they will anticipate a click instead (but will still expect a treat) :)

[Dixieland Dancer]

I strongly recommend reading up on clicker training before you start using it. It is easier to teach the correct way from the start than to have to retrain a unwanted behavior later. Check out clickertraining.com with Karen Pryor. She is one of the original clicker trainers (even teaching fish to jump through hoops in their fish tank).

If you are enrolling the dog in an obedience class, perhaps they will be clicking and you should follow the instructors lead. Clicking helps shape the behavior faster because the click is a consistent sound the dog becomes conditioned too. You do need to know how to do it properly for optimal results.