[Dailydrool] Clicker Training

[Sylvie McGee]

I had some off-list correspondence with Emily, and wrote about having her
husband do some clicker training with Ms. Sally to build a positive and
responsive relationship. Thought I would share what I said about clicker
training, because I'm such a believer in it!

One option in training, which is fun, is to enroll your dog in a
clicker-training class. Clicker training is fast, fun, and food motivated -
all of which is helpful with a Basset. It's also completely a positive
approach, so working with your dog gets out of the correction/resistance
cycle. Bassets in particular, who are so food-motivated and who are also
smart and usually very easily bored! are almost guaranteed to have a
positive responseBelieve me, they will pay attention when the clicker is
out. That can really help with frustration when trying to train a dog that
doesn't seem to be responding ....


I took my bitch Aretha to clicker training to both stimulate her learning
and to train her out of automatically sitting for treats - since she's shown
in the conformation ring, I need her to stand when we come up to the judge,
not sit hoping for treats! I was able to train her to a different behavior
in a single lesson and some follow up sessions practicing at home on our own
- and she LOVED clicker training because she knew that her favorite treats
were practically falling from the sky during class and practice!

Check it out!


Sylvie McGee
HeavenScent Bassets, Olympia WA
360-705-1233
sylviemcgee at comcast.net