Calling All Clicker Experts!

[Kimbas_mum]

I started clicker training my youngest about a week ago, I tuned him into the clicker then started with the sit which he now does very nicely on command every time wherever we go.

 

My question is: how do I go onto the next exercise (down) without undoing the sit work? How do I continue to reward the sit when I ask for it and still get the down? I guess the question is what do I do next?

 

Thanks all

 

Katherine

[mum24dog]

I'm not sure what you are concerned about.

Is it that you intend to teach him to lie down from a sitting position?

I never do, as dogs don't tend to do that naturally. Teach a straight drop from a standing position.

I find the best way is to anticipate when your dog is likely to lie down and C/T thereby capturing the behaviour. It means that you have to be very aware of what your dog is doing initially, but it does work.

When I was trying to teach my youngest the down, I had real difficulty getting him into a situation where he would go down, so i went off for a little walk to think about it.

I got back half an hour later and my daughter had got him lying down on cue.

She'd noticed that he lay down when he got on the couch (duh) and started him off that way. Made me feel stupid.

You may find that the standard of behaviours your dog has already learnt goes off a bit when you start to teach something new, but it only takes a little bit of "revision" to get it back.

[Kimbas_mum]

So do you still c/t for the sit when requested? Just want to make sure I get it right, have ordered click for joy but it hasn't arrived yet and I don't want to mess it up and have to try and fix it!!

Thanks

K

[Sophie]

I've done a down from a sit with Morse, and Sophie learnt a sit from a down (cause she's strange).

 

I found that if I stood in front of Morse with the clicker, he'd eventually offer a sit (in the hope that it would get him a click). I could then work on the down from this, without undoing any of the sit work, since I hadn't asked him to sit in the first place (he offered the behaviour himself).

 

Similar thing with Sophie - she'd default to a down, so I'd wait until she lay down, then started by luring her into a sit. The down command didn't suffer, since I wasn't using either the hand signal or the word to get her to go down in the first place. Everytime I did ask for a down I would click.

 

It interesting now, since if I stand and watch the dogs during a training session without asking them to do anything, they will go through their repetoire of behaviours to see if any will get a click - so Morse will sit, lay down, wave a paw, touch my foot, spin in a circle, etc. It means if I want to train a new behaviour that is a modification of an existing one, I can wait for him to offer the existing one and work from there without weakening the link between command and action for the existing behaviour.

 

Hopefully that makes some sense - I'm not sure if it is necessarily the 'right' way to do it, but it worked for me.

[Kimbas_mum]

Thats great, thanks, I'm going to have to approach slightly differntly to get the down anyway I think because you can't lure him into a down and he can't cope with any physical contact - other than stroking on his terms only (was a very, very scared little boy, now much better). I was thinking of waiting for him to lie down on his own then c/t for that, encourage him to move then c/t when he lies down again. Do you think that might work?

[Sophie]

Thats how we taught Sophie down When she came to us she had no training, and wouldn't take food from a hand (so no chance of luring with a food treat). We just clicked when she lay down on her own - she'd get up to get a treat from the floor, lie down again, we'd click again, and we soon had down on command/hand signal.

[Kimbas_mum]

Great, thanks a lot.

Katherine

[Santa's Little Helper]

I find the best way is to anticipate when your dog is likely to lie down and C/T thereby capturing the behaviour.

 

i tried the 'capture the behaviour' thing some time ago. i thought i'd teach her to 'take a bow' & would use her waking up & stretching as the behaviour to capture.

 

poor thing - as soon as i could see her starting to stretch, i used to jump up; run to to get the clicker & treats (they were never to hand), of course by the time i got to her she'd almost finished, so i would run in screaming 'take a bow' in my happy, high-pitched training voice & click & shove a load of hot dogs in her gob!

after 2 or 3 days of this, the poor thing was absolutely petrified of stretching & would run & hide behind the couch, instead!!

 

i've signed up for the clicker training club - i think i need it!

[mum24dog]

We just clicked when she lay down on her own - she'd get up to get a treat from the floor, lie down again, we'd click again,

 

Good point.

When doing repetitions like this, throw the treat away from the dog rather than give it from the hand. That way the dog has to move and is set up to repeat the behaviour.

 

 

So do you still c/t for the sit when requested? Just want to make sure I get it right, have ordered click for joy but it hasn't arrived yet and I don't want to mess it up and have to try and fix it!!

Thanks

K

 

It sounds like you're at the stage when you don't have to if you have it on cue. Good or a pat by way of recognition that he has done well will be enough most times, but throw in a more valuable reward every now and then to maintain the behaviour.

[Kimbas_mum]

Just a quick update on Jasper's progress. My little boy is a star, he is now doing the sit and down to cue either with voice or hand signal or both and he has done them in several different places.

 

I am really pleased with him cos I even took him into the class at training last night, I take my other 2 there but he has always been too scared to cope with all the people around. Last week I took him into the kitchen bit (looks out onto the training hall) and did a little bit of clicker with him and just let him look at what was going on, this week he was so calm about it all that I took him into the beginners class as it was quiet and he was a real star, he did his sits, downs and recalls on lead with no problems at all, he had lots of praise and my trainer (also a close friend) said how well he was getting on, so much so that he has suggested thining about doing the KC bronze with him, there are only 2 others doing it so it should be nice and quiet for him, will see how he gets on and work from there.

 

Enough bragging for one post I think.

 

Katherine and Jasper

[Sophie]

Oooh - well done Jasper.

 

That gives me some hope.

 

I am going to try taking Morse to training classes tomorrow. He went weekly for 2.5 ish years, but then there were fireworks outside one night. After that he turned into a shivering wreck at the training hall, so we stopped going - that was 2.5 years ago. In the summer we had a bit of a break through, in that we were able to take him for a walk in the fields outside the training hall without him running back to the car.

 

Last friday he got really excited when he saw all the training stuff out for Sophie and Smudge, so I'm going to try taking him again. He'll have his DAP bandana, and anxiety wrap. Hopefully he'll be able to cope doing simple things for ten minutes, then I'll take him home, and am hoping to extend the time until he can stay the whole session. We'll have to see - don't want to stress him too much, but he used to enjoy classes so much.