I continue to be amazed at the power of clicker training. Whether it’s your dog, cat, mouse or spouse: clicker training speeds up training & makes it fun! Here are a few examples from this year so far:
- Trixie the terrified terrier refused to use the dog door–but we taught her to follow a target stick and then we got her to follow the target through the dog door. She did this all with a wagging tail: Now, no more peeing in the house!
- Bowser the barker wouldn’t stop barking barking barking at the front door. So we used clicker training to train him to go to his bed and lie down quietly when someone comes knocking at the door.
- Lilly the leash puller pulled and pulled on her leash and we taught her to heel using clicks & rewards. With a little help from a “NO-PULL HARNESS” now she’s a breeze to walk…
- Kelly the Kamikaze Kitten just had too much energy to burn. So we taught her some games to burn off energy and manners to keep her off the counter and now she’s a livable companion.
These are just a few examples of how I’ve used clicker training to help with challenging dog & cat issues. The clicker is quite the fad right now, but the first clicker trainer was actually B.F. Skinner –the father of operant conditioning– who also discovered if you pair a reward with a sound you get much quicker training results. In the 1940’s he and his students worked for the US Government during WWII to develop the worlds first smart bomb using trained pigeons…