Article by Sandy Rutherforde

Training is definitely a crucial component of a good relationship between a dog and its owner. Even when you adopt a mature dog who has a complete repertoire of commands mastered, practice sessions won’t only reinforce these commands but establish a stronger connection between you. Your pet will appreciate the time spent with each other, having a task to accomplish, plus the exercise of body and brain – if you go about training correctly.

When a puppy enters your life, training is all the more crucial. You have a canine blank slate waiting to become shaped into a well-behaved dog; and in the event you disregard reinforcement of appropriate behaviors plus the drawing away from undesirable behaviors, chances are you are likely to end up with an out-of-control terror once the puppy is full grown.

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Article by Mirela Vintila

Clicker Training is a reward based method of training that works by taking a sound that has no meaning for the dog (the click) and teaching him that the sound itself is rewarding as it means a treat is coming. This is then linked to the dog’s action’s, so that the click comes to mean ‘what you just did earned a click which then results in a treat’.First of all show the dog the thing you are going to teach him to do,either by luring: using a bit of food held on the end of the dog’s nose to manouvre him into position (such as a sit or a down) click immediately as he does it, and then give him a treat.You can also use shaping:wait until the dog does the first part of the exercise and click and treat,then build up in stages to the finished exercise.Next, get him to use his brain, in the case of the sit, begin once he’s reliably sitting when you hold a treat on his nose and lure him into position. Take the treat, hold it, and wait. The dog needs to work out that what made you reward him with a click and treat was putting his bottom on the floor. The instant he does, you click and treat. Now he’s using his brain and not just blindly following food.The next step is to put a name to the behaviour by saying the word as he’s doing the action-so linking putting his bottom on the floor with the word ‘sit,’ with practice, this word will cue the behaviour and you can reward the response with the click and the treat, and, most importantly, the treat should now be out of your hand.Then you need to get out and about and do this everywhere so the dog learns that ‘sit’ means ‘sit’- wherever you are. Once the dog does the behaviour reliably, you can begin to fade out the clicker so that you’re clicking and treating less often, until the clicker isn’t needed anymore.

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Article by William Brown

The biggest training secrets of the dog training may be the simplest one. Choosing a method tailored to your dog’s breed, age, and personality will multiply best outcome while using a one-size-fits-all training method may not work with every dog. Researching diverse in styles of training through guides and talking to your veterinarian can help you pick the best training choice for you and your pet.

Many manners issues can be addressed with dog trainings. If your puppy isn’t housebroken or your older dog all of a sudden becomes aggressive, you can find a simple and effective technique to retrain the behavior issue. Thinking that a dog obedience school is the only alternative is something that many new dog owners think that they have to do. One of the secrets to dog training is that you can train your dog on your own with stellar results when you find the right way for you and your pet. While it is best to set up training methods when your pet is young, there are many methods that work for different ages and breeds of dogs.

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Article by Jeremy Smith

Too many people add a young puppy to their family and do not take the opportunity to housebreak it or train it in the areas of obedience and temperament. Too late they find that a dog’s habits are difficult to break, and an untrained animal will result in straying, aggressive behavior toward the neighbors, and plenty of ruined household items; these are the main reasons for dog obedience training.

Regardless of the breed, dogs and especially puppies need to be trained for a variety of reasons. A canine’s natural habits include exploring, hunting and retrieving, following scent tracks, and chewing to maintain healthy teeth. While it is not necessary to try and break these natural tendencies, letting a dog know when and where to use their natural instincts is essential. Giving them basic dog collars and leashes or harnesses will help the canines feel secure and help the owner with control and safety.

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Question by : Is Clicker Dog Training better than traditional Dog Training?

Best answer:

Answer by Jenny Manyteeth
No. It’s different.

Add your own answer in the comments!

Article by Melanie McClure

Musical canine freestyle is a fun way to train your dog. I got started in training dogs when I got my first two Australian shepherds. I enjoyed teaching them basic obedience, but then I wanted to know what more could I teach my smart dogs. Teaching basic obedience was easy and fun and I wanted something more advanced I could teach them at such a young age. I also needed something I could teach from the comfort of our own home. I thought about agility training, but my dogs needed to be over the age of one to really get into that and it requires a special field with special equipment.

Then, I finally discovered musical canine freestyle. It combines the best of obedience, agility and trick training and adds in some musical creativity and dance! My dogs loved it from the start. Musical canine freestyle is a dog sport in which you do heelwork to music and add in all sorts of creative and basic tricks like sit, lay, spin, jumps, leg weaves, and circle around, etc. The choreography of the routine is up to you to create and has very few restrictions. You get to chose what moves work well for you and your dog and select music that compliments your dogs’ movement so it looks like he is dancing to the music.

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Article by Tracy Despard

Clickers have been around far longer then many people realize. They have been used not only to train dogs but have been used to train horses and whales and countless other types of animals. Clicker training is a positive method of training that encourages an animal to lean and recognize by himself when he has done something good. Clicker training really works.

The fundamental idea of clicker training is to get the animal to recognise what the noise of a click means. A click is employed to tell your pet when he has performed something properly and that he’ll be rewarded.

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Article by Melanie McClure

Musical Canine Freestyle, is a fun way to train a dog. I started training dogs when I got my first two Australian shepherds. I enjoyed teaching them basic obedience, but then I wanted to know what more could I teach my smart dogs. Starting them with basic obedience was easy and fun and I wanted something more advanced I could teach them at such a young age. I also needed something I could teach on our own home. I thought about agility training, but my dogs needed to be past the age of one to really get into that and it needs a special field with special equipment.

Then, I finally discovered musical freestyle. It is a combination of the best of obedience, agility and trick training and adds in some musical creativity and dance! My dogs loved it from the start. Musical canine freestyle is a dog sport in which you do heelwork to music and add in all sorts of creative and basic tricks like sit, lay, spin, jumps, leg weaves, and circle around, etc. In canine freestyle you get to have a variety of creative heelwork positions. There are more options than just left heel! There is the right heel position, front, middle, and follow from behind. Then your dog can be a number of postions himself such as standing perpendicular to you as you move, or standing with his back to you or you back to back with him. You can also incorporate a variety of movement directions such as moving forward and backwards, together or apart and moving sideways left and right mirrored or parallel. The variety and creativity is endless. But don’t be overwhelmed, beginners get to start easy and work their way up. In most competitive organizations, there are very loose requirements allowing for the handler and dog to show off their talents and skills while avoiding things you are not good at. It is up to you to create the choreography of the routine and it has very few restrictions. You get to chose what moves work well for you and your dog and select music that suits your dogs’ movement so it looks like he is dancing to the music.

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Question by theresa V: Clicker Training: How do I clicker train my BIG DOG to not jump on people to greet them?
He is an 8 month old German Shepherd & Rottweiler mix. He is a very smart dog with an AMAZING temperament and responds almost instantly to clicker training… The biggest problem Im having is the way he greets people… He jumps on everyone to greet them! Its a bad habit I’ve been having a hard time breaking…

Anyone have a positive way to incorporate the clicker training for this jumping habit?

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Article by Ron Ayalon

You’re at the park with your French Bulldog “Simon” one day and see someone pointing what looks like a small garage door opener at their golden retriever. Wondering if you stepped onto a movie set, you watch for a minute to see what’s going on. The golden retriever sits, a loud click is heard and a treat is given. And you are left wondering what just happened.

The principles behind clicker training were first introduced to the world in 1910 by Col. Konrad Most in his book Training Dogs – A Manual. Originally published in German, it wasn’t until 1954 that it was translated into English. The first dog trainer to use a clicker was Keller Breland, who introduced the concept to the marine animal world in the 1950s. Moving through history, in 1984 Karen Pryor wrote Don’t Shoot the Dog, which attracted the attention of Gary Wilkes, who was the first trainer since Breland to use clicker training extensively. With thanks to the Internet, clicker training has spread rapidly through the dog-training world and become increasingly popular.

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