It's about clicker training, but not horses .. dogs! Anyone else use this? Help!

[VR]

My little Jack Russel has come to visit me down at Heather's  If I can get him to behave then he'll hopefully stay with me but if not then he'll have to go back to live with my parents, where he has been ever since I moved down here. So, having seen how well it works with all the horses I thought I'd try clicker training my dog!

His main problems are that he is hyper and easily distracted, which means he doesn't recall and he yaps a lot  So what I really want to know is how I go about this? How do you start doggie clicker training?  I'm guessing there's no target training so where do you begin?? I've been giving him visual/vocal commands for sit etc and then when he does it I click and treat but as yet I don't think he really has any idea what the click represents!

Any help would be greatly appreciated, I've tried googling it but all the sites I find tell me I can learn how to start my dog off with CT if I just buy their book 

[Fiona]

The puppy classes I took Sally to use clicker training.  You can get in touch with them via http://www.peakeservices.co.uk/

Basically you introduce the clicker by targeting yourself.  You attract the dog's attention and when you get it you click and treat. Once they've worked out the association between the click and the treat the rest is pretty much as standard.

Training "attention" like that is invaluable.  I spent a few weeks with Sally clicking and treating every time she paid me some attention and now I have a dog who follows me around everywhere, and her recall's superb    I don't have to bother with the click or the treat any more (although sometimes she does still get a treat if I have any to hand).  She's learned enough things to fit in with my lifestyle, but I would go back to it if I wanted to teach her anything new.

Fiona

[sarasfly]

Clicker training dogs is pretty much the same aqs horses! You can still use the target stick idea in just the same way.  Karen Pryor's book Don't shoot the dog is a fantastic book for use with dogs!  Good luck!

[VR]

Ah thanks Fiona - that's really helpful. I can see the sense behind targeting yourself too, would be particularily usefull with a dizzy hyper little one like my dog!  Thanks for the helpful weblink too, just had a quick flick through their site now but I will have a good look through later  (mucking out beckons now .....!).

I had stumbled on Karen Pryor's website last night Sarasfly, it was one of the ones that told me I could learn how if I just bought the book!  Might have a look a bit more at that one then, thanks.

[Jeanette]

I introduced clicker to my dogs this way to..i.e. call their name and if I got even a twitch of an ear I clicked and treated.

Dogs are easier than horses to clicker train in my experience because you can toss the treat out so the dog scampers off to collect the treat and you are ready to start the training loop again

..so call name..get attention, click, toss out treat,...call name, get attention , click, toss out treat..and so on!!

I also used to click my dogs checking back on me unprompted when out for a walk

Targeting a finger is really handy for getting them to lay down in their bed, jump up into the car, shut the door for you...all sorts of things really!

[VR]

Dogs are easier than horses to clicker train in my experience because you can toss the treat out so the dog scampers off to collect the treat and you are ready to start the training loop again

..so call name..get attention, click, toss out treat,...call name, get attention , click, toss out treat..and so on!!

That's a great help, thank you. I will try that one later  I thought we were doing really well yesterday and had Dexter target training with the target stick we use for the horse, he kept nudging it with his nose everytime - perfect! Until that is I wiped the end of it and realised that the reason he had been interested in it was because it smellt of horse and once I wiped it he was no longer interested in it as it didn't have an interesting smell to sniff and that's all he was really doing - sniffing rather than targeting!  

[Belbe]

agreed with sarasky. Use the method just the same.
I've always had dogs my whole life, horses are new and I trained my colt as I woul a giant dog. Tell you the truth? I don't see much of a difference, except that I can't have the horse live inside the house so the conection is more similar to the one i have with the hunting dogs that live outside with their mates: I am the leader, they love me and will follow me everywhere, but at the end of the day, they wanna get back to their pack instead of sleeping at my feet.
well, I now ride an oversized dog! (yes, when i taught him the pointing he sniffs like a dog as well)
So you might get a miniature horse, no difference