Scratchings-and-Sniffings

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First Clicker Training Class for Miles Posted: 04 Mar 2010 06:49 AM PST We've had a run of bad weather the last few weeks so our first clicker training class with Miles was delayed until this morning. We did have the orientation where we got the basics including the concept behind clicker training. As I mentioned in more detail in a previous post on this topic, clicker training is nothing more than operant conditioning. First you get the dog conditioned to the idea that the noise of the clicker means a reward is soon to follow. Once that is accomplished you use the clicker to identify the behavior you are looking for. When you see the behavior you want, you click and then, treat. This morning we worked on a few exercises that are designed to make training of specific command like "come" easier to train down the road. The first exercise was to get Miles to move forward and touch my hand with his muzzle. Starting out, if he even looked at the hand he got a click and a treat.   Our trainer, Gail Skee, refers to this kind of activity as capturing and shaping. You capture the dog doing some version of what you want and through good timing with the clicker, you shape the behavior. Any approximation of the behavior is reinforced with the clicker treat until the dog is actually doing what you want. We soon had Miles touching our outstretched hand with his muzzle.   Next, we did some polite walking exercises. Polite walking means that Miles is walking by my side, paying attention to me, without pulling. It's the first phase of teaching a dog to walk at heel. For this exercise, Gail set out some cones in a line about two feet apart. Our task was to walk along pausing at the cones. If Miles stopped and looked at me he got a click and a treat. Within a few minutes he was pausing when I paused and looking at me in anticipation of a click followed by a reward.   Gail gave us some home work. More polite walking and further shaping of the come or recall command. Recall shaping involves getting Miles to practice hand touches.   With each successful hand touch, both left and right hands, he gets a click and a treat. The idea is to gradually make him come touch the hand from increasing distances. To do this you throw the treat a few feet away and then offer your hand again. If he comes and does a hand touch with his muzzle you click and treat. I think you can see how this can evolve eventually into a recall command.    Miles, of course, is way smarter that the other dogs in the class. He already sits and stays on command. He lies down and comes when called, too. My guess is that Gail would be OK with us using the clicker to reinforce these previously learned commands. Chris and I are going to use the neighbor's fenced in yard for some recall, sit, stay, down and off leash polite walking practice in the days to come.   Clicker training is fun. You can see how easy it is to shape behavior with a well-timed click. That's the key. You have to time the click at the exact time the dog is engaging in the action you want to reinforce. Of course it helps to have a brilliant dog like Miles to work with.

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