Having various flavors and desirability of dog training food at-the-ready is imperative when training a dog. Because, when working on a behavior that’s difficult for a dog to learn, getting and keeping a dog’s complete attention and willingness to move forward will be more challenging. That’s when the steak-level training food is brought out with the well-vetted training plan. For example, when working with a dog to step onto a skateboard as he advances on the training plan will require {Read More}
Behavior Markers in Dog Training
May 21, 2017 By
When training with a clicker, the sound of the “click” marks the moment the dog executes a behavior the trainer is seeking. That sound communicates to the dog he succeeded and will be rewarded. Every time a trainer clicks, she must give the dog reinforcement, generally, training food. The click is the secondary reinforcer, which announces the food, which is the primary reinforcer, is to come. If a trainer accidentally clicks at the wrong time, it’s important she still give {Read More}
Chomping The Hand That Feeds Her
May 12, 2017 By
THIS HURTS! Giving a chomper food is painful. My dog Raven needed to take a step back in training for me to re-teach her how to take training food with ease. So I stopped training the behavior we were working on, and for a couple of sessions, we worked on taking the dog training food nicely and in a polite manner minus any pain to my palm. I wiped some chicken fat on my palm, and offered her my palm. {Read More}
Charging a Marker – Clicker Training
April 1, 2017 By
A marker, in dog training, is communication to your dog at the instant your dog offers the behavior you wanted. By using a marker, you are telling the dog, “Yes! Right there! That’s the behavior I want!” So it’s a very specific moment, an instant in a chain of action that we want to communicate to the dog, “You’re getting a food reward for THAT.” Markers, therefore, and not used for broad type behaviors like calling a dog. No. They {Read More}
Two Training Questions Every Dog Asks
March 23, 2017 By
When training a dog using motivation and reinforcement what two one-word questions do you think your dog will be thinking? I’ll give you a clue. They start with W. Why and What. If your dog were to talk, those would easily be his two one-word questions to you whenever you go to train. And the answers are the trainers responsibility and so is the success of a dog training session. So be sure you know the answers before you partner {Read More}
