Eating
Training Animals to Readily Eat
About two years ago, I woke up to Blaze vomiting. He did not eat food offered to him. It could have just been a bad day. He has always been a dog to eat right away when food is presented. Read more…
Teaching
Word Choices: Positive Phrasing
A few nice things that came up recently: Luna has had a lot of points subtracted. She loves the table. But she also loves to run all over the place. A student recently commented that he was a bit distressed Read more…
4-H
A Mini Lesson on Secondary Reinforcers
Tonight at 4-H practice we had a super short lesson on secondary reinforcers. As they aren’t allowed to use food in the obedience ring, we need to be sure to have lots of ways to motivate and reinforce our dogs. Read more…
Class
Griffin at CD Prep Class VII
We skipped two weeks for camp….. I probably would not have signed up for the class if I had known ahead of time that we would be such poor students…. but I’m very glad that we’ve been going. Tonight we Read more…
4-H
Other People Handling My Dog
In a Monday night class, we talked briefly about the benefits and risks of other people handling and cueing Griffin. Griffin was added to my home to be my competition (obedience and agility especially!) dog…. but also my demo dog Read more…
4-H
Straight Sits
The 4H Agility Games Clinic went quite well yesterday. I had fun with the kids. We did a more beginner group in the morning and a bit more advanced group in the afternoon. We were able to stick right to Read more…
Lesson Plans
Lesson Plans and Measuring Progress
I like efficiency. After classes with my dog, I write notes about what we did and how it went. I have a long list of behaviors/specifics to work on and we usually add about 10-15 things to the list after Read more…
Clicker Training
What Happens After the Click: II
An important piece of clicker training is that we separate the marker from the reinforcement. Mark. And then we reach for the reinforcer. If we reach with the food as we click, that movement becomes a great source of Read more…
Clicker Training
What Happens After the Click: Part I
We often focus on the behavior, how to get behavior, maintain it, shape it, and use it. There is this little tiny space of time and the little tiny bit of behavior that has been fascinating me recently. All Read more…
Seminar
“Training a dog is not difficult…”
“Training a dog is not difficult…just don’t make any mistakes”- Guy Penning One of the many great things I wrote down over the week. Another favorite… “I assure you, when he is clicker trained, he will do it.” Such confidence! Read more…