Training by the book

It was obvious to me this morning, as Parker romped willy nilly around the backyard, following an agenda that wasn’t mine, that I needed a refresher course in training. So I went downstairs to try to find any of the multitude of books I’ve bought over the years. And I found not just one, but my favorite -- “A Clicker Cookbook -- A Step by Step Guide to Beginning Manners.”

Don’t get me wrong. This isn’t just my favorite because it was (sort of) free. I got it as part of the package when I signed up for a weekend training camp led by M. Shirley Chong, the author. Lots of the stuff in there is available free on her web site:

http://www.shirleychong.com/

It’s a favorite because Shirley isn’t a ‘my way or the highway’ kind of trainer. She’s more, ‘this works for me and I’m wiling to learn what works for you.’

So I sat with the book and decided to dig in and begin with Name Recognition, the precursor to a Recall. The idea is to have a clicker and treats handy. When the dog is neutral, not really doing much and not really paying attention, call his name. If he responds, click and treat. Then ignore him until he looks away and repeat. And repeat and repeat and repeat, either until the dog won’t look away or you get bored. We kind of reached both points simultaneously.

And we threw in a few of Shirley’s ‘Sit’ suggestions. Wait until the dog actually sits, click and toss the treat (so the dog has to get up to get the goodie). Then just be still until the dog sits out of boredom, click, toss. We did that until Parker decided that he didn’t have to get off his butt to reach a treat (we were in my office with the door closed to keep the other dogs away, and he didn’t have to move all that far.

But the treats remain at hand and we’ll keep these up today.

And no more off leash outside!!