[Oom Henry]

Yesterday someone stole my “clicker” and now I will have to go without it until I get time to go shop again. But that is not why I'm chuffed. I took Bella for a walk on the leash today. Okay I took all 3 of em, but only she was on a leash. The previous time that I had the leash on her was when we went to the vet for vaccinations. That was quite something. She actually wet herself when I tried to coax - read pull on a choke chain - her into the car.

So today, I took the giblets that the were so crazy about yesterday and put it in a bag. I held this in the hand that held the leash. I coaxed her out of the yard with a few pieces and then turned and just walked to our destination - a river nearby. And by golly she heeled all the way there - about 200m. I first thought that she was following the smell of the giblets, but it did not seem like that to me.

At the river I took her off the leach and the three of them ran around exploring. She never did stray to far away from me though, while the other 2 were out of sight sometimes. When we walked back she heeled calmly untill we got home.

I thought that I would never be able to do that, but I was wrong. Whosoever thought of using treats for dog training, you hereby blessed sir.

I’ll have to talk to my son about the clicker, methinks.

Cheers

Henry

[TooneyDogs]

It's only partly about the treats. The treats teach the dog that really good things come from you. They are the start to building a bond or relationship of trust and confidence...a team. Dogs will instinctively follow a confident, calm person that they trust.
When we see a dog that doesn't want to come to their owner or doesn't want to walk with their owner we know it's more than a lack of training....it's more serious than that....the relationship has gone astray and rebuilding that relationship is the hard part of dog training....the techniques for sit, down, etc. are the easy part.

[Shalva]

We also clicker train here as part of how we train but remember that the clicker is simply marking the behavior so you can substitute the clicker with a short easy word like YES
I tend to use Yes more than I do the clicker just because I want an easy word to use so I don't have to carry a clicker with me.

so just
yes treat
yes treat
yes treat

and your pup will very quickly learn that yes means the same as click
good luck
s

[Oom Henry]

Originally Posted by TooneyDogs

It's only partly about the treats. The treats teach the dog that really good things come from you. They are the start to building a bond or relationship of trust and confidence...a team. Dogs will instinctively follow a confident, calm person that they trust.
When we see a dog that doesn't want to come to their owner or doesn't want to walk with their owner we know it's more than a lack of training....it's more serious than that....the relationship has gone astray and rebuilding that relationship is the hard part of dog training....the techniques for sit, down, etc. are the easy part.

I agree with you. It's actually so simple. I work from home so they are with me all day and all night. Wagter trusts me completely, because we've been together for more than six years now. Bella on the other hand is only 8 months old and it was the first time that I took her out on a leach. So yes, something good is developing here.