- Location
- Isle of Man
Just thought I'd make a thread for anyone who's interested in clicker training a retrieve.
We've started introducing a "fetch" at dog training. Coco aced his - I trained a retrieve with him many moons ago, and we had such fun doing it.
Meg, on the other hand...well. She'll go crazy for a ball, but we don't want crazy. She did a little "fetch" in our hallway at home with a ball dummy but got bored and tried grabbing anything but the dummy. And at dog training, she's not interested in toys at all.
So...let's try the clicker. I've never used the clicker with her, but I know Coco loves it and it really, REALLY helps me in training specific actions.
I started on Wednesday. One session to "charge" the clicker, and one session with the dummy. Each session was only 10 treats so maybe up to 5 minutes.
Day 1 - she's not clicked (pun intended) what she's earning a click for. Took 5 minutes to work our way through 10 treats.
Day 2 - Still not worked out she click comes when she looks at the dummy. 2nd session, the penny is beginning to drop, this session did not take long.
Day 3 - just done the first session and each time she's straight to the dummy, touching it , all treats gone in < 1 minute! She's lit up. I'll do another session of her just touching it later.
It's hard to separate her and Coco to do individual training as the other always feels left out and fusses. I've included Coco a little, well he included himself as he burst in from the garden and touched the dummy! Click - Treat, well done my Boy.
I have to say, as well as lighting Meg up, it's lit a little spark in me, so rewarding watching your dog pick up a new skill, whatever their age.
Here's the link to the Clicker Retrieve if anyone wants a go
We've started introducing a "fetch" at dog training. Coco aced his - I trained a retrieve with him many moons ago, and we had such fun doing it.
Meg, on the other hand...well. She'll go crazy for a ball, but we don't want crazy. She did a little "fetch" in our hallway at home with a ball dummy but got bored and tried grabbing anything but the dummy. And at dog training, she's not interested in toys at all.
So...let's try the clicker. I've never used the clicker with her, but I know Coco loves it and it really, REALLY helps me in training specific actions.
I started on Wednesday. One session to "charge" the clicker, and one session with the dummy. Each session was only 10 treats so maybe up to 5 minutes.
Day 1 - she's not clicked (pun intended) what she's earning a click for. Took 5 minutes to work our way through 10 treats.
Day 2 - Still not worked out she click comes when she looks at the dummy. 2nd session, the penny is beginning to drop, this session did not take long.
Day 3 - just done the first session and each time she's straight to the dummy, touching it , all treats gone in < 1 minute! She's lit up. I'll do another session of her just touching it later.
It's hard to separate her and Coco to do individual training as the other always feels left out and fusses. I've included Coco a little, well he included himself as he burst in from the garden and touched the dummy! Click - Treat, well done my Boy.
I have to say, as well as lighting Meg up, it's lit a little spark in me, so rewarding watching your dog pick up a new skill, whatever their age.
Here's the link to the Clicker Retrieve if anyone wants a go
Pippa's Original Clicker Retrieve - dogsnet.com
The Clicker Retriever was originally published on the Totally Gundogs website. We are currently moving our library of hunting dog content to Dogsnet, you can check out that link for an update. This article describes the method I used when I first started training the clicker retrieve. The...
dogsnet.com
. She wouldn't engage with me at all, so we didn't do any practice - I wasn't going to anyway but the way she'd exploded so OTT I thought I was never going to get her to do what we've been practicing at home. She was second to go, so had to watch the delightful Rory, fox-red, loopy, young Labrador go first. She's full of suprises, my gung-ho little BlackAndWhite Dog.