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Announcement: Dog Training Nation Joins ABC

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I’ve got some amazing news!

Dog Training Nation will be joining forces with Animal Behavior College.

Animal Behavior College offers certifications in the pet services industry. They have programs in dog training, veterinary assisting, pet grooming and cat training.

A lot of my subscribers have been asking for more pet grooming and veterinary care content in addition to my dog training articles. While I can cover dog training no problem, I’d love to provide you helpful content from other industry experts, such as professional pet groomers and veterinary technicians. This is why I think merging with ABC will be beneficial to you.

The quality and resourceful content of mine that you love to read isn’t going away. I will continue to share my positive dog training advice and insights on the ABC blog. In addition, you can find my old and new videos on ABC’s YouTube channel.

Thank you SO MUCH for being a loyal reader of Dog Training Nation! I hope you join me in my new home at ABC hosted by kinsta!

Follow the links below to join me at ABC! You can also check out their blog here
https://www.animalbehaviorcollege.com/blog/ and YouTube channel here: https://www.youtube.com/user/AnimalBehaviorColleg/.

3 Dog Obedience Training Styles

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Different Dog Trainers

Dog TrainersLet’s chat about three different dog trainers and their preferred dog obedience training styles. I will include my training style too and, I will admit, I feel a bit intimidated comparing my training style to both of these pioneers in dog training. So, here it goes!

Dog Trainer: Karen Pryor

Karen was instrumental in educating the dog obedience world about clicker training, as she was a dolphin trainer. Not only did Karen Pryor bring clicker training to the masses, she was also the driving force behind scientific research on training new behaviors. Clicker training means to mark a behavior with a click. The click means two things: I like what you did and you earned a treat. Karen does not use food to lure a dog into a behavior. She is more hands-off and will shape (reward small steps toward a final behavior like teaching a dog to walk politely on leash) and capture (click and treat when a finished behavior is offered like a dog laying down). The absence of a click means the dog did not perform the behavior correctly. Dogs quickly learn to work for the click.

Dog Trainer: Zak George

Zak George has taken social media by storm with his dog training videos on YouTube. Also, Zak has starred on SuperFetch, which airs on Animal Planet and CBBC’s “Who Let the Dogs Out.” He shows no signs of stopping, appearing on numerous prime time TV shows, getting the message out that positive reinforcement dog training methods work! His energy is fabulous, and his videos are on point so pop in and watch his YouTube channel at Zak George’s Dog Training Evolution!

Dog Trainer: Fanna Easter

About 90% of the time, while teaching classes, I recommend a clicker to mark behaviors, as dogs learn so fast using this method. I do use lures mostly when instructing pet parents how to teach their dogs to lie down as a first step to loose leash walking or when a dog becomes confused. When training my dogs, I use a clicker 99.9% of the time. When teaching people how to train their dogs, I find people will move and fiddle around when they become stressed so I recommend food lures to redirect their nervous energy. Having a dog follow a food lure will redirect the dog (decreasing the dog’s stress) while providing a moving outlet, decreasing the pet owner’s stress — a win-win! Once the fiddling around stress has successfully stopped, we go back to using the clicker.

Tell us about your dog obedience training style in the comment section below!

READ ALSO: Dog Obedience Training

Clicker Training for Dogs

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Dog Clicker Training

Dog Clicker Training
Dog training clickers.

The power of clicker training for dogs is amazing. You are rewarding a thinking dog, which is awesome!

Many people use a verbal marker, such as yes to replace a click sound. Keep in mind that people can say yes using many different tones so this can be confusing and may not be the ideal word to use for the behavior praise. The click is a consistent way of marking the behavior before rewarding the treat. The click sound always stays the same whereas the cadence, tone, excitement, clarity and words used with a voice are not always the same.

Why Clicker Training Works

Hypothetically, if I placed a chair in the middle of a room and asked you to sit in it, the moment that you sat down in the chair, I would click and reward. That is the premise we have discussed using clicker training so far. Sounds simple, yet it’s possibly something that a human might get bored with rather quickly. But if every time that she asked you to sit, after you have properly done so, I could click and then reward you with a $100 bill.

What might the outcome be?

Most people would immediately continue to stand up and sit back down in the chair. What has happened is that the dog trainer has now reinforced the proper behavior using clicker training! You have learned that each click meant that you did what was asked. In this case, you were then given a $100 for doing so.

When you should click:

  • Sit: As your dog’s behind touches the ground.
  • Down: As your dog’s elbows touch the ground.
  • Loose Leash Walking: When the leash is loose (your dog is not pulling).
  • Attention: When your dog looks at you instead of the other dogs or distractions.
  • Barking: When your dog stops barking even for a nanosecond, click/treat!
  • Anything you like! If you can think it and your dog is physically able to do it, go for it!

– When your dog stretches while coming out of his crate, click and treat. Do this several times and add a cue, such as “pray.”

– Click when your dog looks to the left and add a cue, such as left.

– Click when your dog backs up and add a cue, such as back.

I have trained my Beta fish, Dribble, to touch my finger with his mouth, follow my finger around his bowl and swim through a hoop using these same clicker training methods.

While I’m not sure he could hear the sound of a click, I used a pen light and blinked when he did the correct behavior and fed him Beta kibble as a reward!

Apply Clicker Training to Other Animals

You can train chickens, horses, cows, guinea pigs and bunnies to do agility by using clicker training. I have even trained humans to sit in a chair. There are tons of games that can sharpen your clicker training skills and keep your dog mentally stimulated. I enjoy 101 Things to Do with a Box. Have fun training your dog!

VIDEO: How to Use a Clicker

What dog training clicker games do you play with your pets? Tell us in the comments below.

You may also like: Clicker Training

Dog Training Nation is a dog training blog for pet owners and dog lovers. We cover a range of topics from puppy socialization tips to dog aggression to dog health. It is our hope you share our content to make the world a better place for dogs.

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