You’ve just started a training session with your animal learner. Your animal does several great reps of the behavior you’re teaching. Click and treat! Then, your animal does something you hadn’t anticipated. The behavior isn’t quite the same as your goal behavior… However, it’s pretty darn close to the behavior you want… You freeze! Should […]
Clicker training seems easy. You just click when the desired behavior occurs. However, it’s important that you click at precisely the right time. Experienced animal trainers understand the importance of good timing. If your clicks are often too early (or too late), you may accidentally reinforce the wrong behavior. If your timing is inconsistent, you […]
Do you video your training sessions when you are working with your animals? Whether you are training a horse, dog, cat, or kangaroo, recording your training sessions is a great way to improve your training. You’ll see lots of details in the videos that you didn’t even realize were happening during the training session. It’s […]
This summer, two friends and I are taking Terry Ryan’s virtual chicken training workshop. I’ll share some of my notes from the workshop over the next handful of weeks. You can learn more about Terry’s workshops on her Legacy Canine website. Why train a chicken? Early in my animal training journey, I learned about Terry […]
This spring, as I teach my online shaping skills class, I’ve been thinking a lot about the decisions we make during shaping. I find that many trainers don’t know quite what to do when their animal is almost, but not quite, performing a desired behavior. For example, imagine you’re working with your animal on backing […]
I’ve been having a lot of fun recently working through Alexandra Kurland’s new “Getting Started with Clicker Training” virtual clinic. The name of this class is a bit deceptive, as it is designed for both beginner clicker trainers and those with more experience. One of my favorite sayings from Alexandra Kurland is that “advanced training […]
