Free Online Clicker Training Short Course

clicker training is the way to go. It works and it's easy.

If a dog can be taught to open a refrigerator, pick up a bottle, close the refrigerator door, with the bottle still in its mouth, and then deliver the bottle to its master, through clicker training, then every dog owner who is serious baout training their dog should at least know about clicker training.

I am going to advocate clicker training to all my readers.

Noel Benjamin DCosta

Hi Mary,

So I've been catching up on your blog, and your comment about using clicker training to train one's husband, as well as the anecdote about using nodding to reinforce a chopping motion, got me thinking about how humans respond to reinforcement. I've observed reinforcement recently a couple of times in my own behavior.

1. I used to put the mail on the kitchen table, where it would pile up, and the pile would eventually annoy me. Then I noticed that if I put the mail on the couch, my husband would immediately take care of the mail, because mail on the couch annoyed him. This provided reinforcement to put mail on the couch, because whenever I did it, the mail immediately got taken care of (even though I knew it was annoying my husband). (We have since designated a separate mail location, where the mail still piles up, but at least it's not on the kitchen table. Once some important mail gets misplaced, I guess I'll have to find a different solution.)

2. Shortly after our technician left, I became really proactive about ordering things (since there was no longer a technician to do so). Every time I ordered something, my coworker would tell me that I shouldn't have ordered it because we already had some. (She was always wrong: either she was confused about what I had ordered (16x125 mm test tubes vs. 13x100 mm test tubes, for example), or, more frequently, what she thought we already had was, in fact, what I had just ordered (we had zero pipet tip boxes, so I ordered ten, then ten arrived, and then she informs me that we have ten boxes of pipet tips on the shelf, so why did I order any?).) After a couple of weeks of being hassled every time I ordered something, I stopped ordering anything, because that way I wouldn't get hassled.

Now that I've recognized this behavior in myself, I'm interested in using it to control other people's behavior. What sort of reinforcements do you think humans respond to, besides having the mail get taken care of or not getting hassled?

I have a friend who trained his dog to get beer out of the fridge for him. I don't know how he did it (clicker or otherwise), but it's a pretty neat trick.

I did this course this winter and really liked it. It was great to work through some basic exercises with my dog who I don't really have any goals for- so the pressure was off. But it really helped clarify some basic principles when I work with the horses. Unfortunately when Spring hit, I stopped following- they do updates even after the initial week. I do want to go back and follow through with those and maybe even get their book now.

Sounds interesting! Will be waiting for your thoughts... :)

I have never heard of this type of training. It is seems very interesting. Thanks for the great information.

thanks for commenting.

You should check out clicker training! It's a great, positive way to train your dog (or your horse, goldfish, husband, etc.!)

The free course is interesting and informative, if you want more information or resources, just let me know!

cheers,

Mary

This sounds interesting. I'm going to try it out as well. I love to have extra resources to recommend to my clients for learning more about clicker training.

Thats what I was thinking, Lindsey. I've been looking for a good intro to clicker training to pass on to people that was a bit more in depth than some of the articles online.

So far I think the information is good, but I'm not sure I like the order the lessons and information are presented in. But I'm only on day 2.