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Making You & Your Dog Happier

It started with a click

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In this post, Angie @fun4Fido is the typist as dictated to by her handsome ‘learning partner’ Harley. Today Harley tells us about a wonderfully simple and most of all, useful clicker trick he has learned – so GET CLICKING!

Hi, I’m Harley! Some of you might already know my human buddy and learning partner @fun4fido on twitter, I say learning partner because we learn from each other everyday. It started with a “click” and something called “shaping”… not quite sure why she does this because I think I look fine just as I am, anyway the great thing is I now know so many ways of turning her and other humans in to dispensers of all good things.

I thought I might share my experience of learning a very useful trick called “go settle” and I think it’s a very good trick to know, you’ll soon see why.

So one day my human buddy called me over, she asked me to sit, then she said “It’s clicker time!” I always love hearing these words because I know I’m in for some fun and games, I get to use my brain to figure stuff out, oh and of course food is normally involved!

So, my buddy put something on the floor and being a curious sort of fellow I looked at it, she clicked and then threw a tasty treat on the floor away from the object, so that I had to go get it (something to do with re-setting me). I thought to myself, well she clicked when I looked at it before, so I’ll try that again, it worked, she clicked and threw another treat. I looked again, another click and treat.

We went on like this a few more times and I thought, she’s making this too easy. I looked at it again, no click. Huh! I looked at my buddy and inside I said “hey did you miss that?” She was just standing there still, arms by her side, ignoring me as she does sometimes. Ok I thought, I better try really hard this time, so I took a few steps towards it to get a closer look, “click and treat” aha, now we were getting somewhere.

As we continued I got closer and closer to the object on the floor (which I now know is a mat), then I stood with all four paws on the mat, this worked too, she clicked and this time instead of throwing a treat away from the mat, she threw a treat and it landed right at my front paws. My head dipped to eat the treat, while down there before my head came back up she clicked and threw another treat to the same spot. She did this a few times so I decided I might as well take the weight off my paws and get comfy to eat the treats. I lay down and well, Christmas came early, she clicked, she whooped, she said “good boy“, and delivered several treats one at a time.

After this nothing could stop us, we continued… she clicked and threw a treat away from the mat, I’d go get the treat and hurry back to the mat and lie down. We repeated this 10 times and I got it right 9 times. Then the next time as I lay down she said “go settle”. I knew from our previous games that this was an important moment, I started to pay even closer attention to my buddy. We repeated this 10 times. Then while I was stood away from the mat she said “go settle” aha, my concentration paid off. I ran over to the mat and lay down on it. Christmas all over again!

Over the course of two weeks we worked on making sure I was really good at this trick, and why is this such a good trick to know. Well when other humans visit and they’re busy doing stuff, my buddy will say “go settle” and while I lie down on the mat these visitors will come over now and again, pet me and give me a little doggie biscuit, and all I have to do is lie there, how easy is that! Best of all when my buddy needs to go out without me she says “go settle” and leaves me with a stuffed Kong.

P.S. (We kept our clicker time sessions short, I learn better this way, just 5 to 10 minutes a couple of times a day).

Happy clicking!

Comments

  1. Definately going to have to research into clicker training as it sounds a great way of training dogs. What a fab lad harley is, bless him xx

  3. Used clicker training to train Mollie to “touch” but haven’t really used it since – might have to dig the clicker out over the break and see what we can learn!

  4. we love clicker training w/ our 6 dogs. We are still learning a lot. I have Karen Pryors book Reaching The Animal Mind so no need to include me in drawing, just wanted to comment. Good work Angie . Karen great calander!

  5. I have to use a slight variation of this with my Guide Dog poopies. When they naturally settle down to chill, I reward that too 🙂 It is a great thing for them to learn, because it’s very useful when we got to cafes or restaurants, also (as you say) when visitors come round or we’re travelling on the train.

    With my own dogs I taught the command “go lie down”…settle sounds much nicer though hehe, but they do the same thing. I think it’s especially good to have this response on cue when humans are eating their meals. Certainly in my house it prevents a lot of unnecessary mooching and drooling (from the dogs, not the humans).

    I was given Karen’s new book as a 30th birthday gift, so it’s in my “to read” pile. Looking forward to it though.

    K x

    p.s Harley is just uber-handsome.

  6. That is definitely something I need to teach Jake I am ashamed to say. He gets so excited he gets all his toys out for visitors & must admit I have to tell him so many times to get in his bed. He does it but leaps back up again as soon as I am not looking! I know it is me that needs retraining!

  7. Is it ever too late? We have 2 adopted lurchers, 9 and 8ish, the whippet cross in particular doesn’t seem the smartest cookie! Is it too late to try something like this? What’s the best way if you have 2 dogs and not much space?

  8. It would be nice to be able to get Max to lie on his mat in the kitchen and stay there while I’m cooking. He goes on it ok, then immediately moves back in my way! I was hoping to clicker train him to help keep him occupied while he’s housebound (damaged shoulder), but I am just hopeless with the clicker. Not only am I slow but often I manage to give him the treat before I click the clicker! Is there any training available for us humans???

  9. I taught Polly something similar, she knows it as bed time, so when it get’s to time for her to go to bed or when we are going out, we tell her bed time and now she goes and snuggles down.

    Polly is nearlya year old now, is it ever to late to try clicker training? I think she’d love it, I would love to try it with her!

  10. @k9_kirsty You’re so right teaching your dog to “go settle” or “lie down” on a mat is useful in so many ways. You can also use this for crate training pups, teach go settle to mat/bed first, then gradually move mat/bed inside crate. As you say the mat is portable, you can take it to the vets, put it in the car, take it to training classes, dog friendly cafes and restaurants etc.

    Gareth: It’s never too late, just start clicking. Clicker training two dogs is very doable 🙂 you just need to have one dog settle on a mat while you work with the other, have them take it in turns. This will also teach your dogs self control, as one dog will have to settle and stay while you work with the other.

    Julia: The best way to train yourself is to play training games with humans first. This is great fun and really helps you practice observation, timing etc. Check this out: http://www.fun4fido.co.uk/blog/2009/10/14/clicker-mechanics.html

    Thanks for all the comments tweeps 🙂

  12. Hey Angie! Great lesson today on clicker training. I need to get busy and teach this one to Sally. It is a good time for her as she is eager to learn. “Go settle” would be helpful in many situations. I’m from the US so I don’t need a prize. Just wanted to thank you for all your expertise.