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Post by Willow on Jun 29, 2004 20:37:05 GMT -5
Thanks, Nicky. She is getting better already and I do appreciate the reminder, because I feel so quilty, and the initial reaction when she acts afraid is to sooth her and tell her it's "o.k." etc., and that "mommy didn't mean it".
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Post by Nicole on Jun 30, 2004 16:21:32 GMT -5
When you think about it, the reaction by Kerra is the consequence of an unfair correction. Kerra thinks the click is a correction and she didn't understand what she was doing wrong. The noise may have been startling but her reaction after the initial shock was probably more related to her thinking that you were correcting her for doing something wrong when her entire life she was taught that what she was doing was right. Just like if you corrected a dog for downing when you command down.
My real point though is that this also goes to show that your usual corrections are fair, appropriate and not harsh or traumatizing because you never get a shut down and skittishness like you did with the clicker. That is because the dog can understand why the correction is issued. It is fair and appropriate for the misdeed. If it was "harsh" or confusing, you would see this same type of behavior which you never do!!
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Post by Willow on Jun 30, 2004 17:59:56 GMT -5
Very excellent points, Nicki! I agree that Kerra thought I was correcting her, but didn't know what for, because when I was training both my dogs to not take food intended for the other one, or that had fallen on the floor, I always used either a verbal, "No" or "leave it" and/or a body block. In this case, I was clicking and giving her food, which was confusing to her and she thought the click was because she was not supposed to take it!
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Post by Iluvmypup on Jun 30, 2004 20:56:10 GMT -5
Your dog just isn't simply used to this technique of training...how old is your dog? If he's been trained a different way, say, a choke collar or some other type of training, it just takes time to switch him over. Is he afraid of loud noises in general (thunder, loud trucks...)? If he is, a snapple cover would work great...it has a much softer gentler noise then the average clicker. Oh, and some clickers have different sounds then others. I love my clicker...its got a great shape to make the click come fast, and the sound is nice and clear. I got some clickers at a petstore that just weren't any good...they were huge and way too loud and awkward sounding. Dogs get used to ONE sound and ONE sound alone though. Two different types of clickers might not mean the same thing to your dog.
You can just use the word "YES" to take the place of the click if that would work better. It doesn't work as good as a clicker would, since you might say "YES" AFTER your dog has performed the action rather then clicking when he's doing it, but its basically the same idea, except it won't catch your dog's attention quite as much.
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