Few months before Diesel arrived, I was surfing the net for all
sorts of dog information and bumped into a site that talked about
clicker training. It sounded very intriguing and having studied
some psychology long time ago I was already familiar with behaviourism
and Skinner. I decided to learn more about clicker training. I thought
operant conditioning and positive reinforcement sounded good and
make sense, but of course, I doubted I could stick to it only, sounded
like *a lot* of work and trouble.. Maybe I'll try it with some things.
However, the more I read, the more convinced I was. By the time
Diesel arrived, I had read as much as I could find about clicker
training on the net, had ordered few clicker training books, had
several clickers and even a homemade target stick and was determined
to train my puppy with this method.
I had, naturally, imagined how this new puppy would learn everything
in a split second because I somehow would be The Greatest Clicker
Trainer By Nature. Things were not that smooth however *grin*. Transferring
all that theory into practice with a 7 weeks old Labrador puppy
was anything but easy and soon I was feeling miserable. Nonetheless,
I didn't give up and after some guidance things started to roll
and I can honestly say clicker training is magical and above all
FUN. It won't do wonders overnight but it helps you know your dog
so much better and guess what, both you and your dog will love it!
I decided to put our training diary online. This is not scientifically
detailed diary, rather an emotional one; full of trial and error
but don't let my occasional despair fool you, we both love every
second of our clicker sessions! I'm hoping it might even help some
others starting out.
Laura
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