PetLvr.com - [The Blog]

Once a dog has learned to sit, come, fetch, and stay, and perhaps do a few tricks, many pawrents stop training new behaviors. It’s easy to stop with the basics, but ongoing training yields many rewards. Dogs learning new behaviors throughout their lives are happier, calmer, and can even help with chores around the house. Armed with just a clicker and a bag of treats, you can teach these useful behaviors to your dog. This is the first of a series.

Answer the Phone

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Many dogs retrieve (fetch) naturally, and begin to do so from puppyhood with no special training and no reward other than their enjoyment of retrieving. However, other dogs either don’t chase a ball at all, don’t return the ball after chasing it, or will only fetch occasionally. If your dog isn’t a retriever by nature, but visions of throwing the tennis ball at the dog park are dancing in your head, don’t despair; any dog healthy enough for vigorous activity can learn to fetch and to enjoy the activity.

Capture the Behavior

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Would you like to teach your horse to lie down on command? How about improving your mare’s flying lead changes, or testing a young horse’s jumping potential without needing to place a rider on his back? All of these and more are possible with one small training device that costs under $5.00 and never touches your horse: A clicker.

Clicker training is one of the most popular methods for training dogs, but many horse owners have discovered that it works like a charm for teaching everything from parlor tricks to high-level dressage maneuvers to horses. Clicker training, developed from methods used to train dolphins, uses operant conditioning and positive reinforcement to gradually develop behaviors. Even goldfish can learn tricks this way. Check out the video posted here for proof!

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Wouldn’t a goldfish in a fish bowl be a cute gift for your six-year-old? It’ll teach her responsibility and be a source of constant entertainment. It’s a classic, seen in movies, comic strips, and children’s books for centuries. Right?

Wrong.

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