I just came across a great clicker training resource — and that is the name of the site, clickertrainingresource.com. Lily Lim has at this point  18 clicker training articles listed on her page http://www.clickertrainingresource.com/free-dog-clicker-training-articles.html — don’t be surprised when those links take you to another site called hubpages. You are still reading her articles. As someone with a top obedience dog, she knows her stuff.

I discovered this site because Lily made a comment on an article of mine about dog clicker training, one that I had posted at ezine articles.(That’s a site where you can get articles for your own dog blog, or write ones for other dog bloggers to use, by the way.)

She pointed out the importance of teaching dogs what the clicker means before using it to teach any specific behaviors.  I hadn’t really divided things out that way, and it makes sense. So I took a look at her site.

So for more on clicker training, do visit her site! She also has a free email course on, what else, clicker training.

The StarMark Clicker Dog Training System begins with a very sturdy dog clicker which fits easily into your hand. It makes quite a loud click, good for working at a distance — if it is a bit too loud for your taste, you can muffle the sound with your hand.You can attach it to a key chain or a lanyard, useful for keeping it nearby. It is very inexpensive.

A step-by-step training booklet comes with the clicker, and if you haven’t already downloaded my free ebook on dog clicker training, get it at the link!

I haven’t used this particular clicker myself, so I read through the reviews. I am always amused by Read the rest of this entry

The folks from Dogwise go to the annual APDT (Association of Pet Dog Trainers) conferences, and after the one this year, they reported that there is an ongoing demand for good books on dog clicker training, at the beginning level.

Here are three top picks of theirs. I’m sure any of these would take you well beyond what I cover in  my free ebook on dog clicker training.

Clicking on any of the book covers below will take you to the pages at Dogwise, where you can learn more about each book.

Read the rest of this entry

Want to get better at dog clicker training? Here’s a way that you probably would not have thought up: learn to clicker train chickens! Long-time dog trainer Terry Ryan is one of several trainers who have taught workshops on clicker training chickens as a way to master clicker training dogs! You get away from a lot of the stereotypes about training by working with chickens!

So now Terry has made a five-hour DVD based on a workshop she did.  I quote a bit:

Why Train a Chicken?

• Trainer’s are not “bonded” to their chickens.
• Chickens do not have big brown eyes.
• Trainers do not have bad (or good!) chicken training habits because they’ve never trained a chicken before, thus avoiding the baggage often taken to dog training workshops.
• You will not be showing your chickens at the next performance event, nor will you be taking them home, so there is no pressure on what will happen in the future.

If you click on the image, it takes you to Dogwise… Amazon didn’t have this. Even if you have no plans to train a chicken,  it’s fun to see the little snippet of video from the program. I found the first part of it a little confusing, but after a while I caught on that the chicken was going in figure 8s in one situation and  in an oval in another. A couple of times I caught it glancing at the trainer in the very same way our dogs glance at me to assess whether I am about to click and treat!

It just happens that Kelly and I have had chickens a couple of times, in different places, and not long ago we were chatting about maybe getting them again. Hmm… if we do, I think I will have to get this DVD myself and play around with it!