Dog Training Archives

Crate Training with Clicker Training

I’m a big fan of crate training, but not for all dogs. That link takes you to a long page I wrote about crate training, how to do it, and when not to. But I don’t talk about clicker training … Continue reading →

An Easy Dog Trick: Wash Your Face! [Video]

The other day I made a short video and posted it to YouTube, a silly minute and a half on how to train your dog to wash its face. The trick is about as easy as it looks…. that is, … Continue reading →

Clicker Trained Dog – But No Clicker in Your Hand!

What do you do if you have clicker trained your dog but then you are out together somewhere and have forgotten your clicker? I’ve heard this question from people who haven’t started clicker training, as they are thinking through whether … Continue reading →

Why I Oppose Shock Collars

It’s simple why I am opposed to electronic collars: Shock collars cause dogs pain. If you don’t believe this, try one on yourself as several people have done and written about. Causing a dog to go through this is cruel … Continue reading →

Clickertraining: the 4 Secrets of Becoming a Supertrainer – A Review

I was pleased to discover this ebook on clicker training….you can download it instantly after purchase and be reading it within a few minutes, no matter where you live, it can have links embedded in the text, and it’s way … Continue reading →

Dog Training Tips: When You Are Upset or Angry

I imagine that most people get angry at our dogs sometimes, or upset over something they have done. I get annoyed at LarryDog when he barks and barks at the dog next door, or a bit upset when Lola destroys … Continue reading →

How to Choose and Evaluate a Dog Trainer

If you are interested in working with a dog trainer, how do you evaluate the trainers in your area? I wrote here about how to find names of dog trainers, but what do you do once you have some people … Continue reading →

Sometimes You Need a Dog Trainer

Sometimes situations arise with puppies and adult dogs where the owner doesn’t know what to do about something pretty important. Perhaps their large year-old dog insists on jumping up on everyone it meets when taken for walks. Perhaps house-training hasn’t … Continue reading →

Changing People, Changing Dogs: Positive Solutions for Difficult Dogs

Dee Ganley’s Changing People, Changing Dogs: Positive Solutions for Difficult Dogs is used by many trainers, particularly since it contains many clearly explained exercises that help difficult dogs. What’s a difficult dog? I suppose it’s any dog that someone gets exasperated … Continue reading →

Dog Training Tips: The Sit

The sit is good for a first thing to teach your puppy or dog. Why start with the sit? Here are five reasons. It’s easy to teach a dog. You’ll be using it with the other commands. Even very young puppies … Continue reading →

Clicker Training Dogs to Detect Cancer

One evening recently, my husband and I happened to watch a BBC documentary on dogs detecting cancer. The program described some small studies and some experiences of dog owners. Most interesting to me was that clicker training was used to … Continue reading →

The Dog Star Daily Online Digital Dog Training Textbook

I often review books, ebooks, and DVDs — products that you can buy, such as new books coming out from Dogwise that deserve attention. Today I want to point you to an amazingly comprehensive resource that is completely free: the … Continue reading →

Stress, Dogs, Training, and Management

Is there any stress in your life? Ha! Who doesn’t have any? Besides the work, family, relationship, health, and money stresses you may have, there is also the matter of what’s on the news. Don’t worry, I won’t get going … Continue reading →

Time Your Clicks for the Exact Moment

In any dog training, you want the communication with the dog to be clear. What is it that you want him to do? His response typically consists of him doing what you are training for, offering another behavior you have … Continue reading →

Working Clicker Training Sessions Into Your Daily Life

Because clicker sessions can be five minutes or even less, you can work them into your daily life.

I’m not saying that they have to be that brief, but they can be. So this means you can find ways to work them into your schedule. (Even if the only predictable thing in your life is the unpredictable, you can still… CLICK THE TITLE TO READ MORE.

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Clicker Training is Like Making a Deal with Your Dog

Karen Pryor’s Comment about Clicking

“Clicking is like making a bargain,” she has said. It’s a language that crosses the barriers between species. Clicker training is based on well-researched principles of how animals learn, and it puts the focus on what the dog is doing… CLICK THE TITLE TO READ MORE.

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Cesar Millan: Not Positive Dog Training

Recently I was at a party, chatting with a man who mentioned that he is a fan of Cesar Millan. I couldn’t help but make a slight face. “Don’t you like his show?” the fellow asked. I said that I … Continue reading →

Train Your Dog Before Vacation Travel

Summertime coming up! And thousands upon thousands of family dogs will pile in the car, maybe with the kids (and sometimes the cat or hamster) and head out to go camping, visit Grandma or in reverse visit the grandkids, or just to have a good time. Some dog training in advance will help everyone have more fun and be safer.

First, brush up on the good old basics: sit, stay, down, come. You may well be using them every day at home, but an interesting thing about how dogs learn is that it tends to be very location-specific. In other words, if Fluffy sits beautifully in the kitchen, she may not when outside on the patio, let alone in a completely unfamiliar situation with distractions.

So do some very simple training, on these basics, but with a twist: do it in a variety of places. Click the title to read more…

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Using Mind Mapping for Dog Training

I’ve done mind mapping for many years, about as long as I’ve been training my dogs, but never until today did it cross my mind to combine the two activities. So what is mind mapping, and why might you want … Continue reading →

Dog Clicker Training: How It Got Started

Thirty years ago, nobody was clicker training their dogs, even though marine mammal trainer Karen Pryor had already written a book called Don’t Shoot the Dog. I remember reading it back in the 80s when my husband and I were … Continue reading →

Clicker Training Cats

In a website on dog training, what am I doing talking about cats, even if it is clicker training cats? Here’s a video on clicker training a cat: Here are a couple of reasons to clicker train cats: Many … Continue reading →

Dog Training Simple Commands

When you first start dog training, simple commands are the best ones to use. Generally, that remains true even as your skills improve over time. Dogs learn simple commands more easily than complex ones, though of course a working dog … Continue reading →

Easing Out of Using the Clicker Once Your Dog is Pretty Well Trained

If you’ve been clicker training your puppy or dog, there will be times when you don’t have a clicker handy. How do you handle the training then? Well, this has come up quite a bit for me with the last … Continue reading →

The Sit: Training It with a Clicker, and Some Uses for the Sit

Chances are that your dog or dogs are already trained to sit, but are you taking advantage of the many ways this versatile word can be used? Today I’ll give some tips on training the sit with a clicker. These … Continue reading →

The Foundation of Agility Training

Every now and then I get a question about dog agility training, and I really know very little about it. So I was delighted to find this blog post on getting started with agility. It’s a long read, but inspiring in … Continue reading →

Will You Use a "Click" or "Yes" in Your Dog Training?

By Gloria J. White, used with her permission. Before you begin your training, it is important to establish a “cue” to let your pet know that what it is doing is the appropriate behavior. You may decide to use a … Continue reading →

The Power of the Clicker

Gloria White is a dog trainer who gave me permission to use this email here on the site. It’s a great example of the power of the clicker! Just read your note about the clicker and how to transition to … Continue reading →

How is a Dog Clicker Like a Camera?

Ohio dog trainer Gloria White compares the clicker to a camera. Why? “You click to ‘take a picture’ of the appropriate behavior,” she says. In other words, both clicker and camera are used to capture a moment. With the camera, … Continue reading →

When Crate Training Isn’t Working

Every now and then I get an email from someone who is having problems with crate training. Here are bits from one: We just recently got a new puppy and are trying to crate train it. We put him to … Continue reading →

Socialization with Other Dogs

Recently we took Lola, now 9 months old, up the street to visit a family of three female dogs. Socializing puppies is a very important part of their growing-up process. This was good for Lola and also for the two … Continue reading →

Clicker Training The Double Sit: That’s Two Dogs Together

Our older dog, LarryDog, has been a bit jealous of all the attention that Lola’s been getting. So spontaneously this afternoon, I did some clicker training for both of them together. (“Spontaneously” means that I actually had something else entirely … Continue reading →