I am home. I am amazed. I see the world, dog world and the rest of the world, in a completely different way now.
I get clicker training now. I get it. I hope I continue to get it. I know that as my experiences are no longer sharp, that my memories fade and my motivation diminishes, but I sure hope a lot of it sticks in my brain and in my heart, and I can develop the skills to be a real authentic clicker trainer.
Clicker training is not just click and treat, marking the behavior and shaping. That is a big part of it, but it’s not all of it. Watching the speakers was amazing. Kathy Sdao and Ken Ramirez were my favorites. They were amazing speakers, very energetic and got their points across wonderfully.
There are some key points to clicker training. You shape the behavior, or capture, using the clicker. And then after the dogs knows the behavior, you put the cue to it. And then after the behavior is reliable, you go to a variable reinforcement schedule. And then, you know a well trained clicker behavior because:
The dog always performs it on cue, and
The dog ONLY performs it on cue.
I missed those points. Didn’t understand them. And now I understand them so much better.
I am tired, so this is a short post.. I’ll post more later about what I learned, and I’ll read over my notes. I need a nap!
