click and treat

Last Sunday was the first of 7 classes for Tristan's obedience course. For that first class, we owners were told not to involve the doggies yet. It was simply like a understand-why-your-dog-behaves-the-way-he/she-does session where some theories and tips were shared. The trainer also explained her clicker training method - basically training your dog to understand each command given by you by associating a clicker sound to your command and a reward of treats. Eg, each time you give a 'sit' command and as soon as the dog obeys and sits, the clicker is immediately sounded, followed by a reward of treats for your dog. The reason for the clicker is so that the dog relates obedience to your command. Sometimes as you are planning to reward your dog, your treat may be delayed as you may have taken time to retrieve the treat and by that time, the dog may have moved. By rewarding the dog then would confuse him/her to thinking that he/she was rewarded for the latest action instead of your orignial command. Makes sense ay.

We're suppose to be given the clicker next week but in the meantime to try substituting the sound of the clicker with a 'yes' command. I've tried this method a couple of times with Tristan and I'm impressed that it actually works. So far so good. Hehe...I'm pleased. Hopefully it keeps up. Also we were told that dogs apparently respond more positively to signs as compared to verbal commands. And it's somewhat true cos Tristan was able to follow the hand signals quite well. Hmm....cool. The clicker and treat method is not meant to be relied on forever. Once the pooch understands and obeys the commands, they can be phased out. *Phew* It would be a hassle having to always carry a clicker and some treats around.

This weekend will be Tristan's first class out in the field. Boy, would he have a gala time. I think it would be quite hard to get him to pay attention as he will be so easily distracted by his surroundings. The trainer said it's expected of some dogs. Well, this one for sure! Heh. It'll be interesting to see what happens. :-D