Positive Petzineclicker training with 2 dogs
Hello, this is my first blog, so here goes!
I live in a small rural village in the south of Spain, and the notion of positive dog training methods seem to be little known here. So I was so pleased to discover this website. I am keen to start clicker training with our two dogs, Pascua (Brittany spaniel) and Haiku( Podenca). I have been reading as much as I can about clicker training and I've had a look at Sue Ailsby's training levels. It seems that from a practical point of view I would need to work with each dog independently so as not to confuse things. I thought I could plan some short sessions with each dog throughout the day and meanwhile put the other dog back to her crate. There are a few things that I still don't feel very clear about though (well a lot of things actually), but trying to take one step at a time. I'd like to follow the training levels but before I begin I have a few doubts:
If I am working with one dog and the other one is back in her crate, does it matter that the other dog can still hear the clicker? Won't she be confused that she's hearing that sound but not getting a treat?
(the house is small and open plan, so everything can be heard from one side of the house to the other).
Do I just forget about the clicker whilst the two dogs are together? I'm thinking that if I'm clicking one dog for doing a sit it could be confusing for the other dog.
What I've been doing up until now, is just using my voice whilst I'm with the two dogs, so that if for example Haiku is doing a beautiful sit I will say ''good girl'' and give her a treat.
I just want to have sense of progressing and it seems that if I just rely on the few short individual sessions then it is going to take a long long time to train these dogs.
Any helpful thoughts for my early beginnings would be really appreciated.
Thank you
Caroline
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re: clicker training with 2 dogs
Hi Caroline, glad you decided to jump in and get your feet wet! You would be surprised how many of your fellow Spaniards are clicker training, but I gather that it is early days for clicker training over there.
You are definitely on the right track teaching each of your dogs separately in the early stages. Don't worry, short sessions are more efficient than long sessions in many cases, and it won't take nearly as long as you think. Clicker training can feel a bit slow at first, but your progress improves as you progress. In this way it is almost the opposite of traditional training, where early progress can be quite fast but drops off over time.
Added to this, YOU will get better at it over time, further speeding things up. I can work with completely untrained dogs and get very quick results, whereas when I started it took me two weeks to teach my own dog to touch a target stick (once we got that behavior, everything sped up dramatically).
Your question about clicking two dogs is one I hear quite often! I actually train both of my dogs simultaneously and they always know which one is getting the click. You see, it is not JUST the click sound which marks the response. There are a number of things, things that you and I might not even notice but dogs are very quick to figure them out. Where is your attention when you click? Which dog just got asked to do something? Where are you looking before you click?
The funny thing is, even these things can change with context. If I'm working a dog at a distance, then where I'm looking isn't even apparent to the working dog but the fact that they are "working" seems to be salient.
If I'm working with two dogs simultaneously and both dogs are working, who am I clicking? The one I am looking at, most likely. They are very clever, not verbally, but they figure stuff like that out very easily.
Sometimes they will get confused, it is possible. I usually have Sabella on leash while Django is off-leash. I might ask Django to wait while I walk to a rubbish bin up by the road. If I click Sabella for doing something, say, ignoring another dog nearby, Django will probably break his stay to come get a treat. However, if he doesn't get a treat and we repeat the exercise, he will figure it out and stay.
If you have one dog in a crate, and the other is working, it is clear as day. There will be no confusion at all, I promise.
For the sake of argument, if you wanted to click the dog in the crate for not fussing, by simply looking at the dog in the crate then clicking and giving the treat both dogs will figure out who is being clicked. (Although, in that case I would simply toss the treat into the crate, as there is not always a REASON to click).
Does that answer your questions?
Regards,
Aidan
http://www.positivepetzine.com
2 dogs
caroline
Thanks a lot Aidan. I find your comments really encouraging and the video of Sisler is amazing. I reckon if he can get those dogs to learn all those tricks just teaching short sessions each day, then I should be able to get Pascua and Haiku to sit! You've convinced me.
Clicker+
Would you recomend the clicker+ for two dogs since it says you can switch instantly between 2 sounds? I think the biggest problem would be when we assign a sound to a dog, and work two at a time human error says we will eventually use the wrong sound for the dog. What do you think Aidan?
I have never used the clicker+ but have thought about ordering one to give each dog a specific 'click' sound.
re: Clicker+
It's one of the advertised benefits of that product, but I really don't think it's necessary and as you have suggested, human error could cause us to use the wrong sound at the wrong time!
I would rather my dogs just learned to read the situation better, which they are all perfectly capable of doing. I've trained multiple dogs, multiple cats and even cats and dogs at the same time with the same clicker and I have never had a problem which I would put down to using a common signal.
There are some situations where unique signals could be handy, particularly where the handler isn't present or isn't visible, or the dog is concentrating on something intently.
Regards,
Aidan
http://www.positivepetzine.com
Costa de la Luz
Hi Caro,
did you join the Training Levels yahoo!-group already?
I'm at the Costa de la Luz, near Chiclana. Where do you live? I would LOVE to meet someone to chat and maybe to train with.
Greetings
Cristina
Costa de la Luz
Hello Cristina, It's a nice idea but I think we live too far away. I live in Los Montes Orientales near Granada. I haven't joined the yahoo group, perhaps I'll investigate. I'm trying to stay focused on Sue Ailsby's approach so as not to get too mixed up, there is so much information out there and I find I can get overwhelmed.
If you'd like to get in touch then you could email me at: boatfree@hotmail.com
Caroline