OllieTeddy
Member
Hello
If you don't know me yet, I have a cocker spaniel male called Ollie, who's 3 years old. We have never used a clicker before, always just used treats. I felt we couldn't get much further with trick training without introducing the clicker and I'm having trouble with loose lead walking too, so thought the clicker may help here too.
Just started charging up the clicker by clicking and treating. He's an intelligent dog (too clever for his own good sometimes
) so he got that a "click meant treat" pretty quickly. I decided to do a new trick, watch me because he has poor focus when there is food or other dogs around. I heard a treat out to the side, and waited until he looked at me and then clicked and treated. He got this within about 5 minutes of doing this, and started looking at me straight away when a treat was held away from me. I also tried throwing a treat across the room and waiting until he looked away from the treat and at me. After a few throws, he got quicker at looking at me, which was great, so will keep on with that. 
And anytime he got annoyed and started whining, I just turned my back because it is totally attention-seeking behaviour. This also worked well, and after a few times of turning around, he was quicker being quiet and stopped whining quicker, which is a huge achievement in itself. He's has always been a whiny dog, because we have always given him attention when he whines, so he's learnt its the easy way to get attention. Will work hard on that though.
If you don't know me yet, I have a cocker spaniel male called Ollie, who's 3 years old. We have never used a clicker before, always just used treats. I felt we couldn't get much further with trick training without introducing the clicker and I'm having trouble with loose lead walking too, so thought the clicker may help here too.
Just started charging up the clicker by clicking and treating. He's an intelligent dog (too clever for his own good sometimes
) so he got that a "click meant treat" pretty quickly. I decided to do a new trick, watch me because he has poor focus when there is food or other dogs around. I heard a treat out to the side, and waited until he looked at me and then clicked and treated. He got this within about 5 minutes of doing this, and started looking at me straight away when a treat was held away from me. I also tried throwing a treat across the room and waiting until he looked away from the treat and at me. After a few throws, he got quicker at looking at me, which was great, so will keep on with that. And anytime he got annoyed and started whining, I just turned my back because it is totally attention-seeking behaviour. This also worked well, and after a few times of turning around, he was quicker being quiet and stopped whining quicker, which is a huge achievement in itself. He's has always been a whiny dog, because we have always given him attention when he whines, so he's learnt its the easy way to get attention. Will work hard on that though.
