Clicker training

[blacknrust]

I have taken Maeve to obedience training. I attended training with this same instructor years ago(1990's)with my first dobe Bruno. Bruno was 90lbs solid. We used a prong collar frequently in his training and got good results even when transition to flat collar.
I'm finding Maeve is just tough. Prong or not she's ignoring me almost every step of the way.
Challenging pretty much every command I give. We are practicing Nilif. Maeve is always dragging a leash and is always in the same room as me. We have a good sized fenced yard which she runs several times a day. I work with her during the day hiding her toys and intermittent training. She is very food driven. But without a treat she just ignores me. At 7 months is she too old to try clicker training? Would it have any effect on her? I have an appointment next week for an evaluation with a new trainer. She has experience with Dobes and currently owns two.
I don't even know if she uses clicker training but I'm at my wits end and willing to try anything. I know she's too young for an ecollar but do you think this is in my future?

 

[Doberman Gang]

Clicker training is just marker training, you can do the same thing verbally. You have to build engagement thru play. When you reward with food don't just hand your dog food. Get excited run and make them chase you to access the reward. It is a game and builds drive to play with you. Mark the behavior then reward. Thru repetition you will get classical conditioning to where your marker will develops the sane response as the reward. Then you can slowly wean off of rewards thru random reinforcements.

 

[MeadowCat]

No, she isn't too old, and I personally really like clicker training. I find positive reinforcement training to be an easy way to train dogs, as dogs do what works - what I mean by that is, dogs do things that are rewarding to them, so teaching them that the behaviors you like "earn" what they like works very well. I primarily use positive training with both of my dogs and the method is great. I find it much easier to tell them what TO do rather than what NOT to do. Basically, imagine if you had to learn your job at work by only knowing what you weren't supposed to do...that's really hard. So I don't tell my dogs "no" very often...instead, I mark the behaviors I like all the time (either with a clicker or a "yes!" with my voice and I reinforce them VERY frequently, all day, all the time. It tells them exactly the stuff I like, so they repeat that stuff because they know it "pays." Over time, you decrease the amount of time they get rewarded.

My dogs LOVE to train and they love to perform behaviors they know I like. Behaviors I don't like and I don't reward fade because they don't pay and I've replaced them with behaviors that do pay.

 

[strykerdobe]

She is not to old for clicker training.
We tried clicker training long time ago. Be we always forgot to take the clicker with us when we went somewhere. Lol
So we just used a marker word like Yes. Or you can make a click noise.

 

[blacknrust]

Thanks for your replies. Clicker training may be the answer to her stubbornness. So still a few questions are there any articles or websites you could recommend?

 

[Doberman Gang]

Thanks for your replies. Clicker training may be the answer to her stubbornness. So still a few questions are there any articles or websites you could recommend?

I highly recommend getting the video "The Power of training with food" by Micheal Ellis or obedience without conflict by Ivan Balabanov.

 

[MeadowCat]

I love the book, "The Thinking Dog: Crossover to Clicker Training." Online training and videos are great. There's a youtube channel from Kikopup that has great videos. I think, though, that finding a great, in-person trainer is really fabulous - someone to watch your timing, give suggestions, see how you are interacting with your dog...a great trainer trains YOU in how to better train your dog. If you can find a good trainer to work with you for a while that would be my first choice.

 

[My2Girls]

Thanks for your replies. Clicker training may be the answer to her stubbornness. So still a few questions are there any articles or websites you could recommend?

As others have said the clicker just marks the behavior. You hold the clicker in one hand and click it when she does what you asked. I personally like just marking it with an enthusiastic "yes"! And then pay. Also I don't always remember the clicker especially on walks or when training off leash at the park.