"All breed," Clicker Herding, and Dry Herding

[agilityrunningdogs]

In my opinion, you can say "yes" if you want, that's how my first two dogs were taught. There are a few studies that show that the distinct sound of a clicker actually helps the dog learn faster - but my puppy knows both and if there isn't a clicker around, I can use a verbal marker. I now use a clicker because it's clearer and more consise, "click" is obvious to Mal that he has done something right, "yes" is not so much so to him, but it can be used in quick situations, just not when training for any duration of time.

 

http://www.clickertraining.com/node/275

[Sue R]

Thanks! I am a "yes" person myself and, as far as timing, maybe I haven't made enough of an effort but my timing with a clicker is about as advanced as my ability to blow the whistle.

[Rebecca, Irena Farm]

I've been "clicker training" Gus, our deaf dog, using a hand signal for the marker. Previously, he learned as all the other dogs here learn, "That's it!" for a marker.

 

I'm sure it's not surprising since he was going deaf, but the hand signal worked far better than voice. When we changed him to hand cues on all his working commands, in fact, he was in general far happier. People have noted the same effect going from voice to whistles while working.

 

It was dramatic with Gus because he'd gotten very confused and had lost a lot of confidence. Merely switching to something that was consistent and unambiguous fixed many "problems" that turned out to be simple confusion.

 

I think a lot of times we underestimate how muddled our communication is to our dogs, and the effect it has on their ability to respond. For this alone, clicker training is enlightening.

[desertranger]

I find dogs respond easier to hand signals than they do my voice. Jin also responds to a sheepdog whistle although I may have gotten him to use to different whistles to lie down. One of them was recall but somewhere int he last week he started using it for lie down. Oh well.