The Power of "The Click"

As some of you may know I have been using a clicker with my dogs for the past 3 1/2 years.  Sassy Girl started at 12 weeks when she came to live with us.  Zoe was almost a year old when I started working the clicker with her.  Prior to using the Clicker with Zoe I used the positive reward based method with a marker word for correct behaviour.  Consequently I have noticed a marked difference in my dogs learning curves.

Zoe is used to being put in the position, marked for correct position and treated for staying in position.  She understands that the click means a treat will follow.  She also understands when I put something, anything, on the floor at the beginning of our training sessions she is to interact in some way with that something.  But this is where her and Sassy differ.  Zoe will offer 2 or 3 behaviours, a nose touch, a nose touch with a play bow and a down.  When none of these illicit a click she just lays down beside the item and waits until I put it away.  I have never clicked this stopping nor have I rewarded it.  I always wait at least 1-2 minutes (and man is that a long time!!) staring at the object hoping she will offer up something different. When she stops working I just quietly pick up the item and ask her to  go to her spot and stay while Sassy has a turn.

In the mean time, Sassy has been laying on her spot, quietly waiting her turn.  When called she jumps up eagerly and runs to where the item was and waits.  With Sassy if she doesn't get a click right away she will offer different behaviours until she gets that click. It's sure a pleasure to watch her work out what it is I'm looking for.  She will offer nose touches, paw touches, stand and stare, stand, stare and wag your tail, (this one always makes me chuckle), stand, stare, wag your tail and lift a paw.  The behaviours she has seem to be endless.  So far I have yet to see her stop offering.  She has stood and stared at me for a few seconds, I will just stare at the item while she's doing this, she always goes back to it and starts offering up more behaviours.

In the following set of pictures I demonstrate this difference with my dogs. Note the date time stamp on the pictures.  This gives a reference to how quick behaviours are offered.  In Sassy's photos she was moving too fast for the camera to capture all of the steps she was taking.  I also set up each dog and ran them through the initial interaction/click without taking pictures, then I used a remote release to take the actual photos.  Both dogs figured out right away that the flash pop was the "Click" so I didn't have to click, take a photo and treat.  Way easier for me!!

The first picture is Zoe interacting with the book on a stand.

 

Then we have Sassy Girl.  Her time stamps between behaviours are a little bit longer. She is very methodical in her offerings. She offers, waits for the click, shifts, offers, waits etc.

Basically we started out with me clicking for the nose touch in the upper right corner. It took her a little bit longer to figure out it was her bum I wanted her to move and not her nose.  But she succeeded in the end.  Good Girl!!

I tried working both dogs together but every time I set Sassy up and then moved Zoe into the scene, Sassy would just walk away.  Apparently Sassy Girl is a bit of a Diva and only works Solo.  Funny Girl.  So I ended up blending two photos together in Photoshop and came up with this final product.

Next challenge, getting both dogs to hold their respective positions. Learning to work together will be fun.