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Posted by: kiristine on 2006-01-27, 15:17:12
Short answer: The best starting out video, in my opinion is Clicker Magic, by Karen Pryor. It can be found on Karen's clicker training website: clickertraining.com/ store/ and at dogwise.com: dogwise.com/ itemdetails.cfm?ID= DTB519 Long answer: There are two camps in animal training. First is traditional punishment training; using choke collars, prong collars, electric shock collars, and general aversive methods. The idea is that the animal will learn to avoid the punishment of a leash jerk by complying with the command. Unfortunately, for many breeds, this can actually cause a dog to become aggressive, and may teach any dog to be generally mistrustful of both their owner and people in general. I suggest you be wary of those who tell you to yell at your dog or punish him for misbehavior. In the other camp is positive reinforcement training; the common tool for this type of training is a clicker, treats, toys and general praise and positive stimuli. The idea is that by rewarding the behavior you want, your animal will be far more likely to offer that behavior again and again. The founder of this technique, Karen Pryor, describes it best: “Clicker training” is the popular term for the training or teaching method based on what we know about how living organisms learn. Research has shown that any creature—whether a dog, cat, dolphin, parrot, fish, horse, llama, or person—is more likely to learn and repeat actions that result in consequences it desires and enjoys. So clicker trainers provide consequences desired by their animal in exchange for actions or behaviors desired by their trainers. We call these consequences “rewards” and the process is called “reinforcement.” Clicker training, therefore, is a positive-reinforcement-based system of training. |
