Sometimes, I admit, my bichon manages to train me. He plays these funny little games with us, where he withholds his click (IE: he doesn't perform as cued) until he gets us to do something he wants. Example: I ask him to sit and he stares at me. The game in his mind is that he is wondering if I will ask him to sit again, or what I'll try next if he doesn't sit. I gather I am very entertaining to watch.
So I have to be a little bit strict. As much as I want to just click and treat his every endearing game (haha), it works better for me to not click when he is trying to train me! So for example, I cue him to go to his mat, and he goes *near* it. Like, he'll go 90% of the way over there and just sort of hover, ALMOST on the mat. It's like we're playing a game of chess and now I'm supposed to make my next move. If you have a bichon you already know what I'm talking about.
Dandylion is a jokester, everything is funny to him, and compared to him I must seem like the most boring dull animal in the world. So I do want to keep our games playful and silly and fun, it's no fun to play a game where nobody ever wins, so I want to reinforce him in some way for playing with me (and putting up with my ever-so-boring personality), but I don't want to click him for training me.
I have found that I can feed him or toss a toy, or deliver some kind of a reinforcement (WITHOUT a click) for giving me even "part" of my criteria. This is entertaining enough that it encourages Lion, and he will then go ahead and play the game MY way, for a treat AND a click. So I give him my release signal, "okay" which means, that trial is over, I feed Lion and chuckle a little bit for approaching the mat, but no click. He is clicker savvy, so he knows he did something imperfectly. Then I give restart the game. "Mat." This time, okay, since I'm apparently meeting his criteria for being fun company, and he has all the information he needs to understand that hovering near the mat didn't earn a click, he runs right over and pounces on the mat. Click and treat!!
Both instances, I am really giving the same food (primary) reinforcement. The only thing I withheld here (to pressure Lion a little bit to perform) was the click, or that marker signal that says "A+". I might have guessed that Lion could have just run back "near" the mat, he might obviously expect to get food there again, but I guess a B grade just wasn't completely satisfying to him. For Lion, winning a click is ultimately even more important, more valuable, more of a fun prize than just a treat with no click.
