Okay, run your mouse cursor over the picture of Dandylion. That's his cue to "split." Isn't it amazing! He never gets it wrong! How do you think we trained this t
rick? No, I didn't put little strings on his back legs and pull! It's very easy to train using clicker training. I use this in a freestyle routine (though the actual dog isn't *quite* so reliable), and people often ask me how I trained it.
Assuming you've already taught the dog that a click is good news, when you click or "mark" a behavior, the dog becomes more consciously aware of that behavior, and thus better prepared to control the behavior. First you click and treat, which reinforces and strengthens the behavior, then you put that behavior on cue.
I can ask Dandylion to go back and forth between these two postures. So if you put something else like barking on cue, try to reinforce both barking and not barking, and get both sides of the equation on cue! You want the dog to become conscious of what it feels like when he is barking, and when he's not barking, and practice moving back and forth between those two behaviors. (If barking is your thing, read my blog articles about barking in general, "Be Careful of What Works" and "Cueing for Barking.")
So, how to clicker train this trick? Pick a day or two and on that day every time you see the dog in the "split" position, click and treat! Soon he will approach you like he's begging, look you in the eye and offer the "split" behavior (maybe you can think of a funnier name for it). Click and treat! Then you can put it on cue (say "split" when you know he's about to offer the behavior, click and treat!). Pretty soon, you'll be able to say "split" even when he ISN'T about to offer the behavior, and he'll think, oh boy! This is my big chance to get a treat! Visual cues are much easier than verbal cues for dogs, so I like to use both at first, and then I can fade the visual cue (like a hand or foot signal) and just use the word.
Once I am at the stage of putting a behavior fully on cue, I like to get the end, as well as the beginning of the behavior on cue. For example, when you say "sit" your dog should learn to stay in that position until either you give a different cue ("down!"), or until you say "okay" which means, "now you're free to move about the cabin!" So for every "position" I do *try* to set it up to click and feed the dog while he is still in the right position (tough to do with fast little dogs like this, so if you've got a fast little dog, don't worry too much about the ending of the split. This is just for fun, right? ALWAYS reinforce after you click). But ideally, I find creative ways to teach my dogs to briefly wait in position until I give a release cue which says, "okay, that cue is over! Now you're free to move about the cabin!" In this case, I am giving him "down" and then "split." I move one leg like I'm doing a split and he splits. When I move my legs back together, he moves back into his "regular down" position.
Jenny Ruth Yasi teaches and trains in Maine at www.happytailsportland.com
