Karen Pryor Clickertraining - Karen's Letters

The Ethology of Clicker Training

Karen Pryor — Thu, 01 Dec 2005 00:00:00 -0600

I used to think of myself as standing perpetually on a bridge, with a foot in each camp. I used to expend a lot of time trying to talk psychologists into understanding or at least coming to watch what we were learning about the animals with their science. No luck. No luck in the other direction, either: the behavioral biologists were not much interested in training or reinforcement.

Bad Bob

Karen Pryor — Mon, 01 Aug 2005 00:00:00 -0500

"He's surprised, did you see that?" I said, laughing, to the watching people. It's easy to startle a horse; but this was not alarm: this was just pure amazement. That expression told me two things: first, he thoroughly understood the game we were playing. Second, in his past experience, things usually just went on and on getting worse, not better. What I wanted to do was to pat Bad Bob (which at present he would probably hate) or throw my arms around his neck, or give him a month's supply of alfalfa pellets. What I did was smile, and pay him his treat. Poor thing. Maybe Festina Lente will turn out to be a better place for you.

Amygdala: the Neurophysiology of Clicker Training

Karen Pryor — Wed, 01 Aug 2001 00:00:00 -0500

About a year ago I gave a talk to the Association of Pet Dog Trainers about advances in clicker training, in which I discussed the possible relationship between clicking and the amygdala, a structure in the limbic system or oldest part of the brain. Many people have emailed me to find out more, so I thought I would give you a recap and an update.

An Update: Books, Movies, Glamour—and the Canary

Karen Pryor — Tue, 13 May 2008 00:00:00 -0500

When I wrote the first edition of Don't Shoot the Dog, back in the early 1980s, I intended it as a handbook for helping PEOPLE dealing with people.

One Book Closes and Another Opens?

Karen Pryor — Tue, 08 Apr 2008 00:00:00 -0500

Writing a book is like having a baby. There is never a convenient time to do it. It's much more work than you remember from last time. And it usually takes longer than you thought it would.

A Change—and a Canary

Karen Pryor — Sat, 01 Mar 2008 00:00:00 -0600

For six years I have been writing a monthly letter to you. In the beginning, back in 2002, "Karen's Letter" was usually about new products and events, but gradually I began using the letter to talk about the science of training, and about the impact of the new technology we are developing from that science.

Stepping on the Food: A Memo from Karen

Karen Pryor — Tue, 19 Feb 2008 00:00:00 -0600

You're training "leave it." You drop a bit of food, the dog lunges toward it, and you cover it with your foot. Are you just managing the environment, or is this negative punishment, taking away something desired?

What is Microshaping, Anyway?

Kay Laurence — Tue, 08 Jan 2008 00:00:00 -0600

This month I'm welcoming a guest author to the Letter from Karen, British clicker training innovator Kay Laurence. Please enjoy this wonderful discussion of what Kay has dubbed "microshaping."—Karen Pryor

A Holiday Treat from Karen

Karen Pryor — Wed, 12 Dec 2007 00:00:00 -0600

My next book, Reaching the Animal Mind, will be published by Scribner in the fall of 2008. Here's my Christmas present to you: a story from the book.

ClickerExpo 2008: So Much to Offer

Karen Pryor — Thu, 01 Nov 2007 00:00:00 -0500

Another season of ClickerExpo is coming! In 2008, ClickerExpo will be in Los Angeles, California, February 1-3 and in Lexington, Kentucky, March 28-30.

Clicker Training on the Run

Emma Parsons — Mon, 01 Oct 2007 00:00:00 -0500

Many of us lead busy lives and there seems to be a perpetual shortage of time. That makes it easy for me to choose a topic to write about this month: How do you train your dog when you simply have no time?

Lessons from Llamas

Karen Pryor — Sat, 01 Sep 2007 00:00:00 -0500

Newcomers to operant training may place superstitious value on the specific tools they see others using, not realizing that it's the process, not the equipment, that counts.

Aversive or Punishment?

Karen Pryor — Wed, 01 Aug 2007 00:00:00 -0500

There's a difference between aversive events and punishment. Life is full of aversive events—it rains, you stub your toe, the train leaves without you. These things happen to all of us, and to our pets, and we don't control when or if they occur.

Chasing Squirrels

Karen Pryor — Tue, 17 Jul 2007 00:00:00 -0500

In April of this year there was a discussion on the ClickerExpo Yahoo Group e-mail list about squirrel chasing. It became a hot topic, generating many opinions and replies. I responded to the ruckus with this post.

Karen Pryor Academy: Clicker Training the Way It Ought to Be

Karen Pryor — Fri, 15 Jun 2007 13:58:46 -0500

In May we announced the launch of the first educational course of the new Karen Pryor Academy for Animal Training & Behavior. The Academy is set up both to spread the word about clicker training and to teach people to clicker train the way we think it ought to be done.

Sheep Dogs, Sheep, and Signals

Karen Pryor — Tue, 15 May 2007 09:23:19 -0500

Like most of us, I've always been intrigued by herding dogs. Here's a letter from a retired doctor that posed a "clickerly" question about herding.

The Shape of Shaping: Some Historical Notes

Karen Pryor — Tue, 10 Apr 2007 00:00:00 -0500

Shaping is a concept that many pet owners find hard to grasp. We're used to making animals do things by leading them or pushing them into the behavior we want—and it is hard to believe that there is another way. Common sense tells us that there is no possible way to get an animal to do something it has never done before, doing nothing yourself but reinforcing spontaneous movements.

Advanced Trainers Find Depth at ClickerExpo

Karen Pryor — Tue, 13 Mar 2007 01:00:00 -0500

Every year at ClickerExpo we save a few spaces for special guests: distinguished trainers, scientists, or leaders in other fields. This year one of our honored guests was Sue Ailsby, a very well known clicker trainer and teacher from Canada. I'd like to share with you one of Sue's posts to the ClickerExpo list after ClickerExpo Los Angeles.

Why I Hate the Long Down

Karen Pryor — Tue, 13 Feb 2007 00:00:00 -0600

When I first took a dog to obedience class, back in the Pleistocene, we were given six weeks to teach our dog to obey five basic commands: sit, down, stay, heel, and come. The behaviors were a given: these are the things any well-trained, obedient dog should be able to do. The important thing was not just doing the behavior, but Obeying the Command No Matter What. Perhaps the most important of all the behaviors, and the most difficult, was the long down. Could your dog lie down and stay down while you walked away? Could he stay there until you came back and told him he could get up? What if his mortal enemy was next to him, or the instructor walked behind him, or some other dog got up and came over to him? Never mind! He'd better not budge! If he moved, we screamed, "No! Down!" and rushed back and jerked him into position again.

Animal Lovers' Holiday

Karen Pryor — Mon, 08 Jan 2007 00:00:00 -0600

Sure, ClickerExpo is all about training. But plenty of people come who aren't trainers. Some of them have some other professional reason to come; they're veterinarians, or manufacturers, or journalists. Some people are just there because their Significant Other wanted to come; or, like one teenager I met last year, because they were brought along to babysit a litter of puppies in the hotel room.