Leigh Clayton is a resident in avian/exotic animal medicine at Boston's Angell Animal Medical Center, formerly Angell Memorial Animal Hospital, specializing in avian care. Recently we asked her a few questions about why she recommends clicker training for every patient she sees.
clickers
The Need to Gnaw: How to Prevent Puppy Chewing
By Rebecca Lynch on 02/01/2012Choosing to chew?
What do pet stores sell? Toys for dogs to chew on. Bones for dogs to chew on. Treats for dogs to chew on. Are you seeing a theme yet?
How to Practice Clicker Mechanics
By Tia Guest on 02/01/2012Do you remember when you learned to tie your shoes? Maybe that's too far back and the details are fuzzy. How about when you learned to type? I remember that well. It was during my freshman year of high school, the first period of the day, bright and early. My fingers were still asleep! As I clicked away at the IBM Selectric typewriter, it seemed so awkward. But as I practiced each day, I became more and more comfortable and my skill improved. By the end of the semester I was typing over 50 words per minute.
Thinking Beyond the Cue: Ken Ramirez Takes Animal Training to a New Level
By Julie Gordon on 01/01/2012Editor's note: Can an animal think beyond specific cues and generalize to a broader concept? Can you teach a dog to copy a behavior that another dog just performed? Can you teach the difference between big and little? Left and right? When we think of animal training, we don't often think beyond teaching certain cues. ClickerExpo faculty member Ken Ramirez offers a chance to think beyond the cue and rethink what dogs are capable of—when the right training method is used.
Chill Out, Roger! How Clicker Training Helped One Dog Move from Crazy to Calm
By Irith Bloom on 01/01/2012Case study in communication
One of the best things about training pet animals is the almost-daily opportunity to improve communication between two different species. This opportunity is particularly precious when the pet was previously trained using outdated or ineffective methods. One communication success story from my own career concerns a dog I will call "Roger." (Note that in this article Roger's names and the names of his humans have been changed to protect their privacy.)
