From Elisabeth & Piccolino: Is there anything published about clickertraining with minipigs? I'm experienced with clickering dogs and horses, but I found a lot of things very different with minipig Piccolino. We'd be very grateful for any support.
Gem Posts
Clicking in the Shelter: It's all about Communication
By KPCT on 12/01/2002From Nancy Lyon, Upper Valley Humane Society: For those who might encounter resistance introducing the clicker to their shelters, how about selling clicking as a method used to communicate and not call it a "training" method. We all want to get our shelter dogs to repeat good behaviors and stop repeating bad behaviors. In the shelter environment most of the dogs have a wide array of "bad" behaviors; most are the result of no self-control.
Clicking Miracles: An Unmanageable Dog
By KPCT on 11/01/2002From Sue Ailsby: There's a certain kind of dog-owning household that produces, entirely out of kindness and good intentions, an almost unmanageable dog. This dog doesn't just jump up on people, but careens into them, grabs and tears at their clothes, knocks over furniture and small children, steals, digs, barks, and carries on incessantly. The family have almost always had the dog since puppyhood: sometimes it is two or three years old before they begin looking for help.
In Class: Pass the Peaceful Puppy
By KPCT on 11/01/2002From Nina Bonderenko: We have a "Pass the Peaceful Puppy" session in the first puppy class, so that all puppies can learn the correct way to behave when handled. One reason why some dogs become really pushy and even growly when handled is that, when they are puppies, people put them down if they struggle when held. This is an automatic response by people to a wriggling, struggling puppy which wants to get back to its littermates or to play. However, it simply shows the puppy that 'Resistance is fertile'(!), or in other words, it is productive to resist something you don't want or like. You are teaching the puppy to complain and argue with you. The puppy gets what it wants.
Did Dolphins Go AWOL?
By KPCT on 11/01/2002Steve Dale, nationally syndicated pet writer and radio host, recently interviewed Navy representative Tom La Puzza, on Animal Planet. Navy dolphin trainers use operant conditioning and positive reinforcement, exactly as clicker trainers do-with fish, patting, and social attention for rewards, and a whistle or other sounds for the clicks and cues. Steve Dale writes:
