I've read a lot of articles about how the theory behind dominance training is wrong and even harmful to dogs and I'm thinking about clicker training Taco. What are some of your experience with clicker training?

When we got Zhukov, we tried the clicker, but he wouldn't respond to it at all. Colby picked it up right away, but with Zhukov we had to transition to the E-collar. 2 weeks of intensive bootcamp, and he is on the right path. Strangely, he responds to my son better and can almost be "off leash" with it, though I don't trust that. I have just heard to many horror stories about Huskies bolting and being g-o-n-e!

Colby is our Mini-Schnauzer, and my little buddy. He took to the click training right away.

The alpha theory yes is starting to be considered wrong and not effective. I use clicker training worked great with Cora! All I know it's trying to scare your dog into doing something isn't going to work.

We had no luck with alpha training, clicker training, or positive reinforcement training with my little menace. E-collar training was the only thing that worked for us. Now she's successfully transitioned off the collar and is (in my humble opinion) beautifully behaved.

AnyaLuv wrote:

We had no luck with alpha training, clicker training, or positive reinforcement training with my little menace. E-collar training was the only thing that worked for us. Now she's successfully transitioned off the collar and is (in my humble opinion) beautifully behaved.

That is GREAT! Zhukov is doing well with the collar, but I do notice that when we take the collar off he tends to get a little more.... willful? stubborn?

How long was it until you felt you could go without the collar?

She was only on it for about 3 months. The important thing for us that our trainer stressed was that we put it on her whenever we were home. So as soon as we woke up, the collar went on and stayed on until we left for the day or went to bed. That way, she never got "collar-wise" and it was more consistent. Now she's off-leash quite often and has listed even with foxes, dear and rabbits dashing in front of her.

clicker training works for some and not for others. With a pup start with clicker training early and your chance at success will be higher with it. Don't wait until he's 6 months old to try it. By that point they are already food motivated often times and not as easily impressed with the click. Ecollars aren't for all dogs, nor for all training, and are usually too large to use on a pup under 6 months old. If they are used incorrectly they can be as bad or worse than the aforementioned dominance training. Get started on clicker early on or positive reinforcement, also look into NILF (nothing in life is free) training. Starting any of these early should go a long ways to having a well behaved dog, but if an ecollar at some point seems a necessity make sure you get the information and training needed to implement it correctly prior to taking that route.

I've clicker trained every dog I've ever owned and had amazing success with it! It's the method I introduce to people when they hired me for personal dog training classes. You can even substitute a word for the click instead which will save you the cost of a clicker and be handy for when a clicker might not be around. The most common word used is "yes" because it's short. "Good boy/girl" is too long. You can also use the click of a ballpoint pen.

There are two methods of using a clicker. One method is training with a clicker, and the other method is actual clicker training. There's a distinct difference. When you train with a clicker, you use traditional training methods where you show the dog what you want him to do by luring or physically putting them in the position you want them in and then clicking to show the end result is correct.

In clicker training, you don't touch the dog or lure them. You wait for the dog to offer you actions that go in the direction you're looking for. For example, for a sit, you would click when the dog lowers its butt a little bit, then click when it lowers it more, and on and on. Usually by the third or fourth step, the dog figures out you want it to sit and offers the behavior consistently. That's when you start to pair the word "sit" with the action. It's a method of teaching the dog to think and problem solve.

I think you'll really enjoy using this method of training. I recommend checking out Karen Pryor's website. She has a lot of books and DVDs that walk you through the process so you know how to do it.

I am having amazing results with clicker training. I got Rey last month and introduce it to her at 9 weeks. It took some conditioning to get her used to the clicker. As of today she is now 13 weeks old. Looking back I am really shock how the clicker has accelerated our training.

@ 13 weeks old she knows sit, lay down, back up to a sit, sit to stand, stay, leave it (leaving a treat on her nose), shake, roll over, drop it.

Like what a few people mentioned already it is best to start clicker training early in a puppy's life.

As far as alpha training goes for me, all I do is the basics. Walk through the door before her, eat before her, get her to move when she is in my way, have her come to me for attention.