Training the Trainer

Duncan and I have gotten back into clicker training lately. We've been doing it rather randomly all along, but now we're tackling it in a much more regular and systematic way. We've gone back to Sue Ailsby's fabulous Training Levels program (which we started way back when he was a tiny puppy before we got sidetracked by official School.) We're working on it every day. He's great at some things, not so much at others, but overall somewhere in the second level (out of four).

He loves training, and I think (hope?) that having a "job" to do will help him to feel less anxious. In other words, we're trying to move from "What am I supposed to do in this horribly worrying situation involving a beeping microwave? Perhaps I should bark and throw myself between it and my mom!" towards "I have an extremely important job to do; if I sit and stay the microwave will stop beeping. Plus I'll get paid with meatloaf".

How do I know that he loves training? Well, we've been working a lot this week on Go to Mat. Here's our training setup for the early steps: I sat comfortably in the armchair, while Duncan happily bellyflopped onto his "mat", getting a click to mark the correct response and a treat to reward it.

Notice the important items on the table here: one bright purple and green clicker, one plate of kangaroo meatloaf, and one cup of coffee (for me. Why should he get all the treats?)

So we spent a while the other morning working on Go to Mat. After we finished, I went to work and Duncan had a nap in his crate. But when I got home, he seemed restless. He paced and fussed and squeaked at me, and I couldn't figure out what he wanted. He led me into the hall, near the living room door. Did he want out? I went downstairs. He didn't. Was he hungry? I went into the kitchen. He didn't. Finally, he got exasperated with this not-too-bright human, marched up to the little table, and stared at the clicker. Pointedly. Very pointedly indeed. 

The message was clear, even to a slightly dense human: Duncan was ready to get back to his training now. Would I kindly get the treats, and start clicking? ASAP!