"I need a suggestion on a good starter clicker book, but one that is not too simple. This is for an experienced trainer but one that is new to clicker training."

When I was just beginning as a crossover trainer, I found Lana Mitchell's book called Click for Success: Practical Clicker Training Guide. I ordered it through Dogwise.com.  

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When it arrived in the mail, I was disappointed at first, for the guide was only 90 small pages long. But I swiftly changed my mind. I read it one evening, thought to myself, "Hmmm. I think I'll read this again." The next morning I read it again and felt I had a grasp on what Mitchell had described.

At noon I began Meggie's first clicker lesson. That's the dog I'd rescued from the highway who had not previously had any lessons, especially not any clicker lessons. Within approximately 13 seconds total, she was heeling on leash at my left side. How could this be? Well, I had a mental picture of what good heeling looks like. So all I needed to do was click/treat for any behavior she freely offered that approximated what I could use to build it into heeling. A click/treat here, a click/treat there, and Meggie had me figured out.

I was ready to learn clicker teaching. I'd had a previous introduction. Lana Mitchell wrote an article for our Collie Club of America Bulletin about her experience attending Bob Bailey's Chicken Camp. It fascinated me. Let's just say, I was primed and ready to learn.

Shortly thereafter, the next day or so, Meggie and I had an unusual experience while walking together in a field. She alerted to something I couldn't see at first. Finally I noticed a small rabbit warren just ahead near where the field ended and the small forest began. I wrote about this at the time to the ClickerSolutions group.

Meggie, a go-to-ground terrier, alerted, ready to aggress. I stood still, remembered my Lana Mitchell Clicker Training Guide, and I waited for her to voluntarily offer any alternate behavior. I counted silently to myself. At about the count of twelve steam engines, or thirteen, I observed her give a right ear flick. I clicked for that behavior, then walked ahead to give her a tiny tidbit treat reward. I waited silently and counted some more. She turned her head a quarter turn (about 90 degrees) to the right. I clicked that; she stepped toward me to receive the treat.

Truly within that short space of time, she was abandoning her focus on the rabbit warren to engage in the clicker game. I continued the shaping. She offered a 180 degree turn to the right, and almost immediately thereafter she began to offer full circles to the right, each about 6 feet in diameter. Then I walked her about six to eight paces in a new direction, away from the rabbit warren, but still in the field. When we stopped again, I began to use shaping in successive approximations to teach her the full circle to the left. What did Ihave here, a dog who could do full six-foot circles to the left and full six-foot diameter circles totheright. What will we do with those circles, eh? Maybe practice a figure eight for the novice obedience exercise? Sounds good  to me.

It was blowing my mind to have a dog so happily engage in this learning game and to accomplish so much in only minutes her first day.

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My next favorite book on clicker teaching is Pat Miller's The Power of Positive Dog Training.

Hope this helps. Mitchell's Practical Clicker Training Guide, second edition, the one I have, was published in 1998. It may be out of print now.

© January 28, 2009. Barbara D. Brill, North Chili, NY All rights reserved. No reproduction permitted without express written permission from the author.          Email address: This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it