Karen Pryor's Blog, page 2

Conservation Training

One of my greatest passions is conservation training; I lecture about this topic at every opportunity. I always end my talks with a call to action, inviting more experienced trainers to get involved in this type of conservation work. I am gratified when people approach me afterward to ask how they can get started. After a few years of answering each question as it came, it finally occurred to me to share my answers with a wider audience through my monthly Letter.

What is conservation training...

New Year’s Resolutions, Clicker-Style!

Happy New Year!

When you make your New Year’s resolutions this year, why not include your dog? Popular resolutions such as “get more exercise” can easily include the family pet, and many spiritual, personal growth, environmental, and philanthropical goals can include your best friend, too. Here are our top 7 ideas for including a favorite canine in your New Year’s resolutions.

1. Health and Fitness

New Year’s resolutions for personal fitness are always popular. If you would like to do s...

The 10 Laws of Shaping Revisited

The quest for greatness

One characteristic of a good shaper is flexibility—a willingness to change course based on new information coming in. Good science shares that characteristic. As Susan Friedman once said, “A fact is only a fact until it’s replaced by a better one.” I love this pithy reminder that although something may seem obvious or indisputable, rather than becoming complacent, we continue searching for something even better.

This is as true in the training community as it is in ...

Attachments

Be my Valentine?

February means Valentine’s Day, a happy time for me as a child. I lived with the principal of our school, Mrs. Sturley, who set up a card table in the parlor so I could spend hours pasting together the paper, lace, stand-up figures, and stick-on hearts and lovebirds to make twenty-one special valentines for my twenty-one classmates. Sometimes I signed mine; sometimes, daringly, I wrote “Guess who?”

Often I also got to help to make my classroom’s special valentine box. The ...

On Being a Changemaker

So you’ve become a clicker trainer! Naturally you are very excited. You want other people around you to stop using punishment-based methods and start clicking. So you introduce the clicker at your dog club or high school or wherever you are using it. And guess what: people not only don’t change, they get mad at you.

What do you do now? Here’s a biologist’s look at the process of making changes.

What people do when you start to institute a change (in chronological order):

Ignore you...

Managing Your Dog’s Separation Anxiety

Missing you

Domesticated dogs naturally prefer the companionship of their humans. It’s one thing to have your dog follow you around the house amiably, however; it’s quite another to learn that your dog howls relentlessly when you’re at work or defecates in the house to show his displeasure at your absence. When your dog’s behavior in your absence seems extreme, he might be experiencing separation anxiety.

Canine separation anxiety is a set of behaviors that occurs in some dogs when their g...

To Crate or Not To Crate?

A bonus, not a penalty

Many people refuse to crate or kennel-train their dogs because they feel the confinement is cruel. However, when trained with positive reinforcement, a crate or kennel can give dogs a sense of security. When implemented properly, crate training is also a highly effective management system that can be a lifesaver for dog guardians. Like any training method, crating can become abusive, but using a crate for appropriate time periods is helpful for house training, preventin...

What to Expect: Introducing a Puppy to Your Adult Dogs

Sibling rivalry

Getting a new puppy is exciting—at least for the humans in the family. Sometimes, however, the dog of the house doesn’t think the pup is a welcome addition. Many people believe that the process of adding a puppy to the family will be harmonious and that the current dog(s) will also be excited. They are disappointed when that doesn’t happen. Expectations are often unrealistic but, in most cases, what the human family members see instead of those expectations is entirely normal....

Fifteen Tips for Getting Started with the Clicker

Clicker training is a terrific, science-based way to communicate with your pet. You can clicker train any kind of animal, of any age. Puppies love it. Old dogs learn new tricks. You can clicker-train cats, birds, and other pets as well. Here are some simple tips to get you started.

1. Push and release the springy end of the clicker, making a two-toned click. Then treat. Keep the treats small. Use a delicious treat at first: for a dog or cat, little cubes of roast chicken, not a lump of kibble...

How to Clicker Train Your Dog to Stay in the Yard

Draw the lines yourself

Would you like to train your dog to stay in your yard without resorting to electrical shock? There is a way to do it that is inexpensive, takes about the same amount of time, and is just as reliable as the electronic containment systems commercially available.

Electronic obstacles

There are potential problems with containment systems that rely on electrical shock to punish a dog for crossing a boundary.

Electronic containment systems can create aggressive rea...