Make sure you use high value but really small treats. Pea sized portions of cooked meat, nitrate free bacon, and cheese work at my house.

Also keep training sessions short, no more than 5 minutes to start with using the clicker, to keep her focused and wanting more.
I load the clicker in the bathroom, its a small no distraction room that works perfectly for me.

ok i think ill start introducing her to it tonight . My room should be good sence she dosnt do anything but sleep in her when she comes in. Ill have to make up some small treats for her this afternoon

Thnaks
Alex

 Quote: Jennifer Lee

Make sure you use high value but really small treats. Pea sized portions of cooked meat, nitrate free bacon, and cheese work at my house.

Also keep training sessions short, no more than 5 minutes to start with using the clicker, to keep her focused and wanting more.
I load the clicker in the bathroom, its a small no distraction room that works perfectly for me.

Great advice. She won't lose interest if the rewards are really great, like real bits of meat and cheese, and it's not right after her dinner (right before is good!). Also, you want to be upbeat and, as Jennifer points out, brief. Leave her wanting more rather than bored or tired of it.

After a few mark-rewards, you will see her start to look for the reward, to expect it, when you mark. THEN you know the connection has been made in her mind between the marker and the great reward. Post back!

I might be going against the flow here, but I see both benefits and negatives of going to classes. Most here focus on the negatives, so I will speak of some of the benefits.

Even the most experienced trainer will sometimes fall into habits that they are unaware of. Training alone can cause the problem to become deeply ingrained ineither yourself, or the dog you are training. Someone to observe your training is a real plus. But for a newby, this is even more important. Even watching a video demonstrating what you should be doing isn't enough if you think you are doing what the video shows, but are really messing up somewhere.

Proofing after you have trained for a number of commands is one thing. But many times it is better to proof each step BEFORE moving on to the next. A weekly class is ideal for this. You get the instruction on on to teach the lesson you will work on for the next week, you get to proof last weeks, you get a critique of what you are doing right or wrong, and you get questions answered then on things you are confused about. If your dog is not ready for the next step, you can find out then instead of weeks later when problems escalate and you must then start over to see where you went wrong.

Of course, not all classes,or trainers, are equal. Do your homework before joining a class.

Part of my issue is with the unknowns among the strange dogs (and handlers) in a class setting.

well i have been doing short sessions with the clicker for the past weekish and she is deffinetly catching on. She has connected the clicker to a reward and i think this week i will conect it to a few commands she already knows and see what type of a response i get from her

Thanks
Alex

 Quote: Alex Thomson

well i have been doing short sessions with the clicker for the past weekish and she is deffinetly catching on. She has connected the clicker to a reward and i think this week i will conect it to a few commands she already knows and see what type of a response i get from her

Thanks
Alex

Good start! She looks for the reward when you click?

yes she does, the first day she just didnt get it. I think she was actually trying to find were in the room the click was coming from but now she will sit and wait and i try to change what she is doing when i click so it is random and now she seems to snap to me when i click waiting for her treat

 Quote: Alex Thomson

yes she does, the first day she just didnt get it. I think she was actually trying to find were in the room the click was coming from but now she will sit and wait and i try to change what she is doing when i click so it is random and now she seems to snap to me when i click waiting for her treat

Later you will be able to have some lag between mark and reward, but while you're loading the marker, you want to make very sure of the connection in her head between the two. You want her to understand that the marker is always going to result in a reward.