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Training From Your Arm Chair
By Devene Godau, CPDT

You don't have to miss Survivor to train your dog! Thanks to clicker training, there is a way to train your dog from the comfort of your couch; you just have to develop a keen sense of observation.

The concept we are using during our arm chair sessions is called free shaping and essentially means that we will click and treat the dog's natural behavior, to increase the likelihood of the dog repeating the behavior. This works especially well with clicker training, because the clicker allows us to mark the exact moment we want to reinforce.

Here is how it works. In this sample we'll teach the down command:

• Go to your favorite spot to just relax and spend time with your dog.
   
• Bring your favorite beverage (OK, so this isn't imperative to your dog's training, but I want you to enjoy this process as much as possible!). You also need to have your clicker and rewards on hand.
   
• Ignore your dog… watch TV, drink your beverage, and essentially practice the art of doing nothing. Secretly keep an eye on what your dog is doing.
   
• If there is nothing going on worth investigating, your dog will eventually get bored and lay down. As soon as the dog is fully in a down click and treat. It doesn't matter if the down is sloppy, or on
  the side. You can clean up the performance later.
   
• If the dog is clicker savvy, he will get up and come to you for a treat. Once you treat, go back to ignoring and start the process over again.
   

Once the dog connects his behavior with the click, he will start to offer the down. At this point you can add a hand signal and verbal cue.

Dogs learn more quickly when they are making their own choices, and behavior will repeat when those behaviors are reinforced. Also, when using shaping, our dogs never feel the frustration or anxiety that
often pops up when we are using luring or molding methods.

There is a downside to shaping! For some people, waiting for behavior can be frustrating. And at first it may seem time consuming. Remember that when training fails, it is usually because we expect too much
too soon. Keep your patience and don't fall into these traps:

• Telling the dog to "Down" during the learning process. He doesn't know what it means, and it won't speed up the process. In fact, it can hinder you because if you keep repeating a meaningless command to him, he will learn that it is irrelevant.
   
• Don't try to pull him into the position. He will likely get stressed, and stressed dogs aren't learning anything.

The first stages of teaching a command are the hardest and most time consuming. Once you get over the first hump, the process will pick up speed and you will instill solid, reliable behavior in your dog.

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