Clicker training is a wonderful way to teach your dog any behavior. Clicker-trained dogs are more than trained - they are excited about learning, interested in what you might teach them next. They become active participants in the training game, rather than automatons that don’t think and merely perform at your whim, without enthusiasm or interest. They learn to learn, and actually learn to think, which enables them to achieve more than dogs taught by the old traditional dog training methods. They also learn to look at their teacher (you, the trainer) in a tremendously positive light - no fear, and total trust.

There is no reason to use harsh methods to train our dogs. All creatures, from the lowly ant to us lofty human beings, learn their best lessons when permitted to figure out what works best in a given situation. Pulling, jerking, manipulating, “scruffing,” ear-pinching, shocking, and other tough-guy methods actually are successful with our very forgiving dogs, but at great cost: They damage the relationship between dog and trainer, and in some cases can cause serious injury to the dog. And if we lofty human beings think (more…)

Weekend of February 10/11, 2007
We traveled to Hampton VA to a Novice/Open AKC trial, indoors at the Merrimack Dog Training Center. It was my first time there, though Karen had been there before. We took three very novice dogs: Karen with Patch, a rescued border collie who is 7 and displays all the behaviors that border collies have been bred for centuries to have, and which cause people to place them free to a good home; Pam had Jessie, a lovely 3-year-old English springer spaniel who is coming along beautifully; and I brought Jig, our 2-1/2 year old BC.

The trial was a blast, but I’m writing about the fun we had on Saturday afternoon after the trial. I wanted to go to the beach, but there apparently are no easily accessed beaches in Hampton - or if there are we didn’t find them. So we settled for a park. Looked up parks on our handy-dandy GPS (thank you, Pam) and the closest one was the Air Power Park and Museum (which our dogs dubbed the “Rocket Park”). The museum itself was closed, but the park had a lovely four-foot chain link fence around it, and there was no one there to tell us not to enter (no signs stating that either). So in we went, to a wonderland of rocket ships and airplanes - and a large field containing them. Out with the frisbees and ball, and, well, we could have been anywhere as far as the dogs were concerned. Karen considered it a great photo op, so here you are. Not often do you find dogs and rockets together. And just in case you were wondering, we cleaned up after our dogs and closed the gate after us when we left.

All of these photos are compliments of and copyright Karen Stinnett.