It’s back to school time and Fish4Dogs is helping pet parents boost their training knowledge with a series of bite-sized training exercises for puppies and young dogs.
Dog trainer Tima Lund (above) uses positive-based clicker training to reinforce a puppy’s directed behaviour and reward it with treats.
The first of the series, which can be seen on Fish4Dogs’ social media channels, Tima shows how to encourage a puppy to stay on a given spot.
She uses a board which she places in the middle of a mat to train Karma a four-and-a half month cocker spaniel.
Tima ignores unwanted behaviour and stares at the board until the puppy focuses her attention on it. The progress is incremental - when the dog begins to pay attention to the object she clicks and rewards. The pup quickly learns that the board is pivotal to the game and progresses to touching and putting her feet on the board and eventually, standing on it with all four paws.
“The game we play is called ‘what makes mummy click’. All my puppies are clicker trained – they know that they have to keep trying to find out what makes me click. The click is a promise, as soon as I click, food is given,” says Tima.
Tima, who is based in Berkshire, runs Folkvang, a small kennel breeding German Shepherds and working cocker spaniels.
She is highly qualified with a BSc BEng PGCE and an extensive background in dog training, a former trainer for Company of Animals and experienced gundog who currently assists West Berkshire gundog Club with its beginner classes.
In the video, she uses Fish4Dogs Salmon Mouse, mixed with egg and potato or rice flour, which is baked to produce small moist treats which can be consumed by the puppy quickly during the training session.
Two other training videos will be posted during the month – “In the Box” and “How to Clicker Train” which demonstrates the approach to use with introducing a new activity.
