I'm going to dust off my clicker and see if it stills weilds the power that it once did. Clicker training hit the dog training world and has probably made the biggest change in how we think and communicate with our dogs. Karen Pryor who is the guru of the clicker trainer started it all with her book, the revised edition of Don't shoot the dog. This is the book that I send people to when they want to know more about positive reinforcement training. It gives you the basics of clicker training; how it works, why it works and how to implement it in your life with your dog.
Jessie is a clicker dog, she excelled in clicker training. It has been several years since I pulled out my clicker; but I'm going to dig it out again. After Jessie I replaced my clicker with a verbal marker making it easier to mark a behavior on the fly when I didn't have a clicker on me. But because Jessie is quickly loosing her sight and her hearing I thought that it might help. The clicker gives off a very intense sound, one that I think she just might be able to hear. I find myself yelling all the time now, enough so that the nerves of everyone around are getting shattered.
Communication has come down to touch, Jessie is continually startled even when she sees my approach but this has become my only reliable means of communication. The clicker will give off a good amount of vibration which I'm hoping will help in communications. So I will get out my clicker; wrap the bungee cord around my wrist and hope that she hears the sharp snap of the clicker metal. If she does, I will be ecstatic to once again have the ability to communicate more easily with her and that clicker will be a new addition to my ensemble.
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