If you haven’t succeeded so far, you should now delve deeper into clicking, as the more complicated tricks you want to teach your dog, the more help it will be if you’re familiar with the clicker. And the box game is the easiest way for you to master this method of learning. (But of course, we would like to note that this and all other tasks can be taught without a clicker, sometimes with a little more work.)
🛎 Step One – Conditioning: During conditioning, we teach the dog that clicking is followed by a treat. All you have to do is take the clicker and the reward snack, press the clicker and give your dog the food. Repeat this many times.
Tips:
👉 If your dog is afraid of the sound of a clicker, choose a more low-pitched clicker.
👉 During conditioning, the treat should not be in your hands, but in a treat bad or a bowl next to you. – Take turns, don’t always give the treat by hand, occasionally throw it on the ground, moving the dog out of position.
👉 If you wait a little while the dog’s attention is distracted and then you press the clicker and the dog immediately reacts and waits for the jute, then the conditioning was successful, you can start training.
👉 If you don’t have or don’t want to use a clicker, similarly, condition a short praise to replace the sound of the click.
Task:
Pick a box the size your dog can comfortably stand in, with all four legs. Put it on the floor in the room, preferably so that the dog cannot see you doing so. Take the clicker and lots and lots of snacks, then invite the dog into the room. Gradually click and reward for all her attempts towards the box. If she looks at it – click – treat. If she takes one step towards – click – treat. If she puts one paw on it – click – treat. And so on until she steps in with all four legs.
Tips:
👉 If you don’t know the method yet, read about it, watch videos on the topic and then start teaching your dog. You have to pay attention to a lot of things at first, but it’s worth the effort!
👉 The treat comes after each click, do not skip this step, do not replace it.
👉Timing is very important, always click when the dog is doing what you want to confirm (eg when sshe looks at the box, when he steps towards it, etc.). “Don’t talk, don’t lead her to the box, she has to figure out what the job is.” It greatly improves dogs’ thinking and learning skills, while being very tiring at the same time.
👉 Click on one movement (eg looking at the box) a maximum of a few times, then don’t accept it anymore, expect her to do something else (eg step towards it). If she gets stuck, feel free to go back to the previous step. Keep the principle of gradation. – Once the task is going well, reduce the size of the box until she can finally stand in a shoebox. It also develops a sense of balance and conscious use of the hind legs.
