Confessions of A Clicker Addict

"Hello - my name is Paula and I am a clicker addict" Boy do I feel better getting that off my chest. Knowing you have a problem is half the problem solved as the saying goes.

It all started 12 years ago when I got my first clicker. I remember the day so vividly. I was at a dog show (where else would I be on a weekend) in Niagara Falls, New York.  Browsing through the booths when I suddenly stopped - poked my Mom - "Look - there it is! A CLICKER". It was magical looking and a bit intimidating. This new 'training thingy' that held such secrets to communicating with the canine mind. I had to have it - but what colour - did it matter??? Maybe I needed more than one. You couldn't buy them in Canada yet. Ok stop rolling your eyes it really wasn't like that but you need to embellish these things :)

I got it home and couldn't wait to try it with my young dog (less than a year). Once I figured out which side was up and how to coordinate my fingers and thumbs to make it click when I wanted it to, and how to hold it and my food and control my dog all at once I was good to go. Having read "Don't Shoot the Dog" - Karen Pryor (clicker guru of all gurus) from cover to cover (several times) I felt I was armed with enough knolwedge to get started.

Well what happened next was what got me hooked/addicted - you can't stop at just one session - I dare you to try. I don't even remember the specific thing I 'taught' my dog that first day - it really is irrelevant. I just remember the feeling of sheer awe when I saw him (yes you can literally see it) 'get the game'. I saw him engaged, participating in the learning, working things out, neurons firing and most of all - enjoying the experience. No more pushing and prodding, no more collar corrections, no more 'commands', now I used 'cues'. We were a team in the true sense of the word.

I instantly called my mother. I wouldn't let her get a word in edgewise. "It works, it really works!" I am sure I was babbling nonsense but I couldn't control my excitement. I vowed from that moment on that I was converted to 'clicker training'. I would never go back.

So that is my story of how I became a clicker addict.