Hi,
I've got a 6 year old english shepherd and I'm trying to retrain her. We did basic obedience when she was a pup, but over the years she seems to have regressed. She'll follow commands, but on her terms. If I say "come" she will first run to find a toy, and then come to me. Sit and down work pretty well, but she's sometimes very slow to respond and even waits for us to say it a few times. So I'm starting your class at the beginning and trying to step her through obedience again but now with a clicker. This brings a few questions.
Do I treat after every click? I feel like I've gone through the charging the clicker process but she was more interested in the treats than anything. I tried the airplane game and I'm not quite sure she got it. We stopped when I ran out of treats in my pocket. Then I've been clicking and treating when I tell her to sit or down. I'm not sure what she's associating the click with. She seems to just associate it with "come here I've got treats for you". I was working on "leave it" earlier while playing fetch. She doesn't like to let go of here ball. When she does, as soon as your hand gets near it she darts in and grabs it. When she would leave it alone and not try to grab it before me, I clicked and treated. She then lost all interest in her ball and it took a while to get her to go fetch it and play again. She heard that click, just sat there waiting for treats.
Am I doing something wrong?
Does a click always mean treat?
Thanks,
-Jeff
