Clicker Training

March 4, 2020

Many dogs are happy as long as they are with their people, and taking your dog out and about in North Georgia can be a great experience for both dogs and owners. There are numerous local pet friendly businesses where we can stop and relax on our adventures, such as wineries, coffee shops, and breweries. For some dogs and owners, this experience is not quite as relaxing. The dog may bark, pull, and whine, cutting your outing short.

Sometimes, simple management techniques do the trick, such as moving further away from people (like to the fire pit at Serenity Cellars, which is away from the crowd and coincidentally the best seat in the house) — your dog will like it, too. Other times, a little bit of training for owner and dog can go a long way. We focus on teaching a few foundation behaviors that are easy for your dog to respond to on cue, and will be used as an alternative to barking and lunging. Based on the needs of your dog, these could include:
 Paying attention to the owner
 Coming to the owner
 Walking in the direction the owner chooses
We do this at your home while we introduce some different levels of distraction. The next step is to generalize these behaviors close to home. We can then incorporate a field trip during a third training session to put your dog’s new skills into practice and fine tune the handler, too.

All dogs learn at different paces and have different triggers that may set them off. In some cases, the dogs may require more than three sessions. Another consideration is that you may have a dog who is not a social butterfly and would be happier staying home to chill while you go out. That’s okay, too. If you are thinking of heading out with your dog but have some reservations about how it will work out, contact us and we can help.

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