Meet Boomer and Maisy. I'm starting with these two dogs (Angel, our third dog, is conspicuously absent) because they are sweet, good-tempered, and easy to get along with even without alot of training. So if my early attempts are less than stellar, at least I'm unlikely to do them much harm. This gives me room to relax and figure things out in a relatively low-stakes context. Once I truly begin with Thyme, I'd like to know what I'm doing! If the clicker training goes as well as the buzz claims, I'll use it with Angel too.
Boomer (Boomerang) is a 4 or 5-year-old German Shepherd/Golden Retriever cross, found as a stray 2 years ago. Maisy is a 7 or 8-year-old American Eskimo, adopted from a shelter 5 years ago. Both love people. Well, Boomer does. Maisy reserves her love for her family. They are both generally rambunctious and unruly. They've had informal training around a small number of commands, including 'sit', 'stay', and 'leave it'. They are modestly successful at these. One challenge in the dogs' training is that my 11-year-old tends to untrain whatever I teach. For this reason, my 11-year-old will not be privy to the early stages of training logged here. It's going to be a secret for now, conducted in stolen moments and the dark of night. Shhhhhhhhhhhh! No, really, I'll be working on it during the day while the 11-year-old is at school. :)
Today, on Day 1, Boomer and Maisy each separately got 2-3 minutes of training with a clicker. I paired the click with broken bits of frosted mini-wheats. Both thought this was the best game ever. Both sat very attentively and eagerly to receive their treats. Neither paid any particular attention to the clicker. After the 2-3 minutes were up, I put the clicker away in its box on the shelf and left everything for tomorrow. I'll have to go to the store for more treats, 'cause we're out of mini-wheats.
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