Category: Fun Stuff ¤ Author: Assorted Contributors ¤ Title: You Know You're A Clicker Trainer When... ¤ You Know You're A Clicker Trainer When... You astonish your siblings by offering to babysit their babies so you can see how this works on small children. You describe it to yourself as training naive young humans. You return your 2 year old nephew to his parents after having taught him to high 5, spin in a circle and put a box on his head. You fret because you haven't yet accomplished what you meant to in terms of stimulus control. Your siblings call you and ask if next time you could teach him to walk on a loose leash. They fret for fear your dog learns faster than their child. You soothe them by telling them their dog is not yet clicker savvy but has potential. Victoria Farrington I had to train my JRT to cock his leg and when he did I clicked but the cherub on top of the water fountain peed back on my dog as well. Pat Robards, Australia You try to explain to someone that you just taught your dog a trick while you were sitting on the john. You click in the grocery store every time you pass junk food. You click in the grocery store just because it's been a long time since you heard a click Sue eh?, Canada Your husband clicks when you turn off the computer. Trish King & friends Ariel, Jobear, & Barney, Novato, CA Your house settles with a loud crack and you stop and try to figure out why you just got 'clicked'. Diana Taylor You scour the bottom of your purse for change to make it through McDonalds Drive thru, but all you can find are the guts to 4 broken clickers. You feel naked because you realize you've left home without your clicker! You try to write a check at the dry cleaners with a telescoping target stick (tiny metal pointer). Your best friend hollers at you, and you tell her she just gave you a leash pop with a verbal choke chain and that you'd prefer a C/T instead. Debi Davis, Tucson, AZ After sittin' at the computer for HOURS readin' & respondin' to 'Clicktrain' posts, [wearin' a pair of 'not-so-loose-fittin' jeans'], you have this 'painful stitch' in yer groin. You remove yer jeans to find... a tender,"red" frog clicker imprint- DEEPLY engrained in yer groin [groan]! Gin the 'Canajun' You use your NRM on the people around you when they make mistakes. A friend was driving me home and pulled into the wrong driveway. I gave a very low, calm "wrong" automatically. I give it now to cars that run yellow lights. I wonder what the other folks waiting at the crosswalks think of it! Deb Jones You keep a clicker on your finger at all times. You never find yourself not needing one. Elaine Buchsbaum, NYC Clickers at every corner, in every pocket, in the car and my (almost) daily question: where is my clicker. Doris from Switzerland When I opened my toiletry bag, just before going to bed the first night, there, along with my toothbrush, toothpaste, dental floss, shampoo and perfume was the other thing no self-respecting gal leaves home without these days - a clicker, on a string! Carmel Rickard, Durban, South Africa It rains all day on your vacation and you don't care because you can still train inside. The first three things to do on your day off are train the cats, train the dogs, train the horses. Because it's the most fun you can have any day!! You reward yourself for doing housework by having a training session. Marie Gulliford from Ashby, MA, USA You empty out a box used for storage just to try to shape a 101 box behaviour - What Fun especially with my Clicker trained Doxie Girl. Sylvia You reach out to hold hands with your sweetie and a clicker comes between you. (This happened on our usual walk at the beach with the dogs. Always keeping that Redi-Click! handy just in case...!! thanks Gary) Sharon Newman, San Francisco SPCA You drive 40 minutes to pick up your clicker that you forgot. One day I reached in my pocket at work and there was my clicker. When I got home that night I didn't have it with me. I drove back to work and it wasn't there. I was frantic and drove to the restaurant that we had lunch at and there it was--sitting on the table where we ate waiting for me. JC Schilling, Salem, OR My dogs' favourite rewards are jackpots (of course) and sometimes I give a BIG BIG *whoopie* after a breakthrough, throwing the treats in the air and they scatter all over the floor making it into a smorgasbord. An accident happened one day when I threw a ball for Bo which hit a fence, then in turn ricocheted back into my face knocking out a front tooth. Yeah, you guessed it, the dentist put in a crown. Big deal, new front tooth so what should go wrong you ask. I'll tell you what went wrong..... it fell out when I said *whoopie* and my dog ate it as well. weep..sob......... Pat Robards and her Jack Russells On every horizontal surface you can sit next to in the house there is a clicker, as well as several in the kitchen. Kathy Stewart You can't find your car keys and you can't remember where you put your eyeglasses. But at a drop of a hat, in any room of the house, you can find a clicker. You just bought an expensive ($48) Longaberger Basket. And of all the uses you could pick for the basket, you choose to keep clickers in it. I carry all my food related stuff in a plastic hamper. Today I packed everything for the road in the hamper-thing. I am very fond of coarse ground pepper. I made dinner, reached in for the container of coarse ground pepper, shook it all over my wonderful plate of corn - ack! it was a can of Pounce (cat treats) that I had grabbed!! I don't' think I have ever done anything like that. I never even looked at it. Helix Pull out your clicker and train the dogs you meet at garage sales. Michele Visiting relatives say "every place I look in your house I see a clicker'". Jean Sweezie, Canada Visiting relatives say "why don't you throw away the lids off your juice jars?" Diana Vargas, Muskegon, MI When your out on a trail ride and encounter a SKUNK and because you've taught your horse to stand perfectly still on cue, you come out of the encounter smelling like a rose! That's when you REALLY know and appreciate your a clicker trainer! Robyn and Tuff You can't find your car keys, but you find 3 clickers! There is a clicker on your TV remote! There are coffee stains on your clicker! The newspaper is under your clicker! You tell your dog to fetch your toy and he brings a clicker! You have to tell your baby the clicker is not for teething! There is a clicker in your refrigerator on a bag of treats, but no milk! Your reach to turn off your alarm clock and pick up a clicker! You reach for the telephone and have to nudge the clicker out of the way! Ellen Morris and Ted Squires You have to clear the clicker out of the BBQ before you can use it. You click the groceries for their wait while you get in the car. Grace McDonald You have clickers in every room of the house including the bathroom. You have given a clicker to a friend to keep at their house so that when you are visiting them you'll always be prepared. (BTW this friend lives 100 miles away and doesn't own a dog yet ) Jan Greey You keep a clicker in the fridge next to the bait bag, so you can find one in a hurry! You reach in your left pocket for change and pull out a clicker. You reach in your right pocket for the car keys and pull out another clicker Eileen & Brian. J. Smith, Collingwood, Ontario, Canada You eat lunch in the park, surrounded by attentive sea gulls and pigeons. As they crowd in closer, you say, "You think I'm going to reinforce *that*?!" Your friend writes you about his "clingy" girlfriend, and your first thought is, well, you could C/T her for stepping further away. You click cars that slow down to let you cross the street. Stacy Braslau-Schneck, San Francisco, CA You click the TV Weatherman for stepping away from your area of interest on the national weather map. You click your broken-down vehicle for starting. You click the fast food employee for repeating your order correctly. Dani Weinberg, Albuquerque, NM and Crested Butte, CO