hen you start clicker training, take your time. Don’t be in a rush, enjoy the journey.
There’s so much to learn AND to enjoy and if you rush, you’ll miss that enjoyment and that learning.
If you rush, you’ll also skip the opportunity to really refine what you are doing. R+ training is an art, as well as a science, don’t let anyone tell you it isn’t.
It isn’t manipulative or coercive, it’s organic and beautiful, if you allow it to be and allow yourself to see and feel it.
It isn’t slow and it doesn’t take longer. Behaviour can change in less than a second. If you rush you will miss it and miss the opportunity to recognise and change it, if you want.
R+ training is also an opportunity for personal growth, to become a better person, as well as a better trainer. With R+ training comes empathy and compassion, if you allow it.
You can also develop your focus, observation and learn how to be in the moment. That’s probably one of the most important lessons that I see a lot of people need to learn, how to be in the moment. You cannot connect with another, if you are stuck in your head, in your shopping lists, arguments with your partner, ‘to do’ lists, in your anxiety, in your bias, in your pressure to perform.
Release yourself from it for a short period of time, give yourself that grace and your animal friend as well. Give them that respect, that courtesy and watch them respond in like. They will open up to you, if you are open to them.
If you are taking a lot of video of your training, reduce or stop that for a while. Don’t put that extra pressure on yourself, that extra pair of eyes on the delicate silken thread of communication and trust you are trying to build between you and your animal friend. Let it be just between yourselves for a while, just the two of you, together as one, in heart and mind, just for a brief moment in time.
Try to avoid perfectionism. As in art, there is no perfect, there is only expression. We say about our animal friends, behaviour is never “wrong” or “right”, it just is, give yourself that same forgiveness and compassion as well. You risk never starting or continuing, if you want it to be perfect. Perhaps aim for fun instead. It can be fun to be goofy, to drop things or trip, to mis-time things and to make mistakes, it’s all fun for both of you, if there’s food and no pressure.
Starting R+ training slowly and mindfully and being more compassionate to yourself and your learner, is more rewarding and pleasurable than rushing or trying to be perfect and all knowing. 