Inky, my husband’s dog, is blind. She wasn’t born this way; in fact, this is a fairly recent development for her, thanks to a very rare and unusual autoimmune disorder. We noticed her holding her head oddly one night, but thought it was just the light. By the time we realized she was having trouble seeing, it was progressing very fast. We estimate she lost most of her vision within two weeks.
I’d been gone for a solid week, talking training in two states and running 16+ hour days. This afternoon I walked in from the airport, hadn’t even gotten my shoes off yet, and my phone chimed. “Have you been flooded with the new OK Go video yet?” asked a friend.
I happened across this video a couple of months ago and bookmarked it. I enjoyed it at the time, but even as I was watching, I was thinking of clicker training.
I really like shaping, and I love the results I get with a dog who has learned to offer and vary behavior. I hear frequently from clients or trainer friends who don’t enjoy shaping or don’t get satisfactory results, and while it’s true that not every dog adores it, I think that most of the time their failure to love it isn’t that they have the wrong dog — it’s that they, or their dogs, are diligently following this checklist.
I’ve just returned from Clicker Expo, and every year it’s the same — I come away feeling excited, energized, and full of the recognition that I’m really a slacker.