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On TAGteach and Skill-Building

    This entry is part 3 of 3 in the series CT for Shooting

    Okay, I was a bit slow to adopt TAGteach when I first encountered it in the early 2000s, but I’ve caught on, and I’ve been applying it more and more in my life. Sometimes I use TAGteach principles without the actual tagger (clicker), simply because that’s what I have to work with, but even without a key tool the principles still work. A marker can be many things, not just a clicker, and even with no marker (or instructor) at all, the concepts can be turned to Focus Points instead of TAGpoints and used the same way.

    I’ve used clicker-less TAGteach backstage at a major performance event and with kids on the verge of losing it. And last weekend I had a reminder of how very useful TAGteach can be for myself.

    Laura on ground laughing as Laev rolls on back

    Laura’s Coming to Wisconsin! 2-Day Clicker Workshop

      Laura laughing with Laev being silly
      Dog Training is serious. Always very serious.

      We interrupt this blog for a word from our sponsors!

      I’ll be in Wisconsin in a couple of weeks for a Core Clicker Seminar, a two-day hands-on intensive workshop for beginning to intermediate trainers and handlers. This is, if I say so myself, a pretty good training seminar. 🙂 And there are still a few working (and auditing) spots open!

      Don’t Hook Up With Your Mistakes. (No, it’s not a dating post!)

        This is a "thought bubble". It is an...
        (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

        We emphasize focusing on the positive in clicker training — not pointing out  a mistake, but determining a concrete, alternate behavior instead. In dog manners training, this often appears as replacing “don’t jump” with “sit to greet.”

        But really, what’s the harm in pointing out a mistake? Sometimes we have to know what’s wrong so we know to avoid it, right? And surely we humans are smart enough to think through the big picture?

        Eh, not so much.