Why clicker training makes your dog happy, and why methods by Cecar Millan doesn't

Happy 9 weeks, little furball!

As you can probably tell by now, our days are pretty much about the dogs. But for us, dogs (and all other animals too) are a huge part of our everyday joy in life.


Silje and Oluf

I am an educated instructor and clickertrainer, and used to work as a dog trainer and riding instructor when I studied. I still take horses and student into training on top of my main job, and it gives the days a little extra zazz! Ronny and his whole family are hardcore dog lovers, and together we shared the excitement over every little bug and bird on the Pierats- trip.

Being outdoor-people, having Oluf with us have always been great. And with Buddha, we hope to get an even more easy-to-bring dog. Since oluf is a relocated crossover-dog, he has a few kinks to his behavior, that can be related to a stressful time before he came to us. Some things are hard to handle for Oluf. Like, watching us do "freaky weird stuff", like slacklining, fishing and so on. We hope the presence of Buddha will make him calmer (and not the other way around, we will certainly not let Luff teach Buddha to react on "weirdness"), and he will also from now on have a buddy when he is home without us.

I am a true behavior-nerd, and I love the positive dogs you get from clicker training. Instead of correcting the dog to do the wanted behavior, you just reinforce the behavior you want. It is easy to teach the dogs that "click" means YESSS, you got it right, and here comes the reward. And by training this way, you set the criterias so that your dog will only succeed and never have to fail (of course, dogs never fails.We fail as trainers). By training this way,  you get creative, secure and happy dogs.


Fanny Gott with 15 months old Squid

You can work with dogs in many ways, but the result in the behavior will be differents regarding your methods. I prefer to have my dog working with me to achieve a reward rather than working with me to avvoid something unpleasant.
That's why I hope that someday, people will understand that the methods of the dominance-redneck Cecar Millan is creating insecure, aggressive dogs, with more behavior problems than to begin with.
Lots of behavior trainers in Norway are working against Millans' methods, and for you norwegians out there, these are two good articles about the case:

Press Notice against Millan

Ethologist Randi Helene Tillung answers the Millan-fans

Me and Oluf having some fun















Say yes to happy dogs and positive training! I love working in a team with my dogs, and with Buddha, bonding is so important. Everything has to be taught, and teaching him in a playful way makes him love our training sessions more than anything. Just like Oluf. When he see the clicker, he knows he's up for some funtime, and goes craaaazy happy!

To get a grip on how you can have some fun while working with your dogs, watch these of my hero dog trainer, Fanny Gott:


Fanny Gott training Pi


Fanny Gott puppy training Squid, 11 months


Fanny Gott - stand, sit and distant control

Happy dog-hugs from Silje