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Business & Tech

Local Trainers Offer Lessons In Getting Dogs to Behave

Clicker training may be key to training pets, says St. Charles trainer.

Ann Omura’s dog Bogey ran her into a tree, severely bruising her and blacking both her eyes.

“I love this dog,” Omura said of the large goldendoodle. “I didn’t believe in love at first sight until I had this dog. But he’s too strong for me. I have to be able to trust him on a leash. I have to be able to control him.”

Clicker training was the key to keeping the relationship happy, she said. Clicker training is based on marking and rewarding positive behaviors rather than correcting negative ones.

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“This is affordable, and it’s doable, and the dog loves it,” Omura said.

Omura and her husband, Keith, learned the clicker training method from two longtime trainers, Erin Wigginton, owner of Helping Hounds Training in St. Charles, and Sarah Hoth, owner of The Persuaded Pooch in Affton.

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The women are firm believers that clicker training works better than using force or punishment to control dogs.

Wigginton said she used to use more traditional training methods that involved collar corrections. But when she rescued Ava, a pit bull mix, in 2005, those methods weren’t working. She consulted with other trainers and quickly became a convert to clicker training.

“Ava took to it like a duck to water,” Wigginton said. “It worked so fast, and all the people and all the dogs were happier.”

Now Hoth and Wigginton have teamed up to teach clicker training in group lessons in Webster Groves. The clickers are small handheld noisemakers. The trainers say it takes a little practice to learn to “click” at the moment your dog is performing a desirable behavior. The idea is that the dog learns that a “click” means he is doing the right thing. The proper behavior is then rewarded with a treat.

In a lesson, owners will work on having their dogs walk with a loose leash, sit, focus, come when called and “target,” which means to move to or touch a target.

Eventually, the clicker is phased out and used only for teaching new behaviors, the trainers say.

“The best thing about clicker training is once you have the basics down you can apply it to all different situations,” Wigginton said.

Practicing is important though. Wigginton told the dog owners to keep it simple, but practice with their pets three to five minutes three times a day.

“If you’re working every day and keeping it really fun, you are going to see progress,” she said. “Make it super easy for them to do things right.”

Hoth and Wigginton teach classes for both puppies (8 weeks to 6 months old) and adult dogs at the A new session begins Sept. 17 and runs for six weeks. Visit the city's website for more information.

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