...huge. I hated seeing her so worried all the time. She's so much more a part of the family now. She's not 100% 'over' her issues, but she has really made headway!

Clickers are really nice, once they connect them with training and treats. I have to be careful not to click a clicker unless I mean to. Otherwise, Krypto comes to me right away, looking expectant.

Do the girls have a connection with the clickers yet? If not, choose anything that they know how to do well. Ask them to do it, and as soon as they do, click with no delay, giving a treat immediately after the click.

This is groundwork for doing any other training with a clicker, and clickers have a high rate of success once you use them with dogs that have made a connection with them.

Now, let's say that you want something (start with something that they are likely to pick up already.) picked up. Toss it a couple of feet from you. As soon as the dog goes over and sniffs it even, click and treat.

She should get faster and faster to sniff, and anticipate the click/treat.

When you see that she understands the connection between sniffing and click/treating, don't give her the click/treat for sniffing. Hold back a little. Maybe she will put her mouth on it. Click/treat.

Basically, you are trying to 'capture the behavior.'

Keep going forward. For example, when she picks the item up.

Then, next, when she has it in her mouth and moves toward you at all - her head to look at you, her feet, any movement toward you with the item in her mouth.

As you move along with the training, which takes days...it's not all done in a day...remember to wait longer to click/treat once she has made the connections.

Eventually, she will walk toward you with the item in her mouth. Click, treat, lots of praise.

It's a matter of increments.

Once she's at the point of picking the item up, you can add a command to the mix. Say, 'Bring it.' I use a mix of 'Bring it' and 'Go get it' plus our 'Where is it?' exercise with Krypto.

At the end of each training session, which I keep short, I toss 4-6 treats and tell him, 'All done!'

I'd rather train 3 x's a day in 5 min. blocks, than a single 15 min. block. Unless it's a walking exercise, of course.

My two main rules are: Nothing negative. There's no negative feedback with this kind of training. If they don't cooperate, I quietly put away the treats, pick up a book - even if just as a prop, and we're done for that session, or that day.

And, I *always* end on a high note. So, if they do really well, I make sure that we end with doing well, and click/treats.

Well, there's one more: We don't play after they learn something new. They've already been rewarded, but I find that the lesson 'sticks' with them better if they lie down quietly. It's as though playing and romping can erase some of what they just learned and need to remember. So, actually, reading or computer use is good after training.

Well, that's a start. I hope that it helps! Just make sure that they learn how generous a clicker is at first, so that the rest can fall into place later on.