Episode 376: Michele Pouliot Pt 3: To Click or Not To Click
- 20 hours ago
- 2 min read
This is Part 3 of our conversation with Michele Pouliot. Michele is best known as a dog trainer, but she also has a strong horse background. , Since 1974 Michele has been a professional guide dog instructor with the largest US guide dog school serving the blind. Before entering the guide dog field, she was a professional in the field of horse training, mentoring under Linda Tellington Jones and Wentworth Tellington.
Michele retired from Guide Dogs for the Blind after 42 years of service. During her last 16 years, she held the position of Director of Research and Development for programs at Guide Dogs. In that position Michele was responsible for bringing science based Clicker Training to guide dog training and promoting the expansion of Clicker Training internationally within the guide dog field.
In her "hobby world", Michele has actively competed in both horse and dog sports since 1970. After successfully competing in dog obedience for 20 years, she moved into the new sport of agility in 1992.
In 2006, Michele became fascinated with the sport of canine musical freestyle and began a dog sport journey she continues to love. She has competed in canine musical freestyle with her English Springer spaniel, Cabo, Australian Shepherd, Listo and her young Springer spaniel Deja Vu. Michele thoroughly enjoys this artistic sport that combines the precision of obedience with trick behaviors and challenges her creative side through music and choreography. Michele has won numerous international competitions and Championship Titles. She thoroughly enjoys the ongoing challenges in the sport of canine freestyle and the use of Clicker Training to achieve innovative and entertaining routines.
In Part 1 of our conversation we began with some of the differences that exist in the horse and dog communities in terms of what prompts people to compete. Michele talked about strategies she has developed to create long sequences for competitions in which you can’t stop for a click and a treat.
In Part 2 we talked about how important it is to protect the learners enthusiasm for the behaviors you’re asking for - and how difficult this can be, especially when you begin to ask for more duration.
Michele shared several strategies for building duration. We ended with an example of teaching a horse (or dog) to put a foot on a raised stand and keep it there. We emphasized the point that you want to begin by teaching easy behaviors. Michele made the distinction - are you clicking for movement or for stillness? That brought us to a question I keep returning to which is: to click or not to click. That’s where we begin in Part 3 of our conversation. We consider also strategies for those times when training falls apart.
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