New Website Treats Visitors Like Dogs -- And that's a Good Thing

With a new website launch, Karen Pryor Clickertraining is applying its methodology of behavior change in animals to the robust community of humans using its website. Users are now thanked and awarded points the instant they contribute to the website: write a blog post, make comments, participate in polls, or let friends know about the site. And each time they repeat one of these "targeted" behaviors, they earn more points. Then, on irregular schedules, as users accumulate points they receive gifts that make all those points worthwhile.

Waltham, MA (PRWEB) November 28, 2006 -- With a new website launch, Karen Pryor Clickertraining is applying its methodology of behavior change in animals to the robust community of humans using its website.

At the leading pet-related website clickertraining.com, visitors have always been able to learn how to train dogs and other animals using the powerful, all-positive training technique known popularly around the world as clicker training. Using this system, a pet owner learns how to communicate to her dog exactly what she wants and then rewards him each time for doing what she asked. "What gets reinforced gets repeated" is a core part of the company's teaching.

Now, with the release of the new site, users are thanked and awarded points the instant they contribute to the website: write a blog post, make comments, participate in polls, or let friends know about the site. And each time they repeat one of these "targeted" behaviors, they earn more points. Then, on irregular schedules, as users accumulate points they receive gifts that make all those points worthwhile.

"Our system for communicating with users in real time and rewarding them for their contributions will broaden participation among users and ensure that user-contributed content on our site will be sustained," says CEO Karen Pryor.

Unlike other reward programs, the points at clickertraining.com don't expire and don't have to be "redeemed." The company simply sends you the gifts you've earned as you earn them. Gifts range from free training tips and free products to personal training consultations. Also, you won't find a master list that tells you what earns points and what doesn't. As users explore and interact with the site, they discover what earns points. There's no fixed schedule of awards or itemization of the gifts levels. You may earn gifts at 10 and 15 points but then not again till 28 points and then again at 33 points. This is all by explicit design based on the science underlying clicker training.

And it's working. Within two weeks of launching the new site, 10% of users had already made contributions to site content.

At clickertraining.com, all that user content helps make better pet owners and animal trainers, which is core to the company's mission. "The bottom line," says Aaron Clayton, company president, "is that with this broad community of contributing users, we're helping to make man a dog's best friend."

Karen Pryor Clickertraining helps people build strong bonds with animals and is the leading provider of information to the public on all-positive clicker training. KPCT also sponsors ClickerExpo, the highly acclaimed educational training conference for trainers of all experience levels. This season's ClickerExpos will be held in Los Angeles, CA, January 26-28, 2007, and Cleveland, OH, March 23-25, 2007. For details visit www.clickerexpo.com.

To experience the new KPCT website for yourself, visit www.clickertraining.com.

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