Clicker
Dog Training
Most
people seem to either love or hate clicker dog training
methods. Some people seem to think that it just adds to the
work and provides little help in dog training. But many use
the dog training clicker methods with success.
The
most important factor in any dog training is to establish the
leader of the pack role with the dog to be trained. Although
attention and affection are important to developing a
relationship with your dog, you must also establish who is the
leader and be consistent with your responses.
Clicker
dog training is based on you being the leader of the pack and
that the dog responds as a member of the pack. When working
with a young dog, it is imperative that you establish this
role early in the training.
A
dog training clicker is usually a small plastic device that when you press
down on it, it makes an audible click. You can find dog
training clickers in most pet shops. The sound of the dog
training clicker is
used to bring attention to the desired behavior and to help the dog
identify the behavior. A food reward is provided after the
click during a successful behavior in the beginning.
The
dog will soon understand that the click is both a signal and a
positive
reinforcement (along with praise and a quick sign of
affection). Since the click is a unique sound, it works better
than a voice or hand signal. Trainers who use a dog training clicker say it
will always garner the dogs attention, even with a noisy
background and distractions.
The
clicking sound made by dog training clickers is quickly understood by most dogs as a
positive reinforcement of specific behavior and marks that
behavior. Dog clicker training allows the dog to understand and learn faster
than just food rewards or praise alone. Dog training clickers
are often used with shaping behavior and breaking elements down
into steps for quicker training response.
Many
animal trainers use a training clicker, even for a whale or exotic
animal.
Many Zoos, aquariums, and circuses use clicker training. It's
been in practice for many years, in all types of animal
training. Even cats, which are usually thought to be tough to train,
respond well to clicker training.
Dog
clicker
training has some real advantages when the dog reverts back to
unwanted behavior. The dog starts wanting to hear the click,
for positive reinforcement and when you fail to reward, the
dog will usually stop the behavior.
So
one of the advantages of having a quick reward (sound of the
click) is when a dog does any behavior that you want to reward
it's instant. Most dogs will respond well to instant gratification
(not unlike us humans). Most trainers take advantage of a new
behavior even if it has nothing to do with the current
session.
That's
another factor that many like about using the clicker to
train, the dog starts to look forward to the click and will
learn quicker and go deeper into the specific exercise. A good
example is when you call a dog and he comes and sits
immediately at your feet. With a clicker you immediately give
him a click, even though you might be working on a different
objective.
Once
the dog makes the connection and responds to the click, the
food is often eliminated after several successful reactions.
Since the dog training clicker is a training tool, you will also want to
eventually wean the dog from the clicker too. The dog should perform with
100% accuracy before you stop using the dog training clicker and treat.
That
is one of the complaints the non-clicker dog trainers mention
often. Since you designed your training around the dog
training clicker,
you have the extra step of eliminating the click. It adds one
more aspect to the training that is not necessary and
increases the work.
Most
experienced trainers say you should slowly wean the dog from
the clicks. And also recommend to never just go cold turkey, always make it
gradual. Other rewards can be used in the process such as
affection and praise. This may also be a good time to
introduce hand signals and slowly change the reward.
One
of the features of dog clicker training is that the dog sees it as
a game and will always want to play. Once the dog understands
the process, they become easier to train and quicker to learn
new behaviors. It's compared to learning how to learn rather
than monkey see monkey do which can limit the effectiveness of
training.
Dog
clicker training is both an art and a science. A lot depends on the
nature of the trainer, dog, and what behaviors are being
taught. If you are new to dog training, clicker dog training
is definitely worth a try to see if it works for you.
