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Clicker Training Your Dog

If you are looking to train your dog you might consider using the ‘clicker training’ method, which has recently become popular amongst dog trainers all over the country. In this method the trainer has to make use of a clicker, a tiny plastic box with a metal button which makes a distinctive click sound once the button has been pressed. The training method is simple and is in many ways parallel to the positive training method. Here is what you have to do. Decide on a certain behavior which you want to teach or reinforce your dog to do. A number of behaviors/actions come naturally to the dog like sitting, eating, standing, barking etc. and these need just to be reinforced so that your dog knows when you want him to do what. Various other actions like acting dead, shaking hands, rolling over etc. do not come naturally to the dog and need to be taught. Clicker training can be used to do both.

Clicker training works according to the basic principles of operant conditioning, by associating the sound of the clicker with a food item which the dog particularly likes. Now all you have to do is use the clicker to command the dog to do something, the dog, given that he associates the sound of the clicker with the food, immediately obliges and the training is complete. More »

Some Other Advantages of Clicker Dog Training

1. It’s not a cookie – meaning your dog won’t become physically unhealthy in the process of becoming socially healthy.
2. It’s instantaneous – meaning your dog is more likely to associate your clicker feedback, with the good behavior.
3. It’s not tactile – meaning that it’s good for skittish dogs, dogs rescued from abuse, and dogs being corrected for invading your personal space.
4. It’s cooperative – meaning your dog will learn, “clicker = training time,” and they will choose to cooperate and be ready to learn.
5. It’s fun for them – dogs like the sound, and other rewards that come after it, and want to earn it.
6. It’s mental activity – it gets them using their brains, triggers their problem-solving and social-learning behaviors, building a smarter dog.
7. It’s positive – you’re teaching your puppy to earn positive feedback instead of avoiding trouble.
8. It’s effective no matter the age or size of the animal, because it works on a neutral mental cue, instead of a competitive physical cue.The puppy who gets punished: “I’m a bad dog, I have to worry about what I do.”

What is the Clicker Dog Training Method?

What is the Clicker Dog Training Method?

Does the clicker train your puppy for you? No.

The clicker is a tool that you use in your dog training. On one level, it trains your puppy the same way as any other feedback, by sending a certain message to your dog at a specific time. That “click” sound, when it’s timed correctly, tells your dog that they got something right.

Any kind of training, especially with dogs and puppies, requires feedback. The clicker enables you to respond to positive progress before your dog’s mind wanders and he forgets what you’re giving the feedback about.

Karen Pryor, the researcher who brought the clicker to the dog world, explained that social animals, such as puppies, rely entirely on social feedback in order to learn what’s accepted and what’s not. Dogs in particular, learn through rewards – they repeat the behaviors that “work out” for them. With dog training, this means they learn to do the things that earn them love, praise, and treats.

By using a clicker for instant feedback, the puppy stays focused and understands exactly what you’re giving feedback about. This they’ll learn faster. By reinforcing positive results with instant feedback, instead of showing disappointment over the failures, some research shows training times can drop by 66% for a given lesson.

What remains, is the core part of the dog’s learning process – that is, the immediate consequences of their actions. A positive reaction – the click – comes instantly during the correct behavior, which is the best way to teach.