What is the clicker?
The clicker is a small device that you hold in your hand with a small metal plate that makes a “click” sound when you press it down. It is a tool that has been used in animal training for many years. It has only recently became more widely used by dog trainers all over the world. More and more people are starting to train their dogs with positive reinforcement methods like clicker training.
How does the clicker work?
The clicker work on the concept of association. The clicker is associated by some nice treat. It is therefor very important that the click will always be followed by a treat. The dog learns that if he hears a certain sound (the command) and he does a certain action (response to the command) then he will hear another sound (the click sound) and he will get a treat.
It is up to the trainer to teach the dog to perform a certain action when he hears the command. This can be done in two ways. You can either wait for the dog to perform this action all by himself or you have to lure him to perform this action. There is absolutely no point in saying the command, if the dog does not know the command. To illustrate, lets say you want to teach your dog to bow and this is the very first lesson your dog will receive. If you say “bow”, your dog will just stand there, it will be pointless to give the command.
If you have a puppy or young dog which likes to play, he will more than likely bow when initiating play. Have your clicker ready for those occasions and click the moment you see him going into a bow. Give a treat. Wait for the next time he does that and click and treat. As he goes into the bow, you can start saying the command, click and treat. Over time he will start to associate the word with the action. This method will most likely take much longer than the luring method.
With the luring method, you will have your treats and clicker ready and you bring your dog to a distraction free area. When your dog is standing, take a treat in one hand, hold it in front of his nose and move your hand down to the floor. His head will follow and he will bend down with the front legs. The moment he bends down and while his bum is still in the air, click and treat. Repeat many times. Start saying the word “bow” as he is bowing. After many repetitions he will start associating the command with the action.
The do’s and don’ts of the clicker
Click once and treat. Do not click, click, click and then treat.
If you want to give a bonus, click once and give a few treats.
It is very important that your timing is perfect. Practice your timing (without the dog) by throwing a ball into the air and clicking the moment it turns.
Click for correct behaviour and ignore wrong behaviour. If you constantly get the wrong behaviour, you have progressed too fast. Go a few steps back.
Using the clicker to shape behaviour
When you begin training, click and treat often, later become a variable reward giver and click and treat only for the best or fastest performance. Once your dog is bowing on command you start to click only for the fastest bows. You might also want to shape the bow by clicking only when your dog is bowing and watching you. There are many different ways that you can shape one behaviour. Perhaps you want your dog to only respond on a hand signal and not on the verbal command, then you will fade the verbal command and start to click for responding on the hand signal only.
What is important to remember when you use the clicker is that, although the dog will learn faster than with tradition methods, it still takes time, patience and consistency to train your dog.
The clicker is a small device that you hold in your hand with a small metal plate that makes a “click” sound when you press it down. It is a tool that has been used in animal training for many years. It has only recently became more widely used by dog trainers all over the world. More and more people are starting to train their dogs with positive reinforcement methods like clicker training.
How does the clicker work?
The clicker work on the concept of association. The clicker is associated by some nice treat. It is therefor very important that the click will always be followed by a treat. The dog learns that if he hears a certain sound (the command) and he does a certain action (response to the command) then he will hear another sound (the click sound) and he will get a treat.
It is up to the trainer to teach the dog to perform a certain action when he hears the command. This can be done in two ways. You can either wait for the dog to perform this action all by himself or you have to lure him to perform this action. There is absolutely no point in saying the command, if the dog does not know the command. To illustrate, lets say you want to teach your dog to bow and this is the very first lesson your dog will receive. If you say “bow”, your dog will just stand there, it will be pointless to give the command.
If you have a puppy or young dog which likes to play, he will more than likely bow when initiating play. Have your clicker ready for those occasions and click the moment you see him going into a bow. Give a treat. Wait for the next time he does that and click and treat. As he goes into the bow, you can start saying the command, click and treat. Over time he will start to associate the word with the action. This method will most likely take much longer than the luring method.
With the luring method, you will have your treats and clicker ready and you bring your dog to a distraction free area. When your dog is standing, take a treat in one hand, hold it in front of his nose and move your hand down to the floor. His head will follow and he will bend down with the front legs. The moment he bends down and while his bum is still in the air, click and treat. Repeat many times. Start saying the word “bow” as he is bowing. After many repetitions he will start associating the command with the action.
The do’s and don’ts of the clicker
Click once and treat. Do not click, click, click and then treat.
If you want to give a bonus, click once and give a few treats.
It is very important that your timing is perfect. Practice your timing (without the dog) by throwing a ball into the air and clicking the moment it turns.
Click for correct behaviour and ignore wrong behaviour. If you constantly get the wrong behaviour, you have progressed too fast. Go a few steps back.
Using the clicker to shape behaviour
When you begin training, click and treat often, later become a variable reward giver and click and treat only for the best or fastest performance. Once your dog is bowing on command you start to click only for the fastest bows. You might also want to shape the bow by clicking only when your dog is bowing and watching you. There are many different ways that you can shape one behaviour. Perhaps you want your dog to only respond on a hand signal and not on the verbal command, then you will fade the verbal command and start to click for responding on the hand signal only.
What is important to remember when you use the clicker is that, although the dog will learn faster than with tradition methods, it still takes time, patience and consistency to train your dog.
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