Clicker Training

When it comes to training a puppy or older dog, it is important to make the training experience fun, exciting and not stressful for your dog.

Dogs Can Read You

It is important to remember that your dog can read your facial expressions and body language.

So if you are uncomfortable, stressed, concerned or on edge, your dog will see this, and it can also make your dog’s behavior change.

Try to remain calm, enjoy the training experience and make sure that you and your dog are happy.

If you do feel any of the above emotions/feelings, please take a break.

After all you do want your training experience to be educational, stress free and most importantly of value.

Good Behavior Clicker Rewarding

There are two key areas for rewarding your dog with a click, which is followed by a treat, they are:

Commands

Sit
Wait
Drop
Leave
Give (to give item in his/her mouth to your hand)
Away (to move away from something or somebody)
Come (off lead command to follow, when distance away)
Walk (from sitting position)
Side (walk at side)

Good Behavior:

Not barking where may normally
Behaving well around other dogs, people
Sitting on a designated point
Goes to bed
Independently goes and sits quietly somewhere

Introducing Clicker Training

Clicker training is a training method based on positive reinforcement.

In our attempt to change behaviour we often focus on that which we don’t want our dog to do, for instance, ‘don’t pull on the lead Rover’, ‘Rover don’t chew on that’, ‘Rover no barking’, etc.

Such an approach has been proven to lead to negative interaction between owners and their pets.

But it can also be frustratingly unsuccessful in the long-term modification of behaviour.

Good Dog

It is important to understand that you do not have a ‘bad dog’ but that you have a dog that is exhibiting normal canine behaviour that you don’t want, therefore this is an unwanted behaviour.

Unwanted behaviors can be modified.

This is where clicker training can help you.

By using the clicker you are able to mark exactly which behaviour you want your dog to perform and you can concentrate on rewarding appropriate responses rather than punishing unwanted actions.

Perfect Training Tool

The clicker is a training tool, which produces unique and reliably reproducible sound.

At first the sounds carries no meaning for your dog, but it will soon become significant as you teach him/her to associate the clicker with the arrival of something rewarding.

Since dogs often respond positively to food rewards it is good to associate this by following the sound of a click with the arrival of a food treat.

After 20-30 repetitions of click-treat association your dog will begin to learn that the sound of the click predicts the arrival of a food reward.

Once the click-treat association has been established you can use the clicker to mark a behaviour that deserves a reward.

You do this by waiting for the particular behaviour to happen and then reinforcing it with a click-treat when it occurs.

Examples of wanted behaviour

When your dog voluntarily ceases to bark, follow this with a click-treat.
Your dog voluntarily goes down into a sit posture, follow this with a click-treat.
He/she shows a voluntary action of relaxed behaviour like lying down when you stop to talk to a friend in the park, follow this with a click treat.