Clicker Training Dogs - A Different Approach

Clicker Training Dogs Requires a
Different Training Approach

When clicker training dogs, you will be surprised how very focused they will be on their trainers. After only a couple of sessions, the dog will concentrate on the handler as they will be expecting a reward – usually food. This is very important, especially if working in a class situation when you want the dog’s undivided attention. Remember, the Clicker is a construction tool, rather than a performance tool.

Clickers training dogs gives you a tool to provide a precisely timed signal to mark their good behaviour. Words are far less efficient as ‘behaviour markers’ than the brisk, quick, decisive sound of a Clicker.

Creativity is for training methods and precision is for accomplishment of the action. Reliability is not really dependent on whether you use a Clicker or food in training. Reliability is a matter of how well the trainer designs the training to match the dog’s temperament and personality. Clickers are powerful tools for shaping good behaviour when clicker training dogs.

Cues

A command is a verbal cue and a signal is a visual cue. A command is something that is developed late in the process of training. A ‘cue’ is anything that triggers a behaviour. Cues are environmental things which cause the dog to respond. For example your cue may be a verbal command of ‘sit’ or the cue may be a hand signal that the dog understands to mean ‘sit’.

Teaching a dog that a specific behaviour is connected to a specific signal is the anchor of a dependable action. Signals don’t cause the behaviour to happen. The signal is the trigger for the dog to take action.

When Clicker training dogs you should avoid (as much as possible), pushing, shoving or tugging of your dog to shape the action required e.g. ‘sit’. Using your hands to position the dog is an extra step that will take additional time to eliminate, later. If the dog breaks, say ‘wrong’ in a dispassionate tone of voice and start the exercise again.

Training Standards

Relaxing one set of standards while building another set is an integral part of Clicker training dogs. So you do not have to have the dog at the peak of his performance all of the time. Sometimes you ask for and get a great action e.g. ‘down’ for 5 minutes; another time you may only ask for ‘down’ for 1 minute. This does not mean the dog is going backwards with its training – it just means that you are relaxing your initial high standard.

One of the apparent differences between Clicker training dogs and other methods of training, is the way signals are attached to behaviours. In traditional forms of training, the command is usually repeated over and over again, during the learning process (sit sit sit) before the behaviour is learned. In clicker training, the behaviour is shaped first and the command is added later.

You need to teach the behaviour first, and then add the verbal command (Down/Sit/Stay). However, if you want to connect a signal to an action the signal comes before the verbal command. Remember, it is unnecessary to get the whole behaviour at one time. Be satisfied with steady, small steps of progress when clicker training dogs.