Clicker Training Dogs
Allie earns a click and treat for sitting nicely in front of me.
A common tool you’ll see in a positive reinforcement dog trainer’s toolbox is a clicker. Clickers come in many varieties, but all serve the same purpose—to indicate (or “mark”) to the dog when they have done something right! Clear communication between you and your dog is the key to successful dog training.
Why do i use a clicker to train dogs?
Clicker training dogs is effective and provides accuracy to the dog throughout the learning process! Using the quick snapping sound of a clicker, you can mark the very instant that your dog performs the behavior you want. Using words like “good job!” takes a long time to verbalize in comparison to a quick click. You can, and should, still praise your dog! Just hold your praise until after the click, and always follow up the click with a treat! The rapid nature of a click makes it easy to identify the very moment your dog does the correct thing.
A clicker is also great for training your dog because it sounds identical no matter who does the clicking. You, your trainer, and your family members can all click the dog’s behavior and your dog will understand exactly what it means.
Finally, when used correctly, clicker training is ALWAYS positive and rewarding to a dog. Clickers make training FUN for your dog!
How do you use a clicker to train dogs?
To effectively train dogs with a clicker, you have to give the clicker meaning. In the dog training world, we call this “charging the clicker.” This creates an association between the sound of the click and the treat. This makes the click become a promise the dog will get a treat.
How to charge the clicker:
Put on your treat pouch with five treats inside. Get your clicker.
Have your dog close by. Don’t ask your dog to do any behavior at all.
Click. Reach into your treat pouch and deliver a yummy treat to your dog! You want the treat to go into his mouth within a second of the click.
Repeat with the rest of the treats.
Practice this several times until your dog begins to orient to you at the sound of your click!
PRO TIPS:
When charging the clicker, don’t click if your dog is jumping up, or doing something else you don’t like. Just wait for him to stop before you click.
If you have a sound sensitive dog and you think he may be afraid of the clicker sound, muffle the clicker at first by putting it under a blanket or in your pocket. You can also try clicking a pen instead. Once your dog realizes the sound means treats, you can start using a regular clicker.
Once you’ve charged the clicker, it’s time to get to work.
There are three steps to training a behavior with a clicker:
Get the behavior
Click the behavior
Reward the behavior
When you click depends on what your training criteria is. For example, if your dog is learning to sit, the criteria is likely that you want your dog’s bottom to make contact with the ground before they are rewarded. So you hold your click for the exact moment when the dog’s bottom hits the ground—then CLICK! — then reach in your treat pouch for their reward.
Think of the clicker like a camera. You want to press the shutter button at the exact moment you want to capture with your photo, otherwise you miss the shot you want. Same with clicking! You want to click at the exact moment the dog does what you want.
There are several ways to get the behavior that you want to click. Those methods are called luring, shaping, and capturing.
Luring is probably the most well-known method. To lure a dog, you use a treat to manipulate their body movement into the position you want. You often see this method in play when teaching a dog to sit — the treat gets put in front of the dog’s nose then lured up in order for the dog’s bottom to touch the ground.
Shaping is a more complicated process where we mark successive approximations of the final behavior. It’s like playing a game of “getting warmer, warmer, hot!” We use shaping to teach behaviors like going to lay on a mat. First your dog is rewarded for looking at the mat, then for interacting with the mat, and finally for getting on the mat. Each click brings you closer to the final behavior!
If you are struggling to get the dog to offer a behavior that you want to mark, or click, you can “capture” the behavior. To capture a behavior, you keep your clicker and treats handy and when the dog performs the behavior on his own, such as lying down, you click and reward for the behavior.
What about adding a verbal cue?
I recommend waiting to add your verbal cue until after your dog has a behavior down and is consistently performing it correctly.
A Wonderdog box clicker and treat apron is part of our dog training starter kit!
Clicker Tips:
To keep your clicks effective and meaningful to your dog, always treat even if you click at the wrong time! That’s your mistake, not your dog’s. The beauty of clicker training is that this mistake doesn’t hurt your dog! At worst, you have to do a few more repetitions of clicking the right thing until your dog has a lightbulb moment. And it’s ok, we all make mistakes!
If your dog does something really awesome, there is no need to click more than once! One behavior, one click, one treat. If he does something super spectacular, you can “jackpot” him by giving several treats after you click.
The click ENDS the behavior. So if you click him for an activity such as sitting still and he then gets up, it’s ok.
Remember, the clicker is a marker. Do not use it to get your dog’s attention! That’s not marking anything, and you will reduce its power since you have now changed the meaning. You will lessen the effectiveness of the clicker and confuse him if you use it to mean “look at me!” or “come here!” instead of as a marker.
Scolding, verbally correcting, or physically correcting your dog while you are training him is incompatible with clicker training. With clicker training we want him to learn to offer behaviors that you can then mark with the clicker to reinforce. Scolding discourages your dog from offering behaviors. Behaviors that are not reinforced will disappear.
Keep your treat hand still, or your dog will stare at it and not listen for the clicker.
The clicker is a training tool. Once your dog learns the behavior, you will not need to use it anymore. If a behavior falls apart or you are training in a new and highly distracting area, you may want to bring out the clicker again.
Want to learn more?
The website, www.clickertraining.com, is loaded with information, resources and videos about clicker training. Are you looking for a dog clicker trainer in Northern Virginia? Contact me to get started training your Wonderdog!