Anyone have experience with clicker training a dog?
We just adopted 2 adult dogs, and they have had no training. We were trying to teach them the standard way, and then I read about clicker training. I have been doing this for 2 days, and I have already “loaded the clicker.” Once they see the clicker their eyes are glued to me, which right now I am trying to teach them to pay attention to me (I call their name, and when they look I C/T.) It seems hard because when they see the clicker – even if I hide it behind my back, they will not look away for me to test them by calling their name. I still C/T since they are behaving. I guess I am having trouble incorporating sit, stay, and the other behaviors. Does anyone have experiance with this type of training? Do only use the clicker for 5-10 min each training session?
Tagged with: anyone • Clicker • Experience • Training
Filed under: Dog Clicker Training
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There are a jillion books, articles and dvds about clicker training. Check them out.
Hide the clicker; don’t let them know you’ve got it. Put it in your pocket, etc. or carry it with you all the time.
I use clicker training a lot, but am not a dyed in the wool clicker trainer. There are some things it works great for, others not so much. Not sure you’d teach “stay” using a clicker.
In theory, to teach “sit”you would wait until the dog sat on its own, then c/t. Repeat every time he sits on his own. Then you can start putting a command to it.
I havent used it, but you can do more research here:
http://www.clickertraining.com/store/?SSAID=269102
I have been doing some clicker training – works well
try sit next (use a treat above their nose and push back and down)
then when they do it click and treat
You can also “shape” with it
theres a great book called when pigs fly
its about training terriers to do agility and a lot about shaping behavior
We took clicker classes that lasted 1.5 hours and our dogs did fine with those.
You can carry the clicker with you and randomly call their names during the day instead of just when you are doing a training session. If you want them to look away, throw a treat behind their back, after they go to pick it up, use that as an opportunity to call their name.
Start with sit by standing by the dog, have it standing beside you (take a few steps if you need to get the dog standing)… just stand still, eventually the dog will sit, as he does, click and treat. Once he’s learned that’s what you are looking for, then you can start actually saying the word ‘sit’ as he’s doing it, so he learns the word too.
I HIGHLY HIGHLY HIGHLY recommend the book ‘The power of positive dog training’ by pat miller. It has a 6 week clicker training plan, with charts and everything that you should be teaching each day… it worked great for our dogs (although it takes about 10 weeks realistically). It also has basic overviews of the clicker and how to train with it.
I LOVE using clicker training. Try NOT to lure the dog (like getting it to follow treats with it’s nose to sit)… you want the clicker to teach the dog to think for itself, not have you showing it exactly what it’s supposed to do.
We teach ‘stay’ by having the dog in a sit, wait a few seconds before the click…. build up from 2 seconds, to 5, to 10, to a minute, etc… once the dog can do a reliable sit-stay for 1 minute start walking away from the dog a few feet… add in distance and time until you eventually can get the dog to stay for 5 minutes, even if you are 40 feet away.
we clicker train.
I use it the whole session (which should only be up to 10 minutes)
until I phase it out
think of the clicker as a camera- you take a picture to capture a moment.
so you’re capturing what the command is when you click the clicker
sit- the moment the dogs but hits the floor-click and you have up to 3 1/2 seconds to deliver the treat.
down- click when the dogs elbow hits the floor
come- click the moment the dog starts coming to you, and click when they get to you
if you have any questions…email me
A couple of things to keep in mind when you are doing clicker training:
1. The clicker works like a camera to let the dog know exactly what it is doing right.
2. The clicker marks the end of the behavior.
So, when you are trying to teach sit, you start by clicking when the dog sits naturally. Once the dog is offering you sits, you start adding a word (Sit) when they do it, and start delaying the click slightly after they sit. So, you say Sit, dog sits, you wait one second and click to mark the behavior is over. Then you wait 2 seconds next time, and then 3 seconds, etc.
Also keep in mind that just because you have told the dog that he has Sat long enough, that doesn’t mean that the dog HAS to stop sitting, just that it can.
Clicker training can be used for all sorts of things, although as someone else mentioned, I don’t use it for stay after I have a 5 second sit. One thing about loading the clicker as you mentioned is that it only teaches half the equation, that after a click comes a treat. It doesn’t teach the first half of the equation, that the dog’s behavior makes the click happen.
My preferred method for introducing the dog to clicker training is what I call the bathroom downs program. Take dog, clicker, treats, and some light reading into the bathroom, close the door, sit down and start reading. Dog will eventually lie down, then click, and toss a treat so that she has to get up to go get it. She’ll get up and be excited, so continue reading, watching her out of the corner of your eye. When she lies down, click, and again toss the treat so she has to get up to get it. Repeat. Some dogs will figure this out on the first session, others might need a few sessions of this, each session being 10-20 minutes. When the puppy is lying down expectantly as soon as she eats the treat, you’ll know that she understands two things about the clicker:
1- her behavior makes the click happen
2- the click is followed by a treat
Which means that she will want to repeat the behavior. One of the clicker training mantras I love is “that which gets rewarded gets repeated” (which works for behaviors you don’t like as well!)
A couple of links not already mentioned:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IC367wKGi...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S9D9DD581...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1MkG0XHKz...
Clicker training is probably the most effective method of teaching you can employ. Karen Pryor is considered the Guru of the method for dogs and her most recent book Reaching the Animal Mind was just released this past week. You can get a very good idea of the principals and some practical training advice from the web site of the same name http://WWW.reachingtheanimalmind.com . This site has instructions on how to properly employ the clicker, videos and a few practice exercises to get you started.
As a dog trainer in a local shelter we use this method exclusively and teach it to all of our volunteers because it is relatively easy to learn and very effective with our already over stressed population.
It has also been a very effective way for the children in our summer day camp program to obtain some amazing results, with the animals they train, in the very short two weeks of camp they spend with the dogs.