Need some help with clicker training?
My mother has seen my increased interest in training my dog for therapy work and bought me a dog-training clicker. She says that my aunt used a similar one to train her labrador and that it worked wonders on him.
One problem…I have no clue whatsoever how a little red plastic clicker can train my dog. She’s very food-orientated and I’m worried that once the treats are taken away, the training will go right out of her brain. I don’t see how adding a small clicking noise will make any more difference.
She knows sit fairly well, and down is so-so. Her name is Rosie and she’s about two years old. Sealyhams are some of the most stubborn dogs and definitely the most stubborn dog I’ve ever owned.
I need a good explaination about clicker training and any books or guides that can help me “clicker-train” my dog. Thanks!
She might be two, but she isn’t stupid. To be honest, she was a show dog and her breeder specifically told me not to teach her anything like “sit” or “lay down” because of the threat of doing those commands in the ring.
I’m actually glad that I didn’t teach her sit until a few months ago after she finished her championship – whenever she sees a cookie now she automatically sits, which wouldn’t be a good thing in the show ring.
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Dogs learn about 15 to 20% faster when trained with the clicker. The clicker is more consistent than human voices and it also allows you to desensitize your pet in new or scary situations. Clicker training also allows animals of moderate intelligence to adapt and use their training in a positive manner. For example I clicker trained a cat to wave at me and then I will click and pet him and give him attention. Now, when he wants me to pet him he waves at me, letting me know he is hoping I will come over and reward him with some petting. If he weren’t clicker trained, he would probably just jump all over me or meow or something to get my attention.
The clicker is meant to be that when the dog does something good, you click it.
My suggestion? Skip the “clicker” all together. Dogs are smart, they can distinguish words, they don’t need a clicker. What are you going to do? carry the clicker around with you for the rest of the dogs life?
Teach your dog voice commands, and if she’s food motivated, go ahead and use that as an incentive.
Leave the clicking fad alone.
I’m not a huge fan of clicker training, but i understand how it works. Basically, you start by pairing the click sound with a reward. To start, just click, and as soon as she urns her head, give her a treat. Do this a bunch, until she expects a treat whenever you click. Then you want to start using the click to mark the behavior you want. The reason for the clicker is to create a stronger association between the behavior you want and the reward. To do this, speed is, key and this is where the click comes in. If your dog associates the click with a reward, he knows he’s doing the right thing when you click then give a treat.
Teaching ‘sit’ would go something like this:
Give the command “sit” once. As soon as she sits, click the clicker, then give a treat. If she doesn’t sit the first time, you chill for a second, reset, and try again. Sooner or later she’ll sit, then you click and treat. It takes a LOT of patience, to say the least, and in my experience, works better on some dogs than others.
For extra help, I’m sure there are a ton of books out there. Try searching ‘clicker training’ on amazon. Good Luck!
p.s. for the record, this is what my lab and I use- he loves it, and the results are awesome!
http://www.koehlerdogtraining.com/
There are a number of books on clicker training which can probably be found on amazon.com . Many very competitive trainers use clickers very effectively. The concept isn’t that difficult to understand and if your dog is only at sit and down at her age, you need some help.
Treats are used to shape behaviors initially and then to reward performance of the behavior that has been taught. If you continue any reward every time the dog does as you ask, it will soon decide whether or not to comply with a command. Once a command is learned then the reward is given randomly so the dog will continue the behavior in hopes of winning the reward. That’s why people will go to casinos and gamble. If they always won, there would be no challenge and therefore it would become boring. It is the randomness of the payoff that keeps dogs and people interested.
I’m vary aware that Sealy’s are stubborn little dogs, as well as being terriers, so you have your hands full. But that just means you have to be more consistent and interesting.
A clicker is used to associate the ‘click’ with a reward.
I have clicker trained one of my dogs, and it worked wonders on him. A click, is a quicker response than ‘good girl/boy’ and so makes training more efficient.
First thing you must do, is get your dogs attention, click the clicker and give him a treat. Practise this a few times and he’ll soon learn that the ‘click’ means treat.
You can then work on a command he knows eg sit. Give him the command, if he obeys then click. Wait a few seconds then treat. Once he gets the idea for the sit command, then you can start to teach him other commands.
And that is all there is to it. Eventually you will be able to wean him off treats, and he’ll just associate the click with doing a behaviour/action that you liked.
They are useful for all kinds of training and because of their small size, you can take them every where you go.
Good luck with the training and remember to always stay positive with lots of praise and always end the session on a command your dog knows well, so he is eager to train next time.
EDIT- I didn’t mean for the rest of the dogs life, as that is a bit extreme! I just meant, if you fancied doing some training over at the park, or while walking. Just while the dog was getting used to clicker training and training in general.
the sound of the click is scientifically proven to process in the dogs brain faster than anything we can say
first, you have to load the clicker, click then give a treat, do this for about a minute, whenever you click (even if it an accident) you need to give the dog the treat
think of it as a camera, we use a camera to capture a moment, we use the clicker to capture what the dog just did
lure your dog into a down with a treat (but the treat is only used as a lure for the first 6-12 times, after that it is just a bribe)
when she does what you want her to do-click and give her a treat
and no, once the treats are taken away, it wont go out of her brain, but your chances at getting a response is better only if you use it for the first 6 times
after she’s got it down, you can phase out the clicker, so that means you dont click every single time she does it
all of my dogs are clicker trained, and they are great
the clicker is only used to learn something new
if you have any more questions-email me, I help teach obedience class- and we use the clicker method
books to read:
Clicker Training Your Dog
and
Dont Shoot the Dog
http://www.clickertraining.com
ADD to a post above- you will not need to carry the clicker around your whole life, once the dog learns the behavior- you can phase out the clicker and only need it again if you want to teach something new
also remember: you have aprox. 3 seconds to click, and 30 second to deliver the treat
things I have clicker-trained my dogs to do:
sit, down, paw, sit stay, stand stay, down stay, come, say please, stand, leave it, speak and quiet, finish left, finish right, heel, drop it
and a few more
ADD: herbie&fern…I wasnt talking about you..lol
i love clickers. i see your point; that is what i thought at first. it was reccomended to me by a friend whose dog is absolutely amazing so i though i would give it a try.
it is pretty easy to do, just make sure you have treats too, because, unlike most people think, food and clicker training are related
when you are teaching your dog something, you just do it exactly how you would if you were just using treat, for example, if you were teaching lay down, you would put the treat on the ground and drag it under her nose, saying lay down. whenn she lays down or begins to lay down, click and give her a treat.
soon your dog will relate the clicker with food, and therefore will know that the click is good. eventually all you will have to do is click and your dog will get the message.
before you do any actual training with your dog, try clicking the clicker and immidiately after giving a treat. this will help her to understand from the beginning that the click is good.
many dogs respond greatly to the clicker, some hate the noise, and some do not respond at all; it all depends on the dog.
i have a border collie who will learn things so quickly with the clicker and responds great.
i also have a golden retriever who completely ignores it and does not respond to it at all.
like i said before, it depends on the dog.
try this link to get some cool techniques with clicker training.
http://www.clickertraining.com/
it has been really helpful to me
good luck and hope this helps:)
Hi,
Clicker training lets the dog know he’s doing what you want precisely when he does it by marking the behavior with a click sound. Your dog will be motivated to work for the clicks because you follow them with tasty treats. Here’s more info:
http://lnk.nu/dogtime.com/11o5.html