Clicker Training Your Dog, For Better Training Results.

We've all heard of clicker training - but how do we do it and how will it help our dogs?

Hi Gang

We are all about the reward-based, Fun Not Fear® Methods at the Fun Not Fear® Club. We are also all about teaching dogs effectively and fairly.

Clicker training is a method of teaching our dogs that can really speed up learning, and is easy to learn how to do.

Once the click noise is taught, the click tells the dog that a reward is coming. The click never gets a sore throat or sounds a bit annoyed or sad. The click is consistently an unusal sound that is not the same as all the garbled chatter that comes out of our mouths. The click serves no other purpose than to give the promise of good things. So, it can be extremely effective in speeding up some training sessions.

I have used it for all kinds of things and Twyla is quite well versed in it. Sometimes dogs find it easier to pick out the sound of a clicker than they do the vocal marks we give them (like”yes!” or “good dog”), and so it is easier for them to pick out the moment they have done the action that caused the reward to happen.

A really good book on the method is “Don’t Shoot The Dog!” by Karen Pryor (R.I.P) which while having an unfortunate title, is an incredible read about training all kinds of animals with a clicker.

This week’s video is a short of me and Twyla, showing just how quickly a dog can be shaped to perform a behaviour using nothing but clicks and rewards.

Sorry this video is not the best quality! But it does show just how quickly you can clicker train a dog.

The first part shows me and Twyla demonstrating how to teach that click = treat. The click must ALWAYS be followed by a reward of some kind, and preferably something the dog deems worth having. Even if you click by accident. You can simply click - treat a few times, several times a day until your dog hears the click and expects a good thing to happen.

Next, start clicking when your dog performs a desired action. This could be while shaping a behaviour, such as the video demonstrates, whereby Twyla who was free ranging around my living room was shaped to come and lay down in front of me.

We did this in stages, with no vocal cues given. She was first clicked and rewarded each time she came towards me. I then waited for her to sit down before she earned the click. Once she was doing that reliably I held out for her to lay down and then began clicking for that instead.

Clicking could also be useful for rewarding dogs who are reactive to triggers. Click as soon as they spot a trigger and make sure to reward immediately after.

OR for a good “wait” at the side of the road; Or for passing a pushchair nicely; Or a good “sit.”

In fact you can mark all kinds of desired behaviour effectively and reinforce it!

While Twyla is already clicker trained, and therefore took only a few minutes to work out what was needed, some dogs will take a little longer at first. But, it is fun watching them figure it out, and then seeing their confidence soar as they work things out for themselves.

Have fun clicker training your dogs!

Warm ‘N’ Fuzzies,

Freya xx