Dog Mechanics Steps Towards Successful Clicker Training

Understand positive reinforcement. Positive reinforcement is a method of training based around giving rewards for desired behaviour, instead of punishment for bad behaviour. Clicker training is a kind of positive reinforcement training, because you do not punish or physically control the dog. Instead, you give rewards for the desired behaviour. Rewards can be anything that is desirable to the animal i.e. treats, toys, games, freedom (within limitations).

Understand how clicker training works. Remember that the clicker is not the reward. The clicker is intended to mark which behaviour is correct,not to reward a behaviour. You'll have to reward your dog with a treat after you click, because the treat is the reward.

Desired rewardsspend a bit of time with your dog to work out which is the best reward for your dog, if you are going to use treats, if so which treats? You will need very small, soft treats that your dog can eat quickly. Get about three options for your dog to choose from (Examples: thinly sliced hot dog, small pieces of cheese, small pieces of raw and cooked meats) if you are going to use treats as rewards, work out which is his favourite.DO NOTuse food that you feed everyday for treats, this is a special occasion. If you are going to use play, play with what? A tug toy?A ball to throw? AgainDO NOTuse his toys that just lie around the house and or yard, he can play with these anytime, so why is now special? If you are going to use praise, make a huge fuss of him, get really excited, and give him some vigorous pats – praise should only be used if the dog doesn’t respond to treats or play, and praise will only work if you, the handler are into it, the more into it you are the more into it the dog will be.

Load the clicker. "Loading the clicker" is how you train your dog to associate the click with a reward. To load the clicker, simply click the clicker and give your dog a treat. Repeat this until; your dog has learnt to associate the click with a reward. You will know when the dog has associated the click with the reward when; you click and the dog turns to face you or comes over to you for a reward. Don't worry if your dog is initially startled by the click - once he realizes treats come after the click, he will adjust to the noise.

Try working with your dog before he is fed. A full dog may not be as interested in working for food. Eventually, the dog's mealtime can become a session of rehearsing commands it already knows, or while teaching new things.

Practice your timing. Correct timing is essential to clicker training: remember, the click marks the correct behaviour. For example, if you're trying to train your dog to sit, clicking after your dog has already gotten up from the sitting position is going to train him to stand on command! Try to clickduringthe desired behaviour, not after it is completed. Don't be dismayed if your pet stops the behaviour when it hears the click - the click is also your dog's signal to stop the behaviour, like saying "Good job, that'll do!"

Before you start training your dog using clicker training, practice your timing. Ask a friend to bounce a tennis ball in front of you. Every time the tennis ball hits the ground, click your clicker (if you've already started loading the clicker, do this out of earshot of your dog).

"Catch" correct behaviours. Instead of using physical force to put your dog in a certain position, you can wait until you see your dog performing the action you want to reward. For example, if you want to train your dog to lie down on command, wait until you see your dog lying on the ground. You can then click and treat.

Another way of getting correct behaviours is to gently move your dog into the correct position. You may coax or lure the animal into a movement or position, but don't push, pull, or hold it: let the animal discover how to do the behaviour on its own. If you want to train your dog to sit, for example, hold the treat above your dog's nose. As he moves up his nose, he should end up sitting on the floor. However, you shouldnotharm your dog to get the correct behaviour - e.g., yanking on the leash to stop pulling, or using a choke collar to train your dog to sit - as this will often result in fear and confusion, and will not help you bond with your dog.

Understand how to use shaping. If you're trying to train your dog to fetch the News paper from the front yard, for example, you don't expect your dog to get the News paper and place it on your lap for you on the first try. Instead, train small steps at a time - training your dog to run out onto the yard by himself, to hold the News paper, move with the News paper in his mouth, to drop the News paper, to put the News paper in a certain place. - And eventually you can start to add these behaviours together (once they are solid) to create the entire behaviour. This is known as "shaping" a behaviour. You are rewarding successive approximations to the end behaviour that you want. A successive approximation is a behavioural term that refers to gradually moulding or training an organism to perform a specific completed response by first reinforcing responses that are similar to the desired response

To better understand how to use shaping, try playing the shaping game. Find a willing friend, and tell the friend that you are going to teach him/her to perform an action using shaping. Decide on a behaviour (but don't tell the friend what it is!) and ask your friend to walk around and do random things in the hopes that one behaviour is correct. Your job is to recognize small behaviours that you can build up to create the complete behaviour.

For example, you can "train" your friend to flip a switch. Start by clicking the clicker when your friend walks in the direction of the switch. Continue rewarding him or her for walking towards the switch, until s/he reaches the wall. Next, reward him or her for touching the wall. Soon your friend will realize that flipping the switch is the correct behaviour - click and reward her!
Remember not to punish your friend (or your dog) if she or he performs a wrong action. If your subject does something wrong, just ignore it and wait until (s)he does something correct to reward, helping him or her if necessary.

Learn how to add a cue to a behaviour. Once you've successfully shaped a behaviour, you'll have to learn how to add a cue to the behaviour. To do this, simply say the cue after you click. Depending on your dog, after you've repeated this a number of times, tell your dog the cue. If your dog doesn't immediately do the correct behaviour, help your dog by going back a couple of steps in the learning process and make some rewards easy to get, to get the flow happening again.

Remember to use the cues consistently. For example, you might train your dog to both lie down on command and jump off a couch. Instead of using the cue "down" for both, try using the command "down" for lying down and "off" for going off the couch.

You can also use visual cues, such as a raised hand for "sit." Both can work well, as long as you remember to be consistent!

Begin clicker training your dog. Once you've learned the basic concepts of clicker training, you can start training your dog. A good choice is to try training your dog to look at you, which will help you keep your dog's attention on you when you train.

Always use your clicker in your writing or dominant hand, this hand will be quicker and more likely to catch desired behaviours.

Sit in front of your dog and hold the clicker in your writing/dominant hand and treats in your other hand. Your dog will most likely look at your hand with the treats, but ignore this. After a while, your dog will probably look towards you - immediately click and give your dog the treat.

Repeat this a few times, and then start expecting some duration for the dogs eyes locked onto yours, start with one second, once that is solid, start expecting two seconds. Don’t be deferred if you try to increase the criteria and the dog will only offer you the pervious behaviour, Clicker training is a waiting game, wait for it, but if after 5 minutes and still no responses then go back a couple of steps to make the criteria easier and this will get the dog working and earning rewards.

Repeat this exercise a few times, and then say "Watch!" or another cue when your dog looks at you. Continue training until you can focus your dog's attention on you by telling him or her "Watch!"

Up the ante by requiring your dog to perform the behaviour in a distracting environment - for example, in the parking lot of a dog park, or in a room with other people and eventually other dogs.

Remember“you get what you click for” if you click to early or too late that is what you are reinforcing. The key to successful clicker training is timing.

Once you have mastered this try adding inmarkerwords, marker words bridge the gap and give the clicker training process a personal touch.

I have three marker words I use to indicate to my dog:Good, which means you’re on the right path but keep going you’re not quite there yet, or to maintain a behaviour, like waiting for an extended amount of time.Yes, which means that is exactly the behaviour I was after, like the clicker, but unlike the clicker you will always have your voice so it is a handy to train both.Oops, which means try again, I do not want to discourage my dog, but I do want to indicate that the dog needs to try again with the behaviour, and Oops is always said in a happy way, there is no point punishing a dog for something that it is not sure of what he is doing.

Good= keep going/trying
Yes= that’s the desired behaviour
Oops= try again

Fix bad behaviours by clicking good behaviours. For example, instead of yelling at your dog for barking, try clicking the clicker when your dog is quiet. Or putting the barking on cue and having a “speak up” command to bark and an “enough” command to be quite. Another idea is to train your dog to heel by clicking when the leash goes slack, instead of yanking on the leash when your dog pulls ahead of you. Remember that you should never punish your dog: clicker training is supposed to be fun and bonding for both of you.

Keep practice sessions short. Dogs have short attention spans - especially puppies! - and you'll get the most out of your training if you train for five minutes three times a day, instead of training without break for an hour a day. You can also liven up training sessions by including a game of fetch or tug-of-war. If your dog is frustrated with a new behaviour or isn't making progress, throw in a few tricks he knows well to keep the treats flowing. Your dog will be upset and bored if he doesn't get rewards for his work - remember to use the shaping technique and keep goals easy and achievable.

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Make sure when you are splitting training over many sessions – that you revisit past steps of the behaviour you were training in the last session so that the first couple of treats are easy, to remind the dog what behaviour you are after, this usually means revisiting elements that you trained in the last session.

Also if you get stuck in the clicker training process, then you may have progressed too quickly- dogs learn at different rates, like people. Go back a couple of steps and make the next couple of rewards easy to obtain.

Stay calm and positive when you train. Your job is to be your dog's coach and cheer him along - don't get angry or frustrated. If you start feeling annoyed or upset, take a breather or play a game with your dog.

If you are not making progress with a particular behaviour, you are probably clicking too late. Accurate timing is important. Get someone else to watch you, and perhaps to click for you, a few times. Or your criteria is too hard, don’t just aim for the final behaviour ask for small steps towards the end behaviour, this way the behaviour will be more solid as both you and the dog have worked through the learning process, as the dog will start on a good line then usually add something really odd to the mix, but don’t worry you can work through this.

DO NOTtrain more than one behaviour in one session, this will just confuse the dog, and you will usually end up rewarding for the wrong behaviour. Sessions can be broken up by a game e.g. tug or throwing a ball (just don’t wear the dog out too much) or time, come back after ten twenty minutes and try again – sometimes it feels like they need the time to let the information sink in.

Have fun! Enjoy bonding with your dog, Stay positive and have fun training your dog!
A clicker works better than a verbal command or a word because itdoesn’t change. Your voice changes, your inflection and tone change and quite honestly you can forget the word and then your poor dog is confused.

The advantage of clicker training is that the clicker makes a very distinctive sound that dogs will easily recognize, and that you will not use in casual conversation.

I recommend that you always hold your clicker behind your back, so the clicker isn’t eliciting the behaviour.