What is Clicker Training?
The clicker makes a distinctive sound when you press on it. It tells your dog “Yes, that is what I want you to do,” and it promises her a reward for a job well done. The clicker acts like the shutter of a camera, marking the exact moment she has done what you like. If you don’t like using gadgets, or can’t use a clicker for some other reason, you can use a marker word, like “YES” to tell the dog when it’s done something you like.
It is a good idea to use both a marker word and a clicker. The clicker a stronger reinforcer than “YES”, but you almost always have your voice with you! I use the clicker to teach new behaviors, and then switch over to a verbal marker when the dog understands what behavior I’m asking for.
Here’s a great way to start teaching your dog (or cat) using the clicker.
Practice your clicker timing. This step has nothing to do with the dog; it’s all about you. Your goal here is to become proficient at clicking when you see something that you want the dog to repeat, only you’ll be practicing without the dog. Have a friend toss a ball straight up into the air (or do it yourself). Click when the ball reaches the highest point.
Repeat often until you are confident with your clicker timing.
Prepare the rewards. Find some really delicious treats. You want to use something small and soft, so the dog gets a nibble of a treat, swallows it, and is ready to work for more. (optional) Charge the clicker. If the dog is shy (or you’re training a cat), first associate the click with a treat. You may need to muffle the sound of the clicker or use a pen. If the dog does not appear to be startled at all by the clicker, you can move on to the next stage. Initially, the click has no meaning to the dog. In this step, you’re not looking for a particular behavior, just click and treat. Just don’t click while your dog is doing something you don’t want her to do (like jump, bark, or whine).
Click, treat. Pause Click, treat. Longer pause Click, treat. Shorter pause.
Repeat 10-15 times Vary the pause times so she knows that the click is what tells her the food is coming. Do that again a few hours later.
Teach your dog to do the behavior (no cues or commands yet) using one or more of the following methods.
Capturing: Catch your dog doing something right! If your dog does something cool or useful on her own, click her in the act and then give her a treat. Examples of behavior you can capture: sit, down, sneeze, stretch, going into the crate, shake (as in shaking off water), and urinating outside. The dog knows how to do these things on her own – if you click and treat for it, she’ll start to do them on purpose for you.
The best time to click is when the dog is starting the behavior. Your dog may then abort and come to you for the treat, and that’s okay. You should be clicking in the act of lying down, for example, rather than clicking a dog who’s been there for a minute, it will be more clear to the dog that getting into the down position was what you wanted. Most people click late. Gradually click later and later in the process to get the complete down.
Luring: With a food treat or a favorite toy, you can show the dog what you want – spin in a circle, sit, down, and stretch (yoga’s famous “downward facing dog” pose) can all be lured. To lure the down from a sit, stand in front of Fido and have the treat right at his nose, drawing it toward the floor. Very slowly pull your hand toward you along the floor, letting him lick the treat if necessary, so that the path of your hand makes an L shape. If necessary, click and treat him for just following the hand to the floor, then in the course of a few trials, move into clicking for following your hand all the way into a down. This does not work for all dogs, so you may need to do capturing or shaping (our next method).
While luring can be quicker than capturing or shaping, you must be careful to remove the food from your hand after a few lures. Pretend like you still have food in your hand, lure them into the down, and then click and give your dog a treat from your treat pouch.
Shaping is a nice elegant method for teaching dogs and humans alike. You click for attempts in the right direction and gradually expect more and more of the dog. Say that you want to teach your dog to go to a rug. Set the rug down near the dog and click/treat for any move at all toward the rug, be it a twitch of the ear, a flick of the eye, or a full step. Toss the treat onto the rug and then lure the dog off of the rug, but don’t feed him.
As soon as he’s headed off of the rug, take the treat back away from the dog (I usually pull it to my chest). The next time he looks at the rug, click/treat. When that’s going well, raise your expectations. If we were getting eye flicks before, now we want a turn of the head. Or if we had that, we now want leaning in the direction of the rug. Gradually move up through the levels of difficulty until he’s dashing to the rug. This may take a few sessions.
Add the Cue. For all of these ways of teaching, we first get the dog doing what we want, and then put it on cue – the positive dog training version of “command.” In the rug example, once he’s dashing to the rug, you would start to say, “rug,” a few seconds before he gets there, then click & treat. Or “down,” pause for a few seconds, and then lure with the empty hand.
After the behavior is on cue, start only clicking/treating for the best responses out of two or three. Switch to “yes” and treat instead of clicking. Gradually lengthen the odds, use real life rewards instead of just food and you have a dog that almost works for free!
Take your star dog on the road. Practice in different rooms of the house, with more and more distractions. If she knows other cues and SPIN is new, mix those in: SIT, DOWN, SPIN, treat. DOWN, SPIN, SIT, DOWN, treat. And so on. Then head out to the yard. With other behaviors, you’ll want to go further, like the sidewalk, down the street, to the park, etc.
Each time the environment changes, she might act like she has no idea what “SPIN” means. That’s absolutely normal and she isn’t being stubborn or willful. She just has no idea what you mean, in this new context. Just go fast forward through the shaping process again, as a refresher. Keep sessions short and upbeat, and stop before your dog gets tired of working.
Article by Ahimsa Dog Training, Seattle. © 2008 Ahimsa Dog Training. Ahimsa strives to teach humane dog training methods in a compassionate and fun environment that is sensitive to canine and human needs.
