Saturday, December 31, 2011

How to use Clicker Training

By Jean Cote


Clicker training is first taught by associating a clicking sound from a clicker with one treat. Your dog will swiftly learn that one click equals one treat as a reward for good behavior. A dog will associate that whatever behaviour they just did earned them one treat, fortified by the clicking sound.

This proven coaching method may be employed to train complete tricks and behaviors. Remember, in order for clicker training to be successful, you must click at the precise moment that a behavior happens. When your dog sits, the clicker clicks.

Think of it this way: clicking is like taking an image of the behavior you would like your dog to repeat repeatedly. After you click to "take the picture", you will give your dog a treat to train a behavior with positive reinforcement.

Within 2 or 3 clicks, a dog will swiftly associate a click with a reward. If a dog wants another treat - which he'll - he'll be encouraged to copy the good behavior continually.

At what stage should you give up the rewards and only use the clicker for training? The answer is rarely! A clicker isn't intended to replace a reward; it is used to emphasize that good behavior earns a treat. If you stop giving your dog rewards, the clicker will quickly lose its power as a coaching tool.

A powerful reward after a click will yield the best training results for your dog.

According to clicker training expert Karen Pryor, "101 Things worth Doing with a Box" is a superb concept to use to go into clicker training for the 1st time. This is a training tool taken from a dolphin project in 1969, revealed in the Book of Experimental Analysis of Behavior.1 The approach may be employed as a crossover training tool for dogs of every age and sizes.




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