Your clicker is a wonderful training tool. Don’t kill the clicker by overusing it.
You’ll be amazed how quickly your dog will learn to respond to the clicker. He may even smile and/or wag when he hears it.
So it’s tempting, when your dog is off exploring and you need him to come quickly, to reach for the clicker.
Put it down …
Think twice! Then put the clicker down.
If you use the clicker to call your dog it becomes your “come” or “recall” command and stops being useful for anything else.
It becomes “come get a cookie” rather than “good job! You figured it out!”
The Click is NOT a Command
The clicker will help you build a perfect “come” command. But hearing that sound is a reward for a job well done, rather than the command itself.
If the clicker turns into your recall command – how do you let your dog know, from across the room, that he’s doing a good job staying in his “place?” Clicking tells your dog she’s a good girl no matter how far away she is, or what she’s doing.
Trying to expand the meaning just won’t work.
Dogs’ brains are binary – on or off, left or right, black or white. They don’t have shades of gray. An object has a single purpose – like the clicker. Either it says “good dog!” or it’s “come here!” Trying to make it perform two functions will confuse your dog and muddy your training.
