clicker training Archives - 2 Minute Trainer

With clicker dog training, every “click” is a promise

Clicker training is a fast, simple way to communicate clearly to your dog. Every click says “good dog!” and every click is a promise of reward.

Many people seem reluctant to embark on clicker training their dogs. We get it. The timing and mechanics take a while to smooth out. But it’s worth it. As fluency increases, it gives you more flexibility in training your dog. Every “click” is a promise to your dog. It’s an affirmation dogs love (you’re doing good!) and a pledge that their good work will be rewarded.

Everybody’s clumsy at first

Whether you hold the clicker in your hand or have it on a wrist strap doesn’t matter. There are times it’s not where you need it to be. Or you drop it, or it twirled around your arm and isn’t where it should be.

It doesn’t matter. Your dog doesn’t care and won’t tell anybody that you may have messed up. Your training class teacher has been there, done that. It’s worth sticking with it to be able to use this great training tool.

Nobody has enough hands to manipulate leash, clicker, and treats at the same time. The whole concept of the clicker is its use as a bridge between the behavior and the reward. It lets your dog know “Yes! You’re doing it right!”

Clicker familiarization

Dogs catch on really quickly to clicker training. Most dogs get it after a single session: Have 10 treats in a bowl. Click and give your dog a treat. 10 times. That’s it. You’re on your way to having your dog love the sound of the clicker.

At first you absolutely have to give your dog a reward every single time you click. Even if you click by accident. Even if the clicker hit the ground and clicked. Remember that dogs don’t understand “sometimes” or “maybe.” The value of the reward transfers to the sound of the click. Done consistently, it will always make your dog happy. If you don’t follow through, you diminish the value and your dog won’t care about the click.

Better than “Yes!”

There are a couple of reasons that a vocal marker like “Yes!” doesn’t have the same impact as the clicker. It takes longer to talk than click. Once you become used to using the clicker, it’s almost automatic; you see something you like and you click. If you use a vocal, you have to think about it. It has to process through your brain rather than going right to your reflexes.

The clicker is also a sharper sound, more distinguishable in a noisy or distracting environment. Even in a clicker training class, the dogs can tell when it’s “their” clicker that made the sound. We’re not sure how they know, when everybody has the same equipment, but they do.

Give it some time

If you’ve dismissed the idea of clicker dog training, or at some point decided it wasn’t for you, give it another try. You certainly don’t have to use it all the time, or for every behavior. But there are some games where it’s priceless. It gives you the freedom to lock your eyes on your dog and mark the action you want precisely. When Hope’s French Bulldog Torque is playing his “Bowling” game, he knocks down all 10 pins, hears a click as each one goes down, and then runs back for his reward. It started with one pin, one knock-down, and one click. Games can grow click by click.

Why click?

The Clicker is a wonderful training tool

Many people question the use of a clicker in dog training. You don’t absolutely have to have one, or use one, but it’s a useful tool and we think everyone should try it.

In our social media groups about dog sports competition, there are people who are “never-clickers.” Their arguments are that:

I don’t have enough hands
It can’t be used in competition
It’s one more thing I have to “fade” (stop using)
I always have my voice with me

Those are valid points. And if you’re absolutely opposed to the idea, you can do without.

One the other hand, the clicker allows:

Everyone training the dog to “sound” the same
Is instantaneous to mark good stuff
Lets you delay the treat
Improves your timing

The clicker is particularly wonderful if you have a fast-learning, fast-moving dog who loves to do “stuff” with you. By the time you can say “good” or “yes,” Fido’s already doing something else, because your feedback wasn’t fast enough. Think it’s not true? We’ll loan you Hope’s Torque, or Fran’s Simon for a 2-Minute Session. Those boys are hard to keep up with, even with a clicker.

Just this week, Hope decided to add a “bow” to Torque’s repertoire. She thought about how to teach it, figuring to use a small box. She’d reward for putting his hind legs on the box the first session. Later 2-Minute Sessions would add lowering his front end while keeping his rear up in the air.

Torque already knows “back up,” so Hope put down the box and Torque was already moving, backing up onto the box. She clicked as soon as both back feet were on it, signalling immediately to Torque that he was right, right then. If she had waited at all, his front legs would have been on the box as well, and the criteria for the new trick would have been unclear.

When your dog is used to working with a clicker, it’s a clear and immediate signal to him (or her) that he’s a good boy. And he knows (or will soon learn) to repeat the behavior that got the click. And was followed, in short order, by treats!

Once our dogs learn to think, are rewarded for trying, and have fun spending time with you, it becomes easier and easier to develop new tricks, or behaviors. It’s fun and challenging for everyone – dogs and people!

Don’t Kill the Clicker!

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.

Don’t Wanna, Not Gonna

Training a dolphin is a lot like training a dog!

One of the doyennes of positive reinforcement training, Karen Pryor, is also the author of A Dog & A Dolphin – An Introduction to Clicker Training. At first, the similarities between the two species may not be apparent, but for training, they’re much alike – if you do it right.

Training = Training

At our favorite dolphin facility, the Dolphin Research Center in Grassy Key, Florida, we’ve been privileged to watch and participate in training sessions with the dolphins. With dolphins, you have to use positive reinforcement. If the animal isn’t interested and engaged, willing to play with you – he or she just swims off. There’s not a thing you can do about it.

Should be SO MUCH FUN!

Dogs are sometimes “just not that into it.” If your dog disengages and goes off sniffing, it’s time to switch gears. We don’t “make” our dogs play training games with us. We make the games, and ourselves, so much fun that they want to play with us.

If you’re working on a “come!” and your dog doesn’t, think about what you can change to make yourself more appealing. Don’t beg your dog to come to you – run away from him! Or get down on all fours and call her to crawl under you. Slap a toy on the ground and drag it. Be creative.

Some dogs get over-stimulated during play sessions. If that’s the case and your dog is barking at you or excited and not listening, just sit down, without saying anything, and wait for a moment of silence. Then whisper something. Or gently blow on your dog’s face to get his attention. If he or she is too “amped up,” your dog may not be able to focus on what you’re asking.

One of our training mentors, when a dog is barking uncontrollably in class, yells “Goku needs a hug!” It stops the behavior and gives the dog a chance to refocus.

Sometimes a “time out” is needed

If nothing else works, either call it a day and end the session, or give your dog a little “time out” in the crate. It gives you and your dog a little break and hits the “reset.” The break doesn’t have to be long – less than a minute will do. He or she may come out ready to play with you again.

If that doesn’t happen, chalk it up to a bad day. We all have them. Even our dogs. You’ll have another chance later, or tomorrow.