Super Clicker Training for Dogs!

Clicker training for dogs is a wonderful way to teach your four-legged friend all kinds of very fun and useful commands as well as establish a healthy working bond. If you’ve worked closely or shared a deep connection with dogs before, you would know exactly what I mean. If you haven’t had the chance to foster a deep partnership then training your dog with a clicker is definitely a step in the right direction. Taking the time to train and work with your dog will lead you to an unprecedented level of communication that can build trust and respect between you (the trainer) and your dog. Once you’ve harnessed the power of clicker training, you can use it to teach your dog just about anything using the principles of reinforcement training.

I want to make it clear and enforce that virtually anyone can do this with the right tools and techniques. It does require extreme patience along with the ability to adapt and carefully apply all the different things we’ll be covering in this series of Click Training for dogs articles.

This post is a long one – I had to cover some important bases before getting into the clicker action phase. Yeah, it’s a little wordy but every detail is important, especially for those of you that are completely new to clicker training for dogs.

Super Clicker

The clicker is basically a small device that will run you at most a few dollars, in some cases less than a dollar for a bare-bones model. It’s usually made of plastic with some metal inside that “clicks” when pressed. It’s basically a tiny toy that your dog will happily learn to love. It’s really amazing to know that such a tiny magic tool can help shape your dog in incredible ways.

There’s no magic in the clicker itself. The sound of the click is basically an event marker. Clicker training for dogs is also often referred to as Marker Training. You can just as easily use a word or make a sound in order to mark a behavior. The thing with clicker training is that the event marker should be clear and consistent. Many of us regular folks aren’t as reliable on how we deliver speech compared to a clicker, which produces the same exact sound every time. This doesn’t mean you can’t use your voice or an alternate event marker, it just means that for several important reasons, a clicker should be your ideal choice.

When we’re training Halle, we personally combine the clicker with the word “YES” expressed vocally as a marker. Halle has learned to accept both and clearly understands us when we use either marker. Once your dog understands the clicker training process and becomes your super training partner, using other types of markers (vocal) will become a whole lot easier.

If you’re starting out, we truly recommend a clicker as it really helps establish consistency while you learn and utilize other aspects of training. There are numerous important variables and critical cues to consider to be effective when clicker training your dog. Once you read over our series of posts and get ready to start your first session, there’s a very good chance that you will feel a little off your axis. You might feel a bit overwhelmed buy all the tiny steps. Some of you won’t have this problem but the feeling is very common. I would recommend you worry about the really important things and leave the event marking to the sound of a trusty clicker.

Later on, you can always introduce a word, as it can be very helpful in situations when you don’t have your clicker handy. But again, if you’re starting out, we recommend you start with a clicker. A clicker can be purchased just about anywhere for a couple of bucks and is quite indispensable. We still use one today for teaching Halle new commands and tricks. Halle loves it when we pull it out of the drawer and responds extremely well to it. It signals super fun training time with rewards and always marks with precision.

“As soon as I see the clicker, I immediately pick my brain and start offering my favorite tricks and behaviors hoping for a reward. I can’t help it!” } Halle

About Clicker Training

The great thing about dog clicker training is that you can get started almost immediately with a puppy as young as 8 weeks or work with an older dog that has never had any formal training in its lifetime. You might hear some say that you should wait until the puppy is a littler older. We disagree. There’s a wonderful advantage to collecting clicker training puppy points that will pay off later on! Puppies are very intelligent and receptive little buggers that can pickup basics very quickly which in turn, creates a number of benefits for you and your puppy as it grows.

All that being said, if you’ve got a dog at home that has never been trained it’s time for some clicker action. If you’re planning on bringing a puppy into your home, don’t think twice about clicker training. It’s awesome!

We started when Halle was about 12 weeks old and have been pretty much blown away by the level of communication and bond it’s helped us establish with our Weimaraner. Dog clicker training has definitely allowed us to use positive reinforcement to teach our dog many useful and fun commands. It also gave us an opportunity to interact, engage and communicate with our dog in a way that we’ve never had the chance to with any of our previous furry friends.

One of Asia’s previous dogs, Rudy the beloved German Shepherd, was trained in a dog academy with teachers that used unwarranted corrections and fear tactics to get dogs to obey. This method of training destroys the dog’s will and character. It establishes an unhealthy relationship between dog and trainer. The dog will comply but is afraid and distrustful of the trainer. Rudy was very well trained and extremely obedient in militant fashion but always on edge. He was unfortunately always afraid of being punished or doing something wrong – a firecracker with low drive and misguided aggression. Being punished for every wrong move is not the proper way to teach a dog anything.

The difference between Rudy and our clicker trained Halle is like night and day. Asia was in her late teens and this was the family dog. I always hear stories about how loved he was and how amazing his spirit was. If Asia knew what she knows now, Rudy would have been a much happier and balanced German Shepherd.

These traditional types of training are still very common with many trainers and dog training schools because they work. The dog is corrected until he does what the trainer wants. Not because he wants to or because he was allowed to figure things out, but because he has no choice. It obeys out of fear. These methods produce results and are very popular but can have a profound negative psychological effect on the dog.

Karen Pryor, an expert in marine mammal biology and behavioral psychology, introduced clicker training for dogs. She became the authority on clicker training after working with and training Dolphins using similar methods in the 1960s. The entire concept of clicker training is based on operant conditioning (first discovered by B. F. Skinner) – which for the sake of keeping things simple is the science of making an association between a behavior and a consequence for that behavior. This all leads to what clicker training is mostly about: Positive Reinforcement.

Clicker training dogs with positive reinforcement is a great way to teach your dog that good behavior is rewarded and unwanted behavior is not. The dog is never punished or forced. Because of the true nature of clicker training, the dog also learns to solve problems, build confidence and try things without the fear of an unnecessary correction. Training your dog in a positive manner also creates a lasting bond with your dog that is built on trust and fairness. Your dog will be eager and excited to learn and please you. Clicker training will quickly turn your dog into the super training partner you never imagined you could have. It’s a win-win every way you look at it.

Clicker training for dogs in its essence does not require punishment or forced corrections. We have learned and firmly believe that corrections, if done properly, can be important and very useful in building boundaries and consistency in a learned behavior. I stress the right way because you should never mistreat your dog, be abusive or do anything to affect his psychological wellbeing. By experience, we’ve learned that if a correction is delivered the right way at the right time, it can really take your training to a whole new level without degrading your dog’s temperament, personality and drive. In MANY cases (depending on several factors including your needs and the needs of your dog) corrections have no place at all. This is something we’ll discuss at some point in the distant future and has absolutely NO place in the learning and establishing phase of any command or behavior.

I just wanted to make this clear since many folks we talk to seem to feel that you should never discipline or correct your dog, which doesn’t entirely make sense to us. There are many schools of thought on this topic. It’s been debated a million gazillion times. You might equate a dog that knows a ton of tricks and commands to a well-rounded and balanced soul but that, more often than not, couldn’t be further from the truth. Dogs, in their very nature, need discipline, boundaries and structure to be innately happy.

Clicker Training Action in a Nutshell

Clicker training is used to train all kinds of animals – birds, cats, horses, dogs and many more. It’s used to mark a behavior. When you mark a behavior with a click, you’re basically giving your dog a mental snapshot of what was going on when you delivered that click. This snapshot has no purpose until you connect the click with a reward. Then things start to get interesting. Once the dog learns that a click means they get a reward, the animal will start to pay a lot more attention to the mental snapshot that resulted in a click. If you click and reward on a specific action, with enough repetition and preciseness, your dog will understand what it is you’re expecting it to do.

Basic Play-by-Play

1. Dog enacts a behavior you want, alone, or with your direction.
2. You mark the behavior by clicking the clicker. Timing is key.
3. You reward the dog with a special treat, toy or praise.
4. You repeat until the dog connects the behavior to the reward.
5. You and the Trainee work to establish the desired behavior.

This is how your dog makes the association between a behavior and the consequence for that behavior. In the case of a tasty or fun reward, the consequence is obviously a positive one.

Before you get started you have to begin pre-production which involves setting up your clicker and learning to get your dog to participate. The yummiest treats (which differ from dog to dog) are usually the best way to get your dog’s attention. In most cases, it’s best to have proper pack structure and leadership in place before you can entertain the idea of training your dog on your own. Working to establish the desired behavior (Step 5 in my Basic play by play) comes with extra baggage that you need to carefully understand and learn in order really grasp how everything comes together. Knowing precisely when to click or when and how to treat are also quite crucial.

Whoa! Hold your Puppies!

There’s definitely more involved with each step and many things to consider and apply to be effective at clicker training dogs. We’re going to do our best to cover everything we know on HalleBalleDog and give you all the tools and information you need to start training your dog with positive reinforcement. We’re also working on an article that will cover the tools we recommend for your clicker training mission.

We plan on delivering much more than a crash course. There’s a lot of material out there on the subject of clicker training, including many simple articles and thin blog posts that don’t teach many of the principles, variables and methods that come into play when clicker training with dogs. We like to dig deep but keep things simple, we want to give you all the tools and information you need to avoid some of the problems many clicker training rookies face by starting the process prematurely. I truly believe that the best way to clicker train is by practice, hands-on, since much of what it entails goes way beyond theory. That being said, knowing what you’re doing and doing it the right way is very crucial in the long run.

Don’t fret, as it’s all pretty basic and doable. Sure, there are clicker training masters out there that can put us all to shame. But you don’t have to be a master to get your dog conditioned to a clicker. Even if mastering every aspect of clicker training can take a hell of a long time, almost anyone can get started and yield the benefits of dog training with a clicker.

Please Be Mindful

Clicker training is not the only component in cultivating and nurturing a healthy partnership with your dog. Proper and fair leadership, establishing pack structure, walking with your dog and taking care of your pet the right way all go hand in hand. Clicker training is just a great way of teaching and communicating with your dog.

Judging a dog merely by the tricks it knows is no different that judging someone by the car they drive. There are many factors that lead to a balanced dog life.

You always have to remember that just because your dog does a few tricks and expresses itself on command, that doesn’t mean it respects you. There’s a big difference. Almost any dog can learn a few tricks. True love and respect is earned through solid leadership – which is what your dog needs and wants above all. The use of clicker training for dogs can have an added powerful effect on the relationship you have with your four-legged friend if the proper mutual respect is already in place. In the case of a puppy, pack leadership must be worked on daily completely aside from clicker training. Pack structure and leadership is vital and we’ll be discussing them more thoroughly in coming posts.

The best part about clicker training for dogs is that it’s pretty easy to get started. Understanding the overall concept isn’t very difficult. The tools required are also pretty basic, though we plan on covering some of the options available to you along with what we use and recommend. Getting ready and actually engaging in clicker training is something most of us can do, even at a simple level.

Mastering clicker training is a whole other thing and takes time, patience and a clear understanding of how the process is applied and how to troubleshoot when needed. You don’t have to be a master to teach your dog some basic tricks but the more you work with your dog, the better you’ll get. You’ll slowly start to pickup some of the cues and intangibles that truly make clicker training amazing on so many levels.

We’ll cover the basics and help you get started in the very next entry on HalleBalleDog, which will focus on the pre-production phase of clicker training starting with setting up your clicker. Once you have your clicker ready to go, you’ll be well on your way to training your dog the right way. You’ll soon discover how rewarding clicker training for dogs can be.

Post your questions, thoughts and comments. We love hearing from you and hope to keep exploring some of things I’ve presented in this article. Thanks for taking the time to read this!

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