Breaking New Ground With The Clicker
Posted on Tuesday, March 17th, 2009
For anyone thinking about trying to train their dog, be it for the first time or to try and eradicate unsavoury behaviours, investing in a “clicker” trainer is an absolute must. This relatively new method, originally used for training dolphins in the 1960s and adapted for dogs in the 90s, is quite simply the most human, the kindest and also the most effective aid to training a dog of any age. Even if you are trying to retrain an older dog who first learnt without the clicker, it is still a valuable asset.
A “clicker” is essentially what it says it is; a small, plastic hand held device which when depressed produces a high and noticeable clicking sound. There are a huge variety of clickers on the market, from every possible purveyor of dog training aids, but there is no need to spend a vast amount of money procuring one. As long as your chosen device can produce the distinctive click noise immediately when depressed, you’ve got all you need.
The clicker is not, in itself, a way of training a dog. It is simply a reinforcement, but one that has proved to be overwhelmingly useful, to the point that most dog owners regard anyone trying to train without one as somewhat odd. Clickers are not big money spinners for the manufacturers of dog training aids, so one can trust the efficacy of clickers all the more in that they have no received huge promotional hype. They sell and are talked about for one reason alone; they work.
A clicker is used, as mentioned before, as a reinforcement. The purpose of a clicker is to ‘mark’ or identify a good behaviour. Dog behaviour specialists have recognised that dogs repeat behaviours that they find pleasurable. The clicker uses this already formed thought process and expands it; when a dog does something good, such as sits on command, then by using the clicker the behaviour is identified instantly as good. The click is then followed by a treat of some sort; this can be food, such as chicken, or even just praise and fussing of the dog.
Soon, the dog learns to identify the sound of the click with good things – namely, the treat or praise they receive moments after hearing it. Therefore, the dog begins to engage in behaviour that it feels will gain a “click” and therefore the treat. By clicking good behaviour and not clicking bad, you are teaching your dog habits for life and encouraging them to return to good behaviour so they can garner that click and its associated praise. Over time, the clicker can be phased out without effect on the dog’s behaviour – the clicker is a way of ingraining habits that will last them a lifetime.
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