Our history with dogs is paved with many years of striving for obedience through the employment of correction and punishment. It’s thanks to the work that marine animal trainers were doing with dolphins and other marine animals that we learned a different approach.
With dolphins, it’s difficult to compel them to do anything – they will simply swim away if they don’t want to comply. So instead marine trainers would use a whistle, which could be heard under water and at a distance, to mark the moments when the animal performed a desired behavior. The sound of the whistle would indicate to the dolphin that reward had been earned.
Though it’s painfully easy to compel dogs to bend to our will, through leash jerks and jolts of shock, training needn’t be like this. Like any organism learning new behaviors, a dog who is reinforced for performing the desired behavior is encouraged to learn, experiment, and offer new behaviors. Clicker training, like whistle training with dolphins, is a very effective application of this.
Using a Clicker
Using a clicker to train is much like using a happy “yes!” to mark the behavior you’re trying to train, or to take a picture of the desired behavior. The secret to training is timing, and placement of the “yes!” or the click must be accurate in order for your dog to learn a behavior quickly. To use the clicker, first you must “charge it up”, which means that you need to establish with your dog that the sound of a click is reinforcing or rewarding. To do this, randomly click and then produce a treat. Do this over and over again until, when he hears the click, your pup turns his head in happy anticipation. Then you know an association has been established. Now, just as you’ve trained any other behavior, placing the “yes!” at the exact moment when the behavior happens (like a “sit” being when his/her butt touches the ground), click him for a successful performance of the behavior and give him a treat. Remember: the timing of the success marker is the important thing here, not the delivery of the treat! The clicker can be particularly helpful when training a behavior by luring it, capturing it or shaping it.
On Friday, there will be a follow-up article on how to use a clicker to train by luring, capturing and shaping. So give a peek back!
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