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Dog Training - Clicker Training This form of dog obedience training is highly popular and has a lot of eager followers, including dogs. If you don't know what it is – here's a short explanation. It's a small device that "clicks" when you squeeze it. The key is to squeeze it "precisely" when the dog does the RIGHT behavior. He hears the click and will learn over time that when the click sounds, he's doing the right thing. You can probably tell by now that you have to have a good sense of timing for this style of dog training. This method is considered by those who use it, or who have tried it to be safe, very humane and highly effective. Aren't sure you have the skill to be that coordinated? Don't know if it will work either? Let's take a quick look at what this type of obedience training really is. It's called by another name – "operant conditioning" – that means your dog is intentionally doing a behavior to get what he wants. Animals can and do associate places, people, things, actions, events, and objects with either good or not so good consequences. So following that line of reasoning, the more a certain "thing" is coupled with a good consequence, the stronger the association becomes. Dog obedience training like this is called "classical conditioning" meaning it reinforces an automatic behavior rather than one that is intentional. Confused? Let's take a step back here. Clicker training starts out as classical conditioning, but turns into operant conditioning. How is that you ask? Classical behavior becomes operant the minute your dog repeats an action to get rewarded. Without getting too technical, the dog that learns through operant conditioning acts with purpose. They retain what they learn longer, and have confidence. And wonder of wonders, they have a boundless enthusiasm because they expect good things to happen when they perform. Now that's the kind of dog obedience training you want to have for your dog. So you might be wondering how clickers are any better than offering Gogo a liver yummy as a motivation to learn. Good question! Answer is: the clicker tells the dog exactly which behavior earned it the reward. This is why timing is critical when clicker training. You HAVE to click at the right moment when your dog is doing what you asked. Not before and not after. What you want to do is "mark" the precise event to let your dog know he's doing the right thing. Once they understand that, they also come to know the clicker bridges their behavior with their reward. Dog obedience training can be fun when you use this method! |
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