Clicker Training 101
I’ve decided to publish some of my write ups I give my training clients on to my blog! {All information below is intellectual property of Katie Beth Dean.}
Basic Obedience Basics: Clicker Training
Clicker Training is a form of positive reinforcement dog training that uses a clicker (a sound device that makes a distinct Click!) to bridge a positive behavior with a reward. Typically this is done with food rewards but can also be used with praise and toy rewards, although its not often. The sound is a physical marker, just like a verbal marker word such as “Good!” or “Yes!” While you can use a marker word instead of a clicker, I use a clicker for my training program because it’s faster and it takes the guess-work out for your dog. While our voice tone my change, a click is constant no matter what.
The Click! Is a big ol’ YES!! KEEP DOING THAT! YOU’RE A GREAT DOG!
Use click to mark a good behavior and to communicate how you want your dog to behave! It’s kind of like a pat on the back. Dogs will naturally recreate whatever behavior they were preforming when it was marked because they think it will result in them getting a treat.
A Dog’s Brain:
Clicker Training literally re-wires your dog’s brain. Based on famous Russian Scientist Ivan Pavlov’s theory of classical conditioning – marking a dog’s behavior with a sound in his case a bell, in my case a Click!Before presenting food will cause them to automatically assume the sound means food. And food is always a positive thing to a dog. If you repeat this enough times, they will start to experience a chemical change in their brain that says “foods coming!” and gives off a reward sense. The science behind it is that every time your dog makes the association of Click! followed by food, they begin to develop a neural pathway based on the association - included in that neural pathway is hormones triggering emotions/feelings with in the dog. The more times you repeat the action, the more ingrained the association becomes within your dog’s brain. Eventually they won’t even need treats to be present, just the clicker. You can usually tell a well clicker trained dog when they start to wag their tail or get excited whenever they hear the click.
So to recap, the clicker makes your dog feel all kinds of good things even when we don’t have food in our hands! BUT it takes a little while to get there. Treats should always be used heavily during the training process and we will phase them out at the end of training.
Firing up the Clicker:
Click, Treat. Click, Treat. Repeat.
To get your dog to start making the connection of Click = Good Dog = Food. Simply just click and follow it with a reward. Do this several times and then start asking for your dog to perform commands or tasks that you want.
Call your dog to you – when they come close, click and then give them a treat. You will always follow this set up.
Ask for behavior – if dog completes the task asked (ex: Sit) then Click! – then give food reward.
*If dog doesn’t give the behavior, ignore and try again. Do not reward unless behavior is given.
Clickers are not meant to get the dogs attention, to call the dog, or to give a command as a signal. They are only a marker that is like saying GOOD DOG or YES. You can still talk to your dog when you click! Just make sure that you are always clicking to mark the desired behavior.
My dog isn’t interested in treats/food rewards…can I still use the clicker??
Yes! If your dog is not super interested in food rewards, a clicker can help your training. You are guaranteed food motivation before every meal you feed your dog – so take the first handful (15 – 20 or so pieces) of food and hand feed it to your dog as discussed above in firing up the clicker. This is also the best time to work on new behaviors or commands you have just taught your dog. You will need to do this for every meal because your non-food motivated dog only has a small window of opportunity for creating the association of the clicker = reward. But over time the association will become strong enough that you can still click during your training sessions to mark that you liked a behavior. You can follow the click with praise.
Remember: the clicker is a communication device between you and your dog. If you have built up a good association then your dog will be receiving dopamine and other hormones that are activating a ‘reward sense’ within their brain when they hear the click – no food is technically needed in a dog that is well clicker trained. It takes more effort for the average owner to train a dog that is non-food motivated, so if you can use food or toy rewards please do so often!
Phasing Out Treats
During training sessions, each week your dog will learn a new command. Treats should always be used during training sessions the first week after the dog has learned the command. (Unless you’re dealing with the situation above) Click! and follow with a treat after every completed command. While your dog will learn a new command the following week, you should still be training and practicing the other commands as well. In the 2nd week you can start using less treats but ALWAYS click! for the correct behavior. Mix it up – dog’s are quick to figure out patterns, so you can’t just give a treat and skip a treat, it has to be random.
· In week 2 you should be giving treats at least 70% of the time for the behavior.
· In week 3, you can drop it to 50% of the time.
· In week 4 onward you can use less treats, whatever you feel is necessary
Just because you can stop using treats doesn’t mean you have to. I think using NO treats is unrealistic, and over time your dog will stop wanting to perform because there’s no point (in the dog’s eyes). Would you want to work for free all the time? Of course not! Periodically, throw in a training session where you use treats for every command the whole time! It will really make your dog pay attention. I recommend always using a treat when practicing “Come!” because you need to have that incentive for them to return to you over the stimulus they are interested in.
Phasing Out the Clicker
You should use the clicker for at least the first 2-3 months during and after your dog has completed my training program. Then the clicker can be phased out. Clicker training will be ingrained in your dog’s mind, so you can pick it up literally years later and they will respond to it. Clicker training is great for teaching new commands and reinforcing old commands, but I totally understand that it’s not realistic to carry a clicker around – no different than how its hard to carry treats around 24/7 (unless you’re me and your job requires it).
To phase out the clicker, we will start using a marker word. Clicker training is faster and takes out the guess work, but your dog can still have their behavior marked with a “Good” or “Yes”. Simply choose one marker word, “Yes” and say it as you click. Over time, Yes and Click! will be equal to treats, and you can start just using yes! instead of a clicker.
Ask for Command – dog preforms behavior – YES! Click! – Give the reward.
Becomes
Ask for command – dog preforms behavior – YES! – Give Reward
Practicing Clicker Training At Home
After leaving your first training session, for the next couple of days practice clicker training in short 5-10 minute sessions. Do this at least twice a day. The best time is at breakfast and dinner – take part of their dog food as a reward. Click & Reward. At first you’re just giving them food to teach them that the sound equals food. Make sure you are not clicking if your dog is doing something you do not like such as jumping, nipping or pawing at you for attention. Remember anything they are doing as they hear the click they will want to repeat.
You can start asking them to do little behaviors – like coming to you, following your hand as you move it (luring them with the food) and sitting. Make sure you click after the behavior is completed and then reward.
The Name Game:
Does your dog know its name? The answer may surprise you!
Not all dogs know their names, even the older ones. As I’ve said before, dogs don’t really speak our language. If you use a lot of nicknames, your dog might not know all of them. At best, they may just look up if you talk in a certain tone (Baby voice or something similar) and you assume they know their name.
Some may even associate their names with bad things. Think about walking in to your laundry room to find your puppy, Spot, has ripped into a pair of socks, your first reaction is probably to yell “SPOT! NO! Spot, what did you do?! Spot, you know better! Bad Spot!!” or something similar. When you call them away from something interesting, like some trash on your walk or maybe a dropped piece of people food on the floor you might yell Spot NO! or Spot, Come over here. Spot Leave it! And pull them away. Basically, dogs can quickly associate their name with negative things, or not-as-fun things. *To a dog you will never be as fun as a dropped hamburger on the floor, sorry. * This may lead them to try to ignore their name.
The name game is a great way to teach your dog to pay attention when you are talking to them!
To begin, have a bag of medium to high value treats (you want them to love playing the game and staying interested.) You can do this alone or get the whole household into it. You have to pick one name for everyone to use and specifically to use during training. My dog EmmyLou is just Emmy when training. Something with an ee sound (i, ie, or y ending) or something with a strong consonant like SpoT, ZeKe, VadER, etc. works well. Avoid long names with multiple syllables like Maxwell, Maybelline, etc.
1) Have some treats in your hand and sit somewhere in the room. (If its multiple people have everyone spread out.)
2) Say your dog’s name in a normal voice. To start you may have to call them a few times. When they look up at you, turn their head and/or make eye contact. Mark with either “Good”, “Yes!” or a clicker and give them the treat.
3) Each person should take turns calling your dog and giving them a treat!
4) Mix it up! Your pup is smart and they will start to gather a pattern, so if they rush on to the next person before you actually say their name, someone else should call them instead.
5) You should be able to pick up body language cues from your dog – dogs with pointed ears may swivel their ears the first time you call them (even if they don’t come) that is good! It means they’re learning the word.
· If your dog doesn’t seem interested in the game, put a leash on them so they can’t wonder around the room ignoring you.
· This game can be modified for teaching Recall “Come!” – Just add Come! to the command, (Dog’s name) Come! and working from longer distances help.
· This also helps build confidence in nervous or timid dogs – it’s a quick easy way to say “Good Job Puppy!” “Look how smart you are!”.
Say your dog’s name, if they look up at you, click and reward them. Repeat this 10-15 times. Your dog may get bored with this exercise so keep it short & sweet! We will teach this in training sessions!
Focus
If you want a true focus command you can use a word such as “Focus”, “Look” or “Watch me” to mean eye contact on demand. Just like before, say the dog’s name, when they look up at you, hold the treat at your forehead and say the word “Focus” as the dog looks at the treat, they are making eye contact with you, so click and give the dog the treat. Repeat this often. After a few tries, ask for Focuswithout putting the treat up at your forehead. If they look, click and reward. Timing is very important to this exercise. While its not always something included in basic obedience, if you have any questions or really want this command please ask me & I will work on it during training!!