How to Clicker Train a Dog

Over the past 10 years clicker training has become very popular with trainers and dog lovers. It is a positive way to train your dog using the principles of behavior. Discover how to use this effective and fun tool for training.

A clicker is a small box with a metal strip inside of it. When you press on the metal piece it will make a distinct clicking sound.

A picture of a clicker and a video have been included with this article.

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Clicker
• Treats

How To Clicker Train Your Dog

1. A clicker works by pairing the sound of the click with something your dog likes. Most of the time the sound is paired with a favorite treat. By pairing the sound of the click with a treat you are classically conditioning your dog to associate the click with a reward.
   
   Once the connection has been made you can use the sound of the click to reinforce whatever behavior you are teaching. The clicker does not teach the behavior, the clicker helps you to communicate to your dog what you want them to do. It is such a great training tool because it improves timing and if done properly your dog know exactly what they are being rewarded for.

2. Spend the first couple of days just clicking and rewarding your dog. Don't ask your dog to do anything. Just click and reward. After a few days your clicker will be "charged" and you can start your training.

3. At this point decide what you want to teach your dog and start clicking and rewarding when you dog performs the behavior.

4. To speed up the process, you can lure your dog into the position that you want and then click to reward your dog for performing the command.

5. Behavior is reward driven. When you reward a behavior enough times your dog will start to learn the meaning of the command. Over time you won't have to click and reward every time your dog performs the command for you.

Tips & Warnings

• Spend time clicking and rewarding with your dog.
• Don't ask your dog to do a command in the begininng--just click and reward until your dog knows that a treat is following the sound of the click.
• You click the second your dog performs the command.
• Some dogs that are sensitive to sound may not like the sound of the click at first. If this is the case, muffle the sound of the click until your dog starts to understand that the click is followed by a treat.
• Don't try to use the clicker as a remote control. The click is used to communicate to your dog that they have correctly done the command.

Resources

• Free ebook

[dahawe]

on 1/2/2008 Thanks, Eric...our dog really needs this and has a few issues - I plan to try this out soon!