How to Use a Clicker to Train a Dog for Specific Behaviors

Video Transcript

"Clicker training your dog is about using positive reinforcement and using something in this case a clicker which marks the behavior you want to see continue. And again, you're going to be selecting for the things you want your dog to do. You're encouraging your dog to offer things to you so that you can pick the ones that you want. So it's a lot of fun for your dog, it's a great mental exercise. It's a lot of fun for us as well. It's a little bit harder for humans because our timing has to be right. We have to be clever in how we get the behaviors we want to see continue from the dog, and so it's a big mental exercise for us as well. But it's a lot of fun, and the dogs enjoy it too and I strongly encourage you to try it. When you're training your clicker dog you want to start with something that's called classically conditioning your dog to understand that the sound of the clicker means that a treat is coming. So having lots of small treats your dog enjoys in a big like a treat bag that's easily accessible and keeps your hands free, is a good idea. To start out you're going to teach your dog by classically conditioning. This is like Pavlov's dog. So you're going to make the sound, give a treat, make the sound, give a treat, make the sound, give a treat. And on for maybe about twenty treats until your dog really starts to rely on this sound bringing a treat to them. Once you've got that in place, then you can start selecting behaviors from your dog that you want to continue by using the clicker. This method, the easiest way to teach a sit would be know when your dog typically sits. If you're standing there talking on a phone, your dog gets bored and your dog then sits, that's a good time to have your clicker and your treats ready, you set your dog up, your dog sits down on the ground, you click and you offer them the treat. You might also - this is the clever part - encourage your dog at this point to get back up from the sit so that you have another opportunity to get a sit from them before. So you have another opportunity to click. Although you wouldn't necessarily continue that as you went forward but that's a great way to get a series of sits from your dog and once you're getting that sit from your dog just standing here with the clicker, then you can start naming it. As she sits, click the sit, give the treat. So as they do the behavior, you call the behavior what it is, you click the behavior and then you give them a treat. So it's a little bit different than training in other senses when you name the behavior before they even know what it's called. And this thinking is that your dog already knows how to sit, your dog knows how to lie down and do all of these things, all you're doing is naming it. So the clicker is a very effective tool at that. Many fun things can be taught with the clicker. Dogs can be taught interesting moves, weave. Good girl. And those are chained behaviors that were taught over time with the clicker. And the other way. Good girl. Bow. Bow. Good. And you can see that just because I trained these behaviors with the clicker doesn't mean she's dependent upon receiving a treat for each thing that she does. She's learned what I mean when I ask her to bow, she gives me that behavior and it could be as much as some affection or going on to a different thing and getting the opportunity to play is reinforcing for her. She's certainly not tied to receiving a treat all of the time for every single thing that she does."