Clicker Training for Dogs | How to Clicker Train a Dog

How to Use a Dog Clicker

Dog training clicker method is a stress-free, efficient kind of dog training.
dog training clickersClicker dog training method is considered to be the most efficient among the modern ones. Dog training clickers reveal new abilities and allow to train basic commands and circus tricks with maximum accuracy.
Dog training method is based on conditional reflex, studied by famous Russian academician I.P. Pavlov. It is a well-known fact. To remind its nature:
1) Food is placed in front of a dog. The sight and smell of food causes dog salivating. The reaction is reflex.
2) Sound signal is turned on, then the food is placed in front of a dog. A dog is salivating. But because of the sound signal before placing food, the conditional reflex is formed.
3) After frequent repeating of the same action signal-food the signal itself will be enough for a dog to cause salivating.
As you have guessed, in our case the signal is click and salivating will be substituted by happy state of expectation.
How to Clicker Train a Dog Step by Step
How to use a dog clicker?
Step 1. Beginning.
Find a calm and silent place for dog training with a clicker.
Make a click and give a dog treat for a dog at once (the time span between click and treat should be no more than 1 sec.).
Repeat the exercise 15-20 times and then stop training and let a dog rest.
Step 2. Exercising.
Here everything goes as well as at the beginning stage but the treat is held not in a hand, but in a dog treats bag or at some distance (on a table, for example).
Put a treat at a distance and come back to a dog.
Click, then take a treat and give it to a dog with a time span of 5 sec. Here you may change a time span.
clickerThis exercise is aimed to let a dog understand that even if it gets a treat after a click, sometimes it has to wait for a while until you get a treat. This exercise will help further in dog training with a clicker: it will be enough just to click while training to get the result.
It is recommended to repeat this action in various days and at various dog training sessions for the dog to understand the meaning and let it start looking for a treat after a click.
Step 3. Final stage of dog training clicker method.
When a dog studies all the described exercises, you may go forward to clicker training for dogs itself. A dog understands the principle "click - success with a treat to follow".
dog paw trick trainingAs an example, let's view a trick "Paw". Show a treat to a dog and hold it in your fist. Keep the fist in front of the dog. Click at the moment when the dog touches your hand and give a treat. When a dog will learn to obey a command by a word or gesture, you may stop using a clicker.
The success of clicker training for dogs depends of the right time span between a click and a treat and motivation state of the dog. Do not point a dog training clicker on a dog, it makes no use and does not make training more successful or quicker.
Important Dog Clicker Training Tips
It is obligatory to read the rules how to train a dog with a clicker.
dog training clickers►Do not start clicker dog training until the conditional reflex is formed.
►Clicker should confirm the correct actions of a dog while the desired behavior, in the order to prevent forming of wrong understanding of actions and let a dog understand what is demanded.
►Clicker is not to be used to call a dog or call its attention.
►Desired action of a dog should be confirmed by a click. A dog gets a treat after a click. Thus a dog itself may get a treat by its proper behavior.
►If you wish to get bright results of clicker dog training, use more treats and use more tasty dog treats. It is like 'Jack Pot' for a dog.
►A dog should have the possibility to get a 'Jack Pot' once in a while. It will encourage a dog. Jack Pot is given after a great progress of the dog in clicker training only.
dog training clickers►Often a dog comes up to get a treat after a click. It is absolutely normal. Click finishes an exercise and it should be confirmed with a treat.
►Undesired dog behavior should not turn your attention. Clicker dog training is free of punishment. Absence of click means fail for a sensitive dog, who is constantly trained with a clicker. That's why an exercise should be devided into several small parts/steps in the order for a dog to have the click-confirmation of its right behavior more often.
►Clicker dog training is not intended to train a command. It is aimed to form and train desired type of dog behavior. It is the greatest advantage in comparison to an ordinary dog training, as in this case a dog connects a click with its progress.
►As soon as dog action is controlled by a command, a clicker is not used further.