Clicker Training Is Fast and Easy

Clicker training tells your dog exactly what he did right and why he is being rewarded.  This helps your dog develop a better understanding of what you are teaching him which speeds up the training process.
Your first step in training with the clicker is to “charge” the clicker, which is teaching your dog a click is followed by a treat.  Click then treat quickly about 20 - 25 times.  Remember to always click first, then treat.  When your dog starts to actively look for the treat when he hears the click, he is ready to learn through clicker training.

Rules of Clicker Training

1.  The click always means a reward is coming.  Once you condition your dog to the clicker you have an agreement with your dog that when he hears a click he will get a reward.  Rewards don’t have to be food.  Food is the quickest reward and the best for repetition but variety is always good.  Rewards can be treats, a toy or a “life reward”.  A life reward  is something your dog wants in life, such as to to go outside or be let off lead to play.

2.  The click always ends the behavior. This means once you click the dog is free to stop whatever behavior you were working on and receive his reward.  If you were working on Sit-Stay and you clicked, the dog may move from the Sit to get his reward.

3.  Click only once.  Often owners new to clicker training want to click mutliple times in a row if the dog did something really good.  Multiple clicks will only confuse your dog as to what you want the click to mean (a treat is coming).  If you want to give “extras for excellence” offer extra treats.

4.  The clicker is used only to mark behaviors.  Clicker savvy dogs will respond quickly to the sound.  Many will whip around and come running to you for a treat immediately following the click.  This tempts some owners to use the clicker to call their dog or to get their distracted dog’s attention.  The clicker is for marking behaviors or telling your dog why he is getting rewarded.  If you use the clicker to cue behaviors such as Come or to get attention it will lose its meaning to your dog as a behavior marker.

5.  Clickers are for teaching.  A common concern many people share is that they will always need the clicker for their dog to obey.  Since the clicker is not part of what cues a behavior to happen this is not a problem you will face.  Clickers are used only in the teaching phase of behaviors.  Once the behavior is learned the use of the clicker is faded.  At that point random rewards should be all that are needed to keep the behavior reliable.