When Teddy was a puppy, he seemed to learn tricks so quickly. Aside from the fact that Teddy is really smart, I think what helped him learn things so quickly was clicker training.
What is Clicker Training?
Clicker training harnesses the scientific principles underlying positive dog training by delivering positive reinforcement via treats and a clicker. A clicker is a small object that when pressed, makes a distinctive clicking noise. The moment your dog performs a desired behavior, you Click! the clicker. By associating the sound of the Click! with treats, your dog learns that when they hear Click!, it means that whatever they were doing in that moment will be rewarded.
Why Does Clicker Training Work?
The reason why clicker training works so well is because the Click! becomes associated with something positive (treats). It’s relies on classical conditioning (think Pavlov), which is then applied to modify behavior through the use of operant conditioning (positive reinforcement). By pairing a neutral stimulus (Click!) with an unconditioned stimulus (something your dog has a natural reaction to, like treats) over and over again, the Click! and the treat will become associated such that the Click! comes to elicit the same response as the treat. However, we don’t want the Click! to elicit a behavior, we want to use it to reward a behavior. Thus, through operant conditioning, the Click! can be used to signal that positive reinforcement (treats) are coming and can come be reinforcers itself. Theoretically, you can gradually reduce the use of treats over time and just use the clicker as reinforcement (without treats), but its difficult to implement and I don’t think it would work well with Teddy. Alternatively (and this is what I did), you can use the clicker when teaching your dog a new behavior, and then phase it out when the behavior is well learned.
Training your dog with a clicker is wonderful because it communicates very clearly to your dog exactly which behavior is desired. Many times when people try to train their dogs, they use the praise, “Good girl” or “Good boy” to try to communicate the same thing, but the way we say these phrases isn’t always consistent. In order learn what you want, dogs need consistent, reliable feedback about what they are doing. The clicker is useful in this regard because it always makes the same unique sound, allowing the dog to identify which behavior earned the reward. Similarly, feedback is most effective when it is delivered immediately. When training your dog, its best to communicate that your dog is doing something correctly as they are doing it. Unfortunately, its is nearly impossible to deliver verbal praise and/or treats that quickly.
How to Get Started with Clicker Training
The first thing you want to do when starting to use clicker training is create that association between the Click! and the treat. To do this, you can “prime” or “charge” the clicker. What this means is that you Click! and the give your dog a treat over and over again. The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Positive Dog Training recommends doing this 60 times or repeatedly for 2 minutes. I would do this every day in the beginning, especially at the start of a training session.
When doing this, it is very important that the timing is correct. The treat should follow as quickly after the Click! as possible. This means that you should have a a bunch of small treats ready. In order to get the timing right, it might be helpful to watch other people do it first. Here’s a helpful video to get you started:
