Clicker Used in Dog Training

Jun 5
19:07

2007

Leo Enoch

Leo Enoch

  • Share this article on Facebook
  • Share this article on Twitter
  • Share this article on Linkedin

Understanding how clicker training method can help you to be more effective in your dog training

mediaimage
Clicker Training,Clicker Used in Dog Training Articles is a training approach based on operant conditioning which comes from the fact that the reinforcer make use of a small mechanical noisemaker that makes clicking sound called the clicker. Clicker training can be used to train animals other than dogs like horses, cats, pigeons, etc.The real difficulty when training a dog, is in communicating correctly and at the right time when the dog is behaving correctly. Conventionally when a dog did behave correctly, you praise him only after he move to some other behavior which may not be a good behavior and thus strengthening something that you might not like. Besides the right timing of the communication, your tone, loudness of your voice, pronunciation and speed may send wrong signal to your dog. This contradiction is overcomed by clicker training. Clicker Training create the clicking sound as a brief signal that dog can receive almost immediately when he behave desirably which solve the problem of timing and prevent the problem of variation comparing with the use of the trainer voice. Clicker training do have its down side when too much dependence is emphasized on the physical clicker to signal to the dog, especially when there come a situation when you do not have the clicker on you or in a place where sound can be a problem such as in hunting situation or in a certain public places.You should strive to combine the training of your dog with voice or hand command jointly with the clicker. The clicker can be used as the initial training as more command and cues are added. In this way by the time you start to fade out the clicker training there would not be any problem communicating with your dog.The intention of practicing clicker training program is to produce connection between the clicker sound and reward in your dog understanding. This connection is created by clicking the clicker each and every time the dog behave properly and then giving him the reward which can come in a tasty treat that can be consume almost instantly. This is done continually from 10 -15 times per session. Some dog make the connection faster than others.One of the procedures to know if your dog has made the connection is by allowing your dog focus to be diverted to other things before clicking. If the dog instantly looks toward you upon you clicking the clicker, then most likely the dog has made the connection. Once this is done, you can use the clicker to indicate desired behaviors. This is done by instantly clicking and rewarding your dog after the dog performs the desired behavior. The key is in the timing, clicking too early or too late weaken the usefulness of the training sessions.Again as said before, clicker training is only one of the training method, and it has its disadvantages, combining this training method with the others will increase the effectiveness of training your dog. Do learn and study the many practical methods you can do with this training method that can make this training a more fun and meaningful way which is so numerous that simply cannot be cover in this article.