Clicker Training

For the past year or so, I have switched over to using purely clicker training with my dogs. I believe that this is the best way to communicate with your dog. I was recently asked to write a series of newsletter articles on clicker training for the Colorado State Pre-Vet Club, of which I am a member. I decided to transfer these articles to my website, and I will add them as I write more. Enjoy!

Article 1 -Introduction to Clicker Training

First let me introduce myself. I am a junior Biology major, and anyone who has ever talked to me knows my life’s passion – dogs. I have been training dogs for obedience competitions (among other things) since I was twelve. I started out using “traditional” obedience training methods, which involve correcting a dog when they do something wrong with a training collar such as a choke chain or a prong collar. Then, my obedience dog Shadow totally shut down. He didn’t want to work anymore. So I looked for something different – and I found it – clicker training. Clicker training is based on BF Skinner’s Theory of Operant Conditioning. The Theory of Operant Conditioning says that behaviors which are reinforced will occur more often. The reverse is also true; behaviors which are not reinforced will happen less often. The “clicker” is a little box with a strip of metal which makes a sharp “click” when depressed. Trainers use this to mark behaviors that they like, and follow the click with a reinforcer, usually a treat. This will make the behavior happen more often. Now, for those of you who are thinking “But I don’t even have a dog!”, operant conditioning works with all animals. Yup, horses, cats, birds, and even humans. Here is a great example: What happens when you push the button on a water fountain? Water comes out, which is a reinforcer for the behavior of pushing the button, because your thirst is quenched. What would happen if a certain water fountain never gave you water? Would you continue to push that button? Probably not – it’s not being reinforced. Some of you might be skeptical, because, after all, you’ve seen animals trained with force, and it worked. I’m sure someone might be able to get you to push the button on the water fountain if they yelled at your when you didn’t push the button. How would feel about that water fountain…and that person? Sometimes traditional training methods do work, but they often fail. Clicker training always works. I know it’s hard to believe, but I’ve got all semester to prove it to you. So as you read this column, go home and try out these techniques on your dog/horse/cat or roommate, seeing is believing.

Article 2 - Teaching Behaviors

Clicker training is a way of communicating with your dog (or other animal) that you liked what he just did. The click must be associated with a reward for this to make sense to your dog. You should always follow every click with a treat or other reward, even if you clicked on accident. To start, you have two options. One is to charge the clicker, which is done by clicking and treating with no behavior in mind. This is to teach, and later remind, the dog that the click means a treat is coming. The other option is to pick a simple behavior and just start clicking for that behavior. This would be the second step if you have decided to charge the clicker. You should set specific criteria for the behavior you pick, and gradually increase the criteria as you progress. A great starting behavior is touching a stick or other object, because it is easy for you to see when the animal does it, and it can be performed by almost any animal. To start, present the stick to the animal. Watch his responses, and set your criteria. If he is very interested, and willingly touches the stick, you can start with that. If he is hesitant, you can set your criteria lower, clicking when he looks in the direction of the stick. Click every time the animal meets the criteria. Once you see that the animal understands the behavior, you can increase the criteria. This might be moving the stick to a different position, or only clicking for touching the end of the stick. I’m sure you’ve noticed that I haven’t mentioned using a command or cue. Clicker training involves letting the animal offer the behavior, and then later telling the animal what the behavior is called. For now, get the behavior, we will put a name on it later. Next semester I will talk about adding cues, and more advanced behaviors.