Nala is going to be an awesome clicker dog

So, I finally got my act together and took the dogs one at a time to a "quiet" room (as quiet as it gets in my house) and started clicker training. I decided to work on attention ("watch me") for our first experience.

Chomper sort of was catching on, although he was easily distracted. He is just a puppy after all. All in all, it went fine.

Bonnie's turn. I'm not sure she ever figured out what was going on. She's a very smart dog, but she has trouble with the whole idea of training because no one ever bothered to teach her anything until I got her at a year-and-a-half old. She'll get it. Her light bulb will turn on one day and she'll say "Aha!" and there will be no stopping her then.

Then there was Nala. She has been introduced to the clicker before (although I never really used it correctly with her) and she has been training since the day I got her at 14 weeks old. Here's how it went.

I hold treats in my hand out to my side.

Nala stares at the treats. She jumps at my hand. She sits down. She glances at me to see why I am standing there like a statue.

Click/treat.

My hand goes back up. She stares at it. She glances at me.

Click/treat.

My hand goes back up. Glance.

Click/treat.

Hand is up again. She jumps at it. She sits down. She glances at me.

Click/treat.

Hand goes up. Her head snaps toward me and she looks into my eyes.

Click/treat.

Hand up - eyes snap onto mine.

Click/treat.

Hand up - eyes snap onto mine.

Click/treat.

We repeated for a little while and then we stopped. We'll expand on it next time.


By george, I think I can train this dog to do anything. If only I had known about this when she was a pup!

 

What is clicker training and where can I learn more? I guess I don't understand the point of having a dog trained to a clicker rather than a voice command.

Thanks for any info. Becky

 

A good place to learn about clicker training is www.clickersolutions.com. They also have a group on Yahoo Groups. Karen Pryor's www.clickertraining.com site has a lot of resources. I have the "Getting Started Clicker Training for Dogs" kit. I also am enjoying the book "Quick Clicks, 40 Fast and Fun Behaviors to Train with a Clicker" by Cheryl Smith, available at amazon.com. "Click for Joy" by Melissa Alexander (of clickersolutions.com) is a good Q&A book for clicker training.

The clicker is just a tool to get the behavior you want. Rather than using a lure or manipulating the dog with your hands, you wait for the dog to offer the behavior. You have to break it down into small steps so the dog is constantly being informed about what he is doing that is correct and gradually "shape" the final behavior that you want. When you have the final behavior and the dog is performing it consistently, then you add a verbal command or a hand signal or both. Then you don't need to click it anymore.

All the clicker is, is a tool that tells the dog precisely what he has done that is correct. Timing is everything. If you want the dog to sit, the moment his rear end touches the ground, you click. Every time you click, you always follow it with a treat or some other reward. In this way, the clicker becomes a reward in itself to the dog, because the clicker means "something good" is going to happen. The benefit to a clicker over saying a word (like "yes" or "good") is that the clicker is a precise sound distinct from speech or other sounds in the environment.

The huge benefit to clicker training, besides being all positive, is that is teaches the dog to THINK. The dog must actively offer behaviors and figure out what you are clicking for. This is not only fun (for both you and the dog) but it produces a dog that can think creatively rather than one who sits around waiting for you to show him what to do and is afraid to try new things for fear of a leash pop or some other "bad thing" happening. This is one reason Bonnie is so hard to train - I think she is afraid to DO anything for fear of being reprimanded (she was a rescue dog).

Here's an example. Let's say you want to teach the dog to spin in a circle to the right. You have to break each behavior down into small increments. Some dogs can progress more quickly than others, of course. A progression for this trick could be something like this:

Click for the dog glancing to the right.
Click for the dog moving his head to the right.
Click for the dog moving his right foot.
Click for the dog moving his head to the right and his right foot.
Click for the dog turning a quarter of the way to the right.
Click for the dog turning halfway to the right.
Click for the dog turning three-quarters of the way to the right.
Click for the dog turning all the way around.

You may have to break it down even more, depending on the dog. You stay at one level until the dog is doing it consistently, then you up the criteria you are clicking for.

As I said, once the dog is performing it correctly the way you want it to be, you add a command word. When the dog has learned the command word, you start to only reward the trick if you have asked for it. The clicker is only used when you are teaching the behavior. Once the dog knows the behavior and the command, you don't need the clicker for that behavior anymore.

You can also use the clicker to polish a behavior, however. If you want something faster or for a longer duration or with distractions, you can use the clicker to refine the behavior until it is exactly what you want. Obedience people can use this to get "perfect" sits, for example.

I used the clicker to retrain contacts in agility with Nala. On certain obstacles, the dog has to touch a contact area or they are disqualified - like the bottom of the ramp on the dog walk, for instance. This is for the dog's own safety. Nala was sailing over them, so I chose a new command word and used the clicker to mark when she had her front feet on the ground and her back feet still in the contact zone on the ramp behind her. The clicker was great at capturing the precise moment when she was positioned correctly. Then I would put her up higher on the ramp and let her take a step down and end in the correct position, then start her from higher up, etc. She hits her contacts really well now.

You can still use lures and such when you clicker train, but it's better if you only lure 2-3 times and then let the dog figure it out. Otherwise the dog is not learning anything and is just mindlessly following the treats. Then it takes forever to get rid of the lure and teach the command word. Whenever possible, it's better to get the behavior by shaping it or "capturing" it, which means clicking for something the dog naturally does (like sneezing).

I heard a story of a person trying to train agility weave poles (the dog slaloms back and forth between a series of poles). The dog has to enter with the first pole on the dog's left side. The dog knew how to weave, but the trainer was having trouble getting the dog enter correctly. Finally, she smacked herself on the head and said, "This is a clicker dog. Let him figure it out!" So she stood there. The dog tried a bunch of different things and was clicked for behaviors close to what she wanted and in just a few minutes, the dog figured it out!

 

Oh, once last thing. I know - it's more than you ever wanted to know.

Clicker training is GREAT for service dogs. Service dogs have to be able to think independently and figure out how to accomplish things that might not be exactly what they were trained for. Clicker training is excellent for this.

One woman asked her service dog to bring her the wheelchair. The dog was supposed to pull on a rope to drag the chair to her, but the chair got stuck. The dog was able to figure out how to manipulate the rope and chair to get it un-stuck and move it. I love that story!

 

Thanks for the explanation! I will look into this for our dogs. Sounds like it is never too late to teach an old dog new tricks.

I hope our newest rescue can be taught to not go so crazy when someone arrives at our door. I can understand a bark or two, but we must pick her up and ask our guests to pet her in order to get her to stop barking. I don't like having to pick her up each time and as a guest I would not like "having to" pet her.

Otherwise our new (6 yr old) shi-poo is a love.
Thanks- Becky

 

It's hard to train a negative behavior (i.e. don't bark at the door) but you can always train a positive incompatible behavior. For instance, some people train the dog to go lie down in a special place when they hear the doorbell ring. It's important to know what you want the dog to do as well as knowing what you don't want it to do!