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The Truth About Clicker Training Continued...
2. Step two is as crucial as the first and must be adhered to perfectly despite the fact that it can be quite difficult. This requires a good level of personal discipline. The aim is to create a situation where the dog does whatever it is we ultimately want him to do without us saying or doing anything to make him do it. In other words we want the dog to ‘want’ to do it without him knowing that we want him to. The reason for this is that when a dog is born, he learns through trial and error. He may try to bite the Dam’s teat at first and when he receives a harsh growl or snap from those huge jaws he realises that it is not in his interests to do this again as he did not enjoy what followed. He may then try sucking the teat which this time may bring some form of nourishment which he enjoys greatly and he then has taught himself a lesson he will never forget as this has gone into the long-term memory. These are the kind of lessons we want our dogs to learn. Therefore we wait for the dog to perform the desired behaviour and the second he does, we click and throw a treat on the floor. It is essential that we remain absolutely calm and silent throughout and give the dog no cause to look at us. Ideally we don’t want the dog to know that we made the sound or threw the treat. We want him to teach himself how to get that treat. He may take anything up to another hour or two to perform the same behaviour again but the cardinal rule of dog training should help us to avoid becoming frustrated and that is : “Never reward unwanted behaviour”. By following this rule the dog can only learn what we want him to learn.
3. Step three basically requires the owner to turn this ‘learned behaviour’ into something which they can switch on or off via the use of a command whether verbal or visual. The key to achieving this successfully is not to introduce your chosen command until the dog performs the required behaviour every time, in any situation when offered the treat. This means that if the behaviour you wish to train happens to be sitting down and you aim to use the command “Sit!” then the dog should not hear the command “Sit!” until he is already sitting every time you hold out a treat and stand still. This shows the dog that there is a treat on offer but he must work out for himself what to do in order to get his paws on it. You should be able to perform this at any time, in any place which means in the High Street, in the back of the car, in the kitchen or any other situation you can think of and he should immediately sit each time you show him the treat and hold it away from him. Then and ONLY then, you do it again but this time you quietly say “Sit” as he does so, and not before, followed by the click and treat in the normal way. By doing this he will then associate the word “Sit” with this nice experience which has always been fun for him, has no bad associations, and always results in him receiving an enjoyable treat. |
The difference this method can make to a dog’s life and the life of his owner is incredible. We have always thought that when a dog is told to do something, he must do it immediately and therefore we are forcing him to do it, sometimes against his will. With this method though, whenever that dog now hears the word “Sit” he actually wants to obey you as this has always been an enjoyable thing to do. You will see his eyes brighten and his body-language show excitement and eagerness when you give him a command to lay down, sit or whatever. I don’t know about you but I think this is pretty revolutionary and certainly great news for dogs and responsible, caring owners.
Due to the powerful effect clicker training can have and the importance it now carries in modern dog training, we will be covering the subject in great detail here on our website. We will also be featuring full step-by-step guides on how to use clicker training to teach new ‘tricks’ or commands and to prevent any unwanted behaviour ranging from pulling on the lead to extreme aggression.
Cardinal Rule of dog training:
”NEVER REWARD UNWANTED BEHAVIOUR” |
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