Dog Training Basics

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Employing clicker training for dogs is one of the most effective training methods going today. It’s popularity not only stems from the fact that it’s not painful to the dog, but in the fact that it’s powerfully effective. It uses behavioral psychology, that is reward for good behavior. This method of training involves ‘marking’ the good behavior with a click from the clicker, enabling the dog to know it’s done something good and will receive a treat .

MORE GREAT TIPS ONCLICKER TRAINING FOR DOGS

Clicker training for dogs when associated with treats is a safe effective tool for dog training. Your dog wants to please you in reality which can appear surprising. Dog training involves communication with your pet and this can sometimes prove difficult. This clicker method clears that up for your dog.

The term used by researchers for this method of training, is ‘Operant Conditioning’. It basically means that the dog intentionally does something so as to bring about the desired ending. Dogs tend to grade places,people and objects according to whether they associate them with a pleasurable experience or not. Its a manner of conditioning.

If good behavior is rewarded then the dog will learn that and repeat it. This conditioning is how the dog is trained. The ‘operant’ conditioning will produce behavior that’s purposeful, while the classic type of conditioning produces behavior that’s habitual. Training in these two ways combined can give you a commanding type of training.

The clicker sound is a more effective sound than the human voice for a good reason. Our voices can say the same words with different inflection and intensity. It’s difficult for a dog to always know what we mean. It comes back to communication. But with the clicker, it sounds the same every time, and the dog quickly associates it with good behavior and rewards.

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The Dolphin is one of the other animals that this method has been used on. I’d say that it’s pretty much impossible to force a Dolphin to do something, so methods like this have to be employed in order to train them. And it’s been very successful in doing so, and has since been used on a lot of other animals as well. From cats and leopards, to birds and rabbits, this method has found great success.

You should commence the click whilst the dog is carrying out the behavior you want.Don’t wait until he has finished. Give a click and a treat before the behavior and after the behavior is complete. By clicking when your dog does something right, you send the message that you would like him to repeat it again. The clicks should always be the same, but you can increase the treats in order to encourage enthusiasm for a specific behavior.

Using clicker training for dogs can enable you to communicate with your dog in a positive way that you weren’t able to do before. You will find that your dog will begin to enjoy giving you his good behavior side as he is rewarded for it. If you punish your dog for bad behavior it may work to a point but is more likely to lead to more bad behavior. Positive re-enforcement in the proper way is the best approach for getting your dog to perform in a positive manner.

MORE GREAT TIPS ONCLICKER TRAINING FOR DOGS

Clicker training for dogs is one of the more systematic methods in dog training. It’s based on research done in behavioral psychology and the method is referred to by psychologists as operant conditioning. But you don’t need to know technical terminology in order to benefit from the method.

The method was first developed with marine mammals. With the dolphins, a whistle made the sound rather than a clicker. You can imagine how difficult it is to train a dolphin compared to a dog. The whole method is based on positive reinforcement. It was very difficult to give a treat to a dolphin at the precise time the dolphin did the behaviour you wanted. However, you could easily blow a whistle at the precise time. Then you could follow that with a fish shortly afterwards.

In order to reward a wanted behavior, you should reinforce it at the precise moment it happens or very soon afterwards or the animal will not relate the reward with the action. The whole reward process is made so much easier and clearer by using a sound from a whistle or clicker to mark the action.

Firstly, you must positively connect the sound of the clicker with getting a treat. You do this by repeating the process of clicking and following the sound with a treat. Once this connection is made, the clicker sound itself becomes like a reward because it’s so closely linked with the treat in the dog’s mind. This process is called charging the clicker by dog trainers.

Now that the clicker is charged, you use the clicker when the dog does a behavior you want and you always follow with a treat. In true clicker training, you allow the behavior you want to occur naturally and click and reward. In order to do this more complicated behaviors need to be broken down into smaller chunks. A tool which helps to do this is the target stick.

One of the first exercises in clicker training is to get your dog to touch the target stick with his nose. Once your dog accomplishes this, the stick can be used to direct your dog to a particular place. This is really useful in training other behaviors.

Getting your dog to touch the stick is easy. If you put it in front of his nose, he will probably touch it. Then you click and reward. Be sure to let your dog to touch the stickof his own free will! Repeat this for a couple of minutes. Then have a break.

It can take a while when a dog is introduced to clicker training, especially if he is an older dog. So you need to be patient. You may need to repeat the target stick session a couple of times before he gets the connection. But once he’s got it, the learning will stick.

One other tool which clicker trainers find useful is a mouse pad or something similar that you train your dog to stand on with one of his front feet. You can get your dog to do this easily by just putting it down on the ground near him and waiting for him to stand on it. As soon as he does it, click and reward. As before, repeat this until your dog gets it. As with the target stick, this tool can then be used to direct your dog to a particular place in subsequent training.

Once a behavior has been trained, the next step is to add a cue. A cue means that you assign a verbal request like “sit” or “stay” to the behavior. You do this by saying the cue word just as you think the dog is about to do the wanted behavior. As always you click and reward the behavior. Then, by repeating this, the command becomes associated with the treat, just like the clicker sound is. Please note that when you start training with the cue, you only click and reward when the behavior follows the cue. You don’t click or reward when the dog offers the behavior without you having given the cue.

I hope this has given you some idea of how the clicker is used as an effective tool in dog training. Obviously there is a lot more to learn. What I love about it is that it’s very systematic and all that’s needed is patience and consistency. Read more about clicker training with dogs, a review of the clearest clicker training guide, and also reviews of other dog training guides.