Clicker training is a popular method of teaching dogs various action cues and also changing behavior. How dogs react in different environments and different situations. And I'm going to show you how to begin the clicker process with your dog today.
As you can see, I'm either hand feeding him treats or I'm throwing it on the ground and clicking just before he eats the treat. This is building up an association between the click sound and the food reward. Now some dogs pick this up, make the association quicker than others.
So it really depends on your dog's progress how many times you have to do this. You can see I'm not using the clicker like a remote control. I have the clicker behind my back so that I'm not using it like a remote control right in front of me, sticking it into the dog's face like I'm turning on a television, because I don't want the dog to get scared of the noise or of the object in my hand. You can build this up over a period of minutes, hours, or a few days.
When you start teaching the dog to make the association between the click and the reward, I advise you to use your dog's food for this. Because if you feed your dog too many treats, you don't want your dog to put on weight, and you don't want your dog to get sick. So the best thing is to use your dog's food, you don't otherwise get in a meal, to do this training.
If your dog's not really motivated by the food that he eats at meal times, like it's just boring kibble, mix the kibble with something of higher value, like chicken. When your dog has made the association between the sound and reward, you can then begin to teach him different action cues using the clicker. I'm waiting for him to put his bottom on the ground, and when he does, he's going to get the treat. As soon as he puts his bottom on the ground, I click and I treat him.
Now I'm going to give the cue word to him as he's in the process of putting his bottom on the ground. Sit. Good boy.
Now he's made the association between the word, the action, and the reward. I'm going to ask him to SIT and show you the whole process. Sit.
Good boy. Sit. Good boy.
Now he's getting used to the sound, I can use my clicker right close to me here, so I don't always have to have it behind my back. Good boy. You can use the clicker for any kind of action cue that you want to teach your dog.
The reason why it's so good is this is a unique sound that is difficult to repeat in everyday life. It also is processed in the brain a lot faster than even your reward word. Clicker training is really great for shaping a particular behavior or a series of behaviors, so if you want your dog to be able to do it, dog to, for example, sit, lie down, sit up, stand up, walk, go, you will be able to shape these behaviors by using the clicker.
Clicker's also really useful for marking a change in behavior. So for example, if you've got a dog that's very nervous or is fearful of some kind of situation or stimulus, and then you suddenly see your dog relax in front of that stimulus that it had previously been fearful of. that's when you can click and reward.
So you're clicking and rewarding that change in emotion. This device is so powerful in so many ways because it helps a dog learn, it helps a dog learn fast, and it helps change. a negative emotion into a positive emotion. Clicker is used to teach dogs to do all kinds of things. The best thing about it is that dogs, when you're using Clicker Training, love learning.
And that's how you Clicker Train your dog positively.