Clicker training is a method of dog training. In clicker training you use a device called a clicker which is made of plastic and has a metal tab. When you press the metal tab with your thumb it makes a clicking sound.

In clicker training your dog works for something he really wants – usually it’s a tasty treat. Each time he does the desired behavior you give him a treat. The treat is what’s called a reinforcer. By giving him a treat following a specific behavior you cause that behavior to be likely to occur again in the future.

If your dog has never been introduced to a clicker and you click it – it means nothing to him – he’ll give you a blank stare (“I heard it, so what?”). So the first step is to pair the clicking noise with a treat. To do this you click the clicker and then hand your dog a tasty treat. Again, click and hand him a treat. Do this a few times until you click and your dog looks at you as if to say, “I heard the click where is my treat.” At this point you’ve successfully paired the click with the treat. The click noise now becomes a reinforcer too. From now on, when the dog hears a click he understands it to mean “Good boy, you get a treat!” And your dog will now work for clicks because he considers them to be the same as treats. (Note: he’ll only think that a click and a treat are one and the same thing – which is what you want him to think – if you always follow every click with a treat. So be sure you always do.)

Now that you’ve paired the click and the treat together you can use the clicker to mark a specific behavior that you wish to reinforce. This is the magic of the clicker. It allows precision and clearer communication between you and your dog! It gives you a way to be precise about which behavior exactly is being reinforced. It lets you pin-point to your dog which behavior will get a treat. So, for example, to teach your dog to sit you hold the clicker in one hand, treat in the other, and wait until he sits. The moment his bum touches the ground: click and then give him a treat. Timing is very important: whatever exact behavior he is doing when you click is the behavior that is reinforced. If you click the moment his bum makes contact with the ground he will realize: bum touching ground = treat. If you click late when he has already stood up again then you are reinforcing that behavior: standing up = treat. So you must click at the moment the specific behavior you want to reinforce occurs.

That’s all there is to clicker training! Click the behavior you want to reinforce and then follow up with a treat immediately after. You just repeat this click/treat process over and over to reinforce the behavior. Pretty soon your dog will know exactly what behavior causes you to click and he will start performing that behavior whenever you have the clicker in your hand. Congratulations, you’ve taught your dog a behavior using only clicks and treats and he knows exactly what to do without you saying anything. But we haven’t finished, so let’s keep going.

With luring you use a treat to lure your dog to do the behavior. For example, to lure him to sit: hold a treat close to his nose then move it over his head. He’ll tilt his head back to get the treat and lower his bum to the ground. The moment his bum makes contact with the floor: click and then give him a treat. Keep luring him into the sit position clicking each time he sits and following up with a treat.

With shaping, on the other hand, you don’t lure, you simply watch your dog patiently and click any behavior that’s a step in the right direction. For example, to “shape” your dog to go to to his bed and lay down put the bed beside him and click if he merely looks at the bed. Then click whenever he takes a step towards the bed. Then click whenever he puts a paw on the bed. Then click when he stands with all paws on the bed. Then click when he starts to drop his chest. And so on. Until the final click is for him lying down on the bed. If you use the shaping method regularly, your dog will start to think of it as a game and you’ll see that he starts to automatically offer you behaviors when you have the clicker in hand as he tries to figure out what behavior makes that magic click (and treat) happen!

You may have noticed that, so far, we haven’t been telling the dog what to do with a verbal command. That’s because in clicker training you wait until your dog is reliably performing the behavior, THEN you teach him a name of that behavior. After all, dogs don’t understand English so saying “Sit” before he knows what “Sit” actually means and how to do it is silly.

So wait for your dog to perform the behavior that you’ve just taught him by luring or shaping him, but this time just before he performs the behavior give the verbal command (such as “Sit”). Continue to say the command out loud each time before he performs the behavior (you don’t have to give the command in a loud voice, dogs have excellent hearing, normal speaking volume is fine). Be sure to keep clicking and treating whenever he performs the behavior correctly after you’ve given the command. Now, from this point on, only click and treat if he performs the behavior AFTER you’ve given the command.

At this point, after following all the steps above, you’ve trained your dog to perform a behavior on command. But you’re still clicking each time he performs the behavior after you’ve given the command. So this brings us to the next question…

Do you need to carry a clicker around with you all the time to get your dog to obey you? Of course not! The clicker is only a tool you use to teach a behavior. It’s only used DURING the training phase. Once your dog has mastered the behavior you can stop using the clicker. (He’s mastered the behavior if he performs the behavior correctly every time you give the command. If he hasn’t mastered it you need to keep clicker training until he has.) You should, however, continue to reinforce a behavior with a tasty treat whenever he performs the behavior on command.

Some Final Tips

You can teach your dog virtually any behavior he is physically capable of performing using a clicker and treats. First, think of the behavior you want to teach then use the luring or shaping method to teach it to him. Sometimes the luring method is easier to use and sometimes shaping is easier. It just depends on the behavior. After he’s preforming the behavior reliably teach him the name of the command for that behavior by saying it before the behavior occurs. Then only click and treat when he performs the behavior after you’ve given the command. Have multiple training sessions during the day and keep them short: 5-7 minutes per session.

Here’s a tip: A big mistake a lot of new clicker trainers make is that they don’t click and treat often enough when shaping a behavior. When shaping you need to break the behavior up into lots and lots of tiny little baby steps and click and treat each one to keep your dog heading in the right direction. If you raise the bar too high to quickly your dog will become discouraged and confused.

If your dog ever seems like he’s has forgotten a behavior that you’ve been teaching him, or even if he just becomes confused and looks lost, just go back to square one and shape the behavior starting at the very first step to refresh his memory.

Golden Whew! 
It’s a long article but hope it provided you helpful information. 
Lots of Golden Thanks to Dog Training. 

Tasty Treat that was only given to me during clicker and agility training. 

Now, I still get Tasty Chicken from time to time.

Plain boiled chicken is perfectly fine. 
For baked and grilled chicken, my mom marinates it with her homemade apple sauces … just to give some flavor and prevent from being dry. 
3 Seasonings that you need to Avoid and are Dangerous for your dog: Onion Powder, Garlic Powder and Nutmeg.

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Lots of Golden Thanks and Have an Enjoyable Tasty Tuesday.

Lots of Golden Woofs