Clicker Training for dogs can be fun and exciting. Teach your dog new behaviors, increase the good behaviors he already does and decrease his bad behaviors all with clicker training.
Here are a few tips on how to maximize the most of out your clicker training sessions.
- Let your dog discover how to do a behavior on his own. You can coax or lure him into it, but never hold him there, or push him to do it. Click for the accidental movements to achieve your ultimate goal.
- Click for small steps in the right direction of your goal. If you are teaching a complex trick, it may take your dog a while to learn it complete, so don’t wait to click until he has the whole thing correct. He may get discouraged with the trick and the clicker.
- Keep asking more from your dog. When you have good responses from him, start asking him to do a little more. For example, if you’re teaching stay, start increasing the time you make him wait where he is. Don’t overdo it though. You want to keep your dog’s braining moving, asking him to do more things and do things longer will help keep your dog focused. If you overdo how long or how much you ask a dog to do, he may get bored with what you’re asking and the clicker will become ineffective.
- When your dog has figured out what exactly the clicker is, he will begin to start to do the behaviors you’ve been practicing without being asked. He is trying to get you to click, so he gets a treat. When you reach this point in your training, it is time to start giving verbal commands to the behaviors he is doing.
- You can also start carrying a clicker with you and clicking behaviors he is doing that are cute, such as cocking his head.
- Don’t associate scoldings with clicker training. Your clicker will become ineffective without you even knowing it. Clicker training is about the dog figuring out what behaviors you want him to do on his own. Don’t be discouraged if your dog isn’t getting every time.
Clicker training takes time and patience. Your dog learns the behavior by himself and you click to reward that behavior. Clicker training can be enjoyable for you and your dog, so have fun with it!
Clicker Training
