Clicker Training

[jazzie23]

Jazmin and I will be attending our last class with the personal trainer this week. She is 14.5 weeks and I am researching different obedience schools in the area.

I sent an e-mail to the Medallion Rottweiler Club of Illinois asking for a recomendation on the obiedience school in my area. They recommended me to a local school, after researching their website I came to find out they use clicker training. What do you gyus think of clicker training?

[Judi W]

As long as it is not exclusive of corrections when appropriate. If it is a no corrections philosophy - I'd nix it.

[frontierrots]

do a search on here, we've discussed it alot

Bea is 100% clicker trained and has many obedience titles

[spidey]

My dog is 100% clicker trained as well. He loves training (will come and get me for sessions), and so do I. This is my first clicker dog and I will likely at least START with clicker training with every dog I have in future. It's great, especially for puppies.

[VANCOUVERISLANDROT]

We looked into it for Oscar but it's just not my bag. I'm sure it works as many are successful at it. But I personally have zero desire to walk around 24-7 with a clicker. Works and body language are my choice.

[frontierrots]

That's a common misconception
A clicker and treats or clicker and toys are a tool, similar to a choke collar

They are used to teach or fine tune a performance but once the dog KNOWS the command and behavior the tools are not needed anymore

[VANCOUVERISLANDROT]

ooooooooh, I thought you had to use the clicker forever once they were trained with it.

Still wouldn't be my personal choice but everything works different for everyone and EVERYONE has to find what works for them. My pup is 100% food motivated. That dog will do ANYTHING if foods involved, he's such a Hoover. If I tried clicking a clicker at him he'd probably look at me like I was losing it. lol!

[debbiej]

getting my rotties when they were half grown/grown made me rely on different tools than I would have if I had gotten them as pups. now that Hilda is really doing well with her obedience, I can understand how a clicker would work. Hilda is very food motivated too, and for a while as I was phasing out treats, she went on strike. then we went to praise or correction with treats thrown in for surprises now and then. I can see how a clicker to mark behavior and bonus treats later would be good. but I think praise and body language that conveys approval is the goal, you can use that anywhere!

[frontierrots]

a tool (be it clicker, choke collar, treats, prong collar etc) is only as good as the trainer. with ALL tools the goal is to wean them onto plain collars and praise except for fine tuning or special exceptions.

[Miabella]

Clickers aren't great for behavior problems, but they are very good for breaking down complex behavior chains. I use them here and there, usually when I am not making my desire clear to the dog due to my own inadequacies as a teacher.

[jazzie23]

I looked at other training schools and one of them requires:
Training Collar, Metal choke/prong for Beginner Level (6 months or older)

I will wait until she's 6 months before we go onto beginner obedience training.

But clicker vs. training collar/metal choke prong?

[SABELLESMOM]

I was pretty sure I wasn't going to like clicker training. I didn't use it at all with our first girl. I knew I'd have trouble co-ordinating myself, clicking at the right second and treating quickly. I was RIGHT!

I did learn to co-ordinate myself, tho. And training our second girl was a piece of cake! Significantly easier, quicker and more solidly learned. Probably because the focus (click) was on the exact desired behavior.

For me, some things (agility) is best done with a clicker. Other things, well... "down" for instance is clicked as soon as the chest hits bottom. Where would you click for "stay?" (only an example folks...not opening the down = down/stay -vs- down =down and stay=stay argument. Do what's best for you.)

If you've never tried clicker training? Find a good trainer and give it a chance. You might find you're better at it than you think.

[gomer9855]

I tried clicker with Frau for a while, but like sablesmom I was reeeeaaaaly bad at coordinating the click to when she did the right thing. Half the time I forgot to even click it

If I had a trainer to show me how to use it and prove how well it works for MY dog, then yes, I would use it again. On my own, probably not. I lack the leash-clicker-treat-praise motor skills.

And I'm not big on training with treats, and generally neither is Frau. She does awesome with a squeaky, will do ANYTHING to get that squeaky. But we can't use at obed classes, only treats. Sigh.

[spidey]

The click marks the behaviour, but also marks the END of the behaviour (if that's how you use it, and indeed that is the most traditional way to use it), so to clicker train "stay" (or whatever), you simply gradually extend the time you expect the dog to hold the position before you click and treat - this was the easiest time training stay I've ever had, actually. I "cheat" a bit and use what's called a "keep going signal" when I'm working on duration activities (and then phase in the actual cue I want to use when I think the dog understands the exercise), because my dog does better when he knows he's doing what I want (this isn't true for every dog, you adapt your training to the dog). As to motor skills, it's really not that complicated (I just hold the clicker in my leash hand), and you don't even have to use a clicker (although it is easier for the dog if you have a sound which is always exactly the same, and the clicker does seem to be easier for many dogs). Also, no need to praise most dogs if you're clicker training (in fact, the more different things you do, the more confusing it can be for the dog - just click and treat is all you need).

I understand that it doesn't come naturally to some people, especially if you're used to training differently, but the good thing is you can't ever really make a mistake, if you click too late or click the wrong thing, you simply don't click that thing again, or improve your timing, the dog doesn't care, it's fun, and no harm done!

But anyway, people need to use what works for them (and their dogs), clicker works wonderfully for most things for me and my dog. I just wish it wasn't so common for people to dismiss clicker training based on inaccurate ideas about what it is and how it works and what it's suitable for (or, for that matter, based on the idea that it's permissive training, since it certainly doesn't have to be), it's extremely simple once you learn the basics, but so many people get these wrong ideas about it (like you always need a clicker, or that the click is somehow a reward, rather than an event marker). As I've said before, if you judge any training method based only on people doing it incorrectly, or with little skill, you're likely not judging it fairly or accurately.

[frontierrots]

There is a saying "Positive does NOT mean permissive" and yes there are a LOT of misconceptions about clicker training partly because many have never seen it used correctly. There are a LOT of so called clicker instructors who aren't