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Clicker training is gentle, exciting, challenging, and great fun for both you and your dog.

Clicker training uses positive reinforcement to reward success.

Clicker trained dogs are eager to learn.

Absolutely no force is required.

Clicker training can teach basic obedience behaviours as well as more advanced tricks or useful behaviours.

Dogs love it!

Clicker training develops a bond between dog and owner that is awesome to see.

A clicker is a small plastic box containing a metal tongue that makes a clicking sound when the free end of the tongue is depressed and let go. To your dog this sound soon comes to mean, “Wow, I’ve just done the right thing and now I’m going to get a reward”. The reward can be anything that will motivate your dog – usually a food treat, but play, praise, or toys can also be used. Before you can use a clicker as a training tool your dog must associate the sound made by the clicker with the imminent arrival of a reward (food treat). This is usually done by repeatedly clicking and rewarding your dog within 1 to 5 seconds after each click. Once your dog has made this association, clicker training goes something like this: Your dog performs the required action or part of it, you immediately click to mark this point, and follow up with a reward for your dog. The clicker marks the behaviour you wish to reinforce; it tells you’re dog that “what you have just done is right and will be rewarded ”, and it marks the end of the behaviour.

There are several ways to start working on a new behaviour with your dog. You can watch your dog closely and click and reward when he just happens to do it – for instance this might work for ‘sit’. Your dog will soon catch on that he can make you click and treat by sitting. Almost all behaviours can be taught in this way combined with ‘shaping’ – a process of moving in small increments towards the desired behaviour. Another way you can start teaching a new behaviour is by using a lure to guide your dog in the right direction – for instance a piece of food held in your hand could be used to encourage your dog into a down position. By clicking and treating to reward the ‘down’ position you can get rid of the lure very quickly. This is very important, as you don’t ultimately want a dog that will only obey you if you have food in your hand!

Once you have your dog reliably offering the behaviour you want, you are ready to introduce a cue. This can be a hand signal, sound or verbal cue. You can then issue the cue and when your dog responds continue to click and treat as before. After this, the final stage is to phase out the clicker as it is only a teaching tool and once your dog has successfully learned to perform the new behaviour on cue the clicker is no longer needed.

The best way of all to get started with clicker training is to come with your dog on a course. It is much more fun in practice than it sounds in this description! The best part of all is seeing the enjoyment your dog gets from using his brain and succeeding!