What is clicker for?How do we use it during dog training?

by Galt Museum & Archives on The Commons

Question by ♥♥♥♥♥: What is clicker for?How do we use it during dog training?

Would it play a role in toilet training?

Best answer:

Answer by Matty M
my father uses it to get the dogs attiontion.

Know better? Leave your own answer in the comments!

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May 1st, 2012 | Tags: Answer, Clicker, dog training, during, forHow, galt, Matty Mmy, museum archives, toilet training, Training | Category: Dog Training Answers (Q&A)

6 comments to What is clicker for?How do we use it during dog training?

• Tiffany J

  May 1, 2012 at 9:29 AM

  To make your pet pay attention

• кσ∂α•

  May 1, 2012 at 10:09 AM

  The clicker is a tool i used when training all my dogs. You click it when the dog has done something good and then reward it, this help them focus and know when they are doing something good. When i don’t have my clicker handy i just click my tongue on the roof of my mouth.

• kishlover

  May 1, 2012 at 10:57 AM

  It’s a little plastic thing with a sheet of metal that makes a clicking sound when you hit the metal with your thumb. In my class, we hit it whenever the dog did the right action, to reinforce good behaviors.

• ♥♪•ρяєтту ρυρρєн•♪♥

  May 1, 2012 at 11:21 AM

  A clicker is a little device you can get from your local pet store. You press a button on it and it makes a “click” sound (pretty obvious, I would think).
  For example, if you’re training your dog to sit, click the clicker whenever he sits, so he knows he’s done something right (treats come in handy, too). Repeat, and eventually he’ll learn.

• :. Freckles .:

  May 1, 2012 at 12:03 PM

  when they do something good u click it then give them a treat. That way they relate the clicker to something good.

• Ellen

  May 1, 2012 at 12:34 PM

  A basic description:

  1. Watch for a behavior the dog does naturally, that you would like to have as a cued behavior.
  2. The split-second the dog does the behavior, click and give a reward (usually a very tiny food treat, to get lots of repetitions in a short amount of time, and because the reward must be of high value to the dog). This is called capturing the behavior.
  3. Repeat until the dog offers the behavior – doing whatever you were capturing, clearly looking at you in expectation of a reward.
  4. Overlap the click with the word or motion that will be your cue. Reward each repetition.
  5. Stop clicking, just react with the cue. Reward each repetition.
  6. Back up the timing of the cue, until it is, in fact, the thing that tells the dog to do that behavior. Still reward.
  7. As with any training style, practice in lots of settings, then with distractions, and gradually fade the use of a high-value reward until the behavior is habit.

  I don’t “charge” the clicker any more (clicking and giving treats repeatedly for no behavior) — it doesn’t seem to be necessary, and runs the risk of teaching the dog the noise just means “you get a treat” not “I like what you just did.”

  I also never click anything that already has a cue — I only use if for behaviors the dog does not already have on cue. Once a behavior is on cue, the dog knows what I want, so the clicker isn’t needed.

  Anything that can’t be captured because the dog doesn’t do it on his own, can be shaped by clicking and rewarding gradual baby steps (approximations) going towards the behavior you want, but not giving it a name until you have just what you want (shaping is more complex than that, but that’s the basic idea).

  Something that is really a series of behaviors strung together can be taught by teaching the behaviors separately and putting them together (best done by starting with the last behavior and backchaining).

  The clicker itself only carries meaning if you give it meaning – there is nothing magical about the object itself. A short, unique sound, that you can time perfectly, and that the dog doesn’t hear in other contexts, is what is needed. That could be some other sound, if you like.

  Helping and watching a dog learn this way can be amazing – you get to see the dog really working on figuring out how to earn a reward, thinking, being engaged and even creative.

  More info here:

  http://www.clickersolutions.com/articles/index.htm

  http://www.youtube.com/profile?user=SuperBark1&view=videos&sort=d

  http://www.youtube.com/user/kikopup

  http://www.clickertraining.com/

  http://www.dragonflyllama.com/%20DOGS/%20Dog1/levels.html

  http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2009/successes-0729.html