Trained Dogs Rule

There are many types of training available to use for you and your dog. One that is becoming increasingly more popular is Clicker training.

Personally I have never tried Clicker training but after reading up on it I am thinking of trying it on our dogs. Our niece has tried it with their two year old dog they adopted from the Humane Society and has had great success training with the clicker.

Clicker training has been used to train dogs, horses and birds. It is a very gentle and humane way of training. It is based on positive reinforcement. Therefore instead of correcting a bad behaviour you ignore the bad behaviour and reward the good behaviour.

The clicker is a handheld device which emits a clicking sound which the dog will hear when it displays good behaviour. You can buy one at your favourite pet store and they are not expensive.

The first step in Clicker training is to get the dog to associate the sound of the clicker with something good. Something good would be a treat. We have to make this a very special treat, so use things like cheese, hotdogs, cooked chicken etc.- something that is going to be healthy for your dog. Remember to cut it up into fairly small pieces.

Take your dog into a quiet room and as long as the dog is not misbehaving click the clicker and then give them a treat. Repeat this until you see that your dog understands.  He will understand when you click and you see that you have his attention.

Now the actually training begins. Start training inside in a quiet room.  We want to build a strong base before we introduce a lot of distractions.

Say your dog’s name with enthusiasm but only once. If your dog doesn’t look your way touch him to get their attention and when you have his attention click and treat. Repeat until he starts to understand. As with all training be patient. When you get the desired behaviour then you start to shape that behaviour to reach your goal.

Your goal is to get the dog to look right at you when you call them. Start the training as you did before but then if he doesn’t look at you do not click and treat. Most dogs will get frustrated by this and guess what, they will eventually probably look right at you to find out what’s up.  When they do click and treat! With practice and patience your dog will learn quickly.

Obviously there is a lot more to learn when training your dog with a clicker. Want to learn more about Clicker training? Then you should check out this program on clicker training
Now if you already have a well trained dog then you probably don’t need to do any more training. Even though I consider our dogs trained I am going to try some clicker training with our dogs.
It will be another way to have some fun interaction with them and who knows I may even learn something.

Until next time
Maureen Brownell