Learn The Clicker Training Basics
In this article I want to help those people who want to use clicker training for their dog but don’t know where to start. I’m going to give you here a quick clicker training guide to show you the clicker training basics to get you going. Most people get the timing wrong and then wonder why, when they try to implement these clicker training basics, that their dog doesn’t respond as desired.
When clicker training dogs the best way for you to get started and one of the best tips for clicker training basics I can give you here is to first teach your dog that when he hears the clicking sound from the device he will receive a treat. This is where you should start because once your dog knows that whenever he hears the clicking sound he will be soon getting a nice mouth watering treat from you the sooner you can start to associate the clicker training with his good behavior.
One of the fundamental concepts you will need to understand with clicker training basics is that when you’re clicker training your dog you want to only mark the good behavior with your clicker device at the point in time your dog does the action. For example if you call to your dog “come” or “here” you would click at the point your dog begins to move towards you and then click again when he arrives at you whilst at the same time you would also give him a treat and some praise when finally arrives at you. You wouldn’t use the dog clicker to get your dog to come to you using the example above; say your dog was laid down on his bed and you call to him to “come” to you and he doesn’t move you wouldn’t then call out “come” and click to get him to get up off his bed you would call “come” as many times as required and then you would only apply the first click when he actually starts to get up. You would then apply the second click a microsecond before you give him the treat. Many people don’t follow these simple clicker training basics, get it wrong and then get frustrated with their dog.
Training with a clicker is can be very effective however if not done correctly you might as well not bother to use one because you are not associating the correct action from the dog to your dog clicker device. This is one of the fundamental clicker training basics you MUST grasp before you even begin.
So to recap when you start dog clicker training you should follow this clicker training basics routine per click. 1) Call out the desired command. 2) Click as your dog starts to make the desired movement. 3) Click again as your dog completes the desired action. 4) Give your dog a treat followed by lots of positive praise. All this can happen within a couple of seconds however if you can imprint this process into your mind it will eventually become instinctive and you will do this without thinking about it. Your dog will associate the clicking sound with receiving a treat and praise from his owner and he will want more of that so he will behave in a good way more often because you will have trained him towards what he should be doing.
Keep doing this and eventually you will no longer need the clicker device and your dog will obey your every command. And if you get to a point where your really finding things difficult just go back to the clicker training basics I mentioned above and start again.
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