What is Clicker Training?
Clicker training is a way of training animals using what we call a "marker". There are more technical terms for it but there's no need to go into those here. If you've ever been to a dolphin or sea lion show you've most likely seen them use a clicker or a whistle. Those are used as markers. They are called markers because they indicate the behavior the animal is doing as they are doing it. In a way this buys us time to reward for that behavior. It's sort of like taking a picture of the behavior you want, then reinforcing it.
For instance, in a dolphin training example if you wanted the dolphin to bump a ball with its nose you would blow the whistle as soon as the animal touches the ball. That's great when the dolphin is right next to you and you can immediately hand him a fish. But what if the ball is 30' out in the pool? How does the dolphin know what he's getting reinforced for? How does he even know to come to you for a fish in the first place? By blowing the whistle the instant he touches the ball he will return to you, get a fish, and know he's getting paid for what he was doing when he heard the whistle, not for coming back to you. Make sense?
We use clickers in numerous ways during training. Some trainers use them all the time, with every animal and for every behavior. I've been using a clicker since my Moorpark College days, so that's well over 20 years. However, although I use them regularly on my own animals I don't use them all the time with client dogs unless requested.
The reason for this is the clicker is very effective for some specific behaviors like teaching a dog to ring a bell to go outside (I actually taught one dog to use his nose on a real doorbell for this!), and some tricks. I've found that most pet owners have enough things to think about when training their dog and the clicker can complicate things a bit more. Though if someone wants to use clicker training for everything I'm very happy to do so!
For the most part the only time I use them with regularity is with fearful dogs. That is because when a dog is in a state of fear they tend to tune out other sounds, like people talking to them & trying to get them to listen or do something other than be afraid. The clicker works great for these dogs because it is such a distinctive sound that no matter what else is going on the clicker is always the same and always means the same thing. It's easy for the dog to *hear it* regardless of the ambient noise.
That's the Cliff Notes version of clicker training, but if you want more info here are some other resources below. And if you're interested in clicker training for your dog, or pig, give me a call!
What is Clicker Training?
Clicker training is a way of training animals using what we call a "marker". There are more technical terms for it but there's no need to go into those here. If you've ever been to a dolphin or sea lion show you've most likely seen them use a clicker or a whistle. Those are used as markers. They are called markers because they indicate the behavior the animal is doing as they are doing it. In a way this buys us time to reward for that behavior. It's sort of like taking a picture of the behavior you want, then reinforcing it. For instance, in a dolphin training example if you wanted the dolphin to bump a ball with its nose you would blow the whistle as soon as the animal touches the ball. That's great when the dolphin is right next to you and you can immediately hand him a fish. But what if the ball is 30' out in the pool? How does the dolphin know what he's getting reinforced for? How does he even know to come to you for a fish in the first place? By blowing the whistle the instant he touches the ball he will return to you, get a fish, and know he's getting paid for what he was doing when he heard the whistle, not for coming back to you. Make sense?
We use clickers in numerous ways during training. Some trainers use them all the time, with every animal and for every behavior. I've been using a clicker since my Moorpark College days, so that's well over 20 years. However, although I use them regularly on my own animals I don't use them all the time with client dogs unless requested.
The reason for this is the clicker is very effective for some specific behaviors like teaching a dog to ring a bell to go outside (I actually taught one dog to use his nose on a real doorbell for this!), and some tricks. I've found that most pet owners have enough things to think about when training their dog and the clicker can complicate things a bit more. Though if someone wants to use clicker training for everything I'm very happy to do so!
For the most part the only time I use them with regularity is with fearful dogs. That is because when a dog is in a state of fear they tend to tune out other sounds, like people talking to them & trying to get them to listen or do something other than be afraid. The clicker works great for these dogs because it is such a distinctive sound that no matter what else is going on the clicker is always the same and always means the same thing. It's easy for the dog to *hear it* regardless of the ambient noise.
That's the Cliff Notes version of clicker training, but if you want more info there are some links on the resources page. And if you're interested in clicker training for your dog, or pig, give me a call!
