How Do You Clicker Train A Dog?

Dog clicker training is fast and easy. It is a simple training method for you and your dog to learn. You as the trainer have to understand two basic things about clicker training. Unlike other methods of training you are going to work in small steps and stages and the second thing to realise is that your ultimate goal is not having to use a clicker at all.

The first thing to teach your dog is what the clicker means. The process of teaching a dog to recognise and respond to the sound of a clicker is commonly called ‘charging the clicker‘. You are going to teach your pet that the sound of a clicker means that he has done a good action and that a reward is on the way. You must always follow a click with a reward.

Once your dog recognises the significance of the sound of the clicker you can move onto other training. If for example you are trying to teach your dog to ’sit’ using the clicker method you have to start with small steps. You begin by rewarding the dog each time he makes a motion of sitting. When you click is very important. You do not want to click after the dog has finished the action. It is rather like taking a picture. You want to capture the exact moment when he is in the process. That is the picture you are trying to get. If you click after the action you will have missed your picture.

Each time the action is repeated you want the dog to go a little further. You want to wait to click until he is closer to the floor. You still do not want to click late but you do not want to click until you see the exact action that you want. By making your dog go a little further each time you are teaching him what is a good action. This sounds slow but with most dogs it is usually a very fast process. Some dogs can even learn to sit after only a day of practicing.

As your dog's understanding grows you can add in the voice command. You no longer reward a spontaneous action. You only click when you have given the command. You keep repeating this process until you are certain that your dog knows the meaning of the command. You can then gradually eliminate the clicker until you are relying solely on voice command. Be sure to reward after each correct action.

This is the basic idea of how dog clicker training works. You gradually work small step, by small step towards the final goal. You encourage and reward your dog for each success and ignore all other unwanted actions. Your dog will quickly learn what will earn a reward and what action will be ignored. You will find that training can be simple and easy using the clicker method.