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| Posted: 19 Aug 2009 10:16 AM PDT Clicker training is a technology which has recently become very popular in dog training. The clicker itself is a little box which makes a click sound when pressed. It becomes a marker for the behavior that the trainer is looking for and also that goodies may be on their way. Training this way is continuing to evolve with more research and understanding of animal behavior. It is useful to attend a couple of classes or seminars to get the basics down and to learn the more complicated scientific behavioral concepts if you are interested in the full philosophy. I have been to two Melissa Alexander seminars, these two day events were very enjoyable, Melissa is down to earth and very good at explaining complicated behavioral concepts. Click here for an explanation of Operant Conditioning.
I started with luring my first puppy into the correct position with food and then gradually pairing that with the desired command word. This works great for teaching a puppy basic sits and downs, but free-shaping with the clicker goes one step further, the dog learns to be aware of his own body. When you lure a dog into position, he is thinking about the food rather than what he is doing. When you use free-shaping, you either wait for him to take up the position naturally and let him work out what you are rewarding, or you break down a more complicated sequence into small pieces and gradually ask for more each time. Click here for more information about Luring, Moulding and Shaping. Clicker training is great fun, for both dog and trainer, and as the dog learns to offer more and more behaviors, he learns faster and faster. My dog learned the articles for tracking using the clicker, starting in the living room, and then gradually training in different locations, then pairing the action with a word, and finally using it on the track. He knows when we are going to train with the clicker, I usually leave him off leash or on a long line, and he gets to be free and offer all kinds of behaviors, we have also free-shaped tricks and seemingly useless actions such as putting his foot on a box or pushing a container with his nose. But this allows both dog and trainer to relax and do something different from the more serious competition exercises. One of the most important concepts to teach a competition dog is focus. The clicker is an easy way to teach this, because you can catch the behavior you want precisely when it happens. It takes some practise to get the timing just right but the results are well worth it. You also need to be very clear about what you are trying to train and break it down appropriately for your dog. Something I learned from the Monty Roberts Intelligent Horsemanship technique, if you approach something like it will take ten minutes, it will take an hour, but if you allow for an hour, it will take ten minutes. Never be in a hurry to train something new. If you are getting a lot of failures, you may be pushing too fast, take a step back and think about what you are asking for. You must have a high rate of reinforcement so that the training can progress. When starting training with the clicker, I used quite a few lures and the leash to help achieve the results I wanted, but as I train more exercises, and with each subsequent puppy, I am using free-shaping more and more. It gives me a chance to watch the dog’s reactions, and natural inclinations, so I can tailor my training to each individual dog. For instance, I was teaching articles to two pups recently, one went from sniffing the article to biting it, the other went from sniffing to pawing the article. The first pup investigates things much more with his mouth, which should make the retrieve easy! The second likes to play with items with her paws. Once the pup pawed the article, I rewarded that, and soon she tried a play bow, and then a down. After 4 short sessions of 10 repetitions, she had the basic idea of lying near the article. Then I just had to teach her that the article must be between her paws.
By Louise Jollyman Thanks to Louise Jollyman suggesting and provide great article. He been training in Schutzhund since 2001. In that time, I have titled my own dog, Bodeus, from 8 weeks to SchH3 IPO3 FH UD NA CGC TC AD WUSV. United Schutzhund Clubs of America . By Me  |
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