There are many advantages to clicker training that people do not even realise. Clicker training eliminates many of the problems and obstacles that were often present in more traditional methods training. It offers more opportunity to fine tune actions and allows a trainer to teach more precise tricks. It also gives the dog the chance to actively participate in the learning process.
The basic concept of clicker training is very easy for a dog to learn. And one of the most important factors about clicker training is that it is done in a positive manner, there is nothing negative in the training process. It is a positive experience for both the owner and the dog.
Dogs are very sensitive to the tone of voice that they hear. They often sense and interpret feelings by the tone of voice that an owner is using. Dogs are also attuned to what kind of mood their owner is in. They know when you are angry or tense. You, as a dog owner may use one tone of voice indoors, one outdoors and another if you are in an obedience class and if different members of the family are all training the dog this can become a factor. The clicker removes all these outside distractions. The same noise is used all the time to indicate a correct action, there is no variation.
The click is very fast. There is virtually no time between the action and the click. Even using voice praise it takes far longer to say the words ‘good boy’ then it does to click. And, it is much faster than trying to give a food reward at the exact moment that the action has occurred. By using a clicker an owner can tell their dog exactly when he has done the correct thing. Then he can worry about offering the reward. This becomes especially important when you are trying to teach very precise or difficult commands.
Research is also showing that animals including dogs who were initially trained using a clicker will have a far greater retention of the information that they have learned and for much longer periods of time than animals trained using other techniques. It is believed that this is because in a lot of clicker training the animal is encouraged to actively participate in the learning process. They have to actively learn what gets rewarded and what is ignored. The dog is encouraged to think. The other benefit seems to be that dogs trained using the clicker technique, tend to be more confident and are much more eager to work than ones that were trained using other methods.
Clicker training is also very easy for a dog to learn. Many dogs are able to make the connection between the sound of the clicker and the reward within a day. This means that you can quickly move on to other commands and tricks.
The whole concept of clicker training is to get the dog to want to earn rewards. You are not disciplining or correcting your pet. You are encouraging and rewarding good behaviours and ignoring the bad ones. Most dogs want to please their owners and are quick to learn which actions will get rewarded and which ones are ignored.
Dog Clicker Training – Where To Start
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