If you are looking to train your dog you might consider using the 'clicker training' method, which has recently become popular amongst dog trainers all over the country. In this method the trainer has to make use of a clicker, a tiny plastic box with a metal button which makes a distinctive click sound once the button has been pressed. The training method is simple and is in many ways parallel to the positive training method. Here is what you have to do. Decide on a certain behavior which you want to teach or reinforce your dog to do. A number of behaviors/actions come naturally to the dog like sitting, eating, standing, barking etc. and these need just to be reinforced so that your dog knows when you want him to do what. Various other actions like acting dead, shaking hands, rolling over etc. do not come naturally to the dog and need to be taught. Clicker training can be used to do both.
Clicker training works according to the basic principles of operant conditioning, by associating the sound of the clicker with a food item which the dog particularly likes. Now all you have to do is use the clicker to command the dog to do something, the dog, given that he associates the sound of the clicker with the food, immediately obliges and the training is complete.
Let us take an example to illustrate the method better, suppose you want to teach your dog to sit, you put a cookie on your dog's nose playfully and then move it upwards, the dog will obviously follow the movement of the biscuit with its nose and will then naturally rest its posterior on the floor, thereby putting himself in a sitting position. Now time your clicking to be so accurate as to occur right as the dog seats himself, now give him the biscuit and praise him. Continue doing this for sometime till the dog begins to associate the clicking with the food until the click makes him sit without you luring him with treats. Now teach him another behavior, but remember to attach the clicking cue only once the animal himself offers you the behavior otherwise the clicking will not be connected to anything in the dog's head and he will be confused regarding what it means.
Your dog is one smart little animal and it's time you gave him due credit for that. A number of trainers have been known to use negative reinforcement techniques alongside the clicker method but this simply doesn't work because punishment at all times creates a number of unwanted behavior even if it serves the primary purpose of teaching the dog to not do something temporarily.
Any kind of training is a strenuous and rigorous process and needs time and patience. Although clicker training method has a high success rate it might not work for certain types of dogs, if you see that it's not working for your pet you would be well advised to use some other technique to teach it tricks.
The real difficulty when training a dog, is in communicating accurately and at the right time when the dog is behaving correctly. Traditionally when a dog did behave correctly, you praise him only after he move to some other behavior which may not be a good behavior and thus strengthening something that you might not want. Besides the precise timing of the communication, your tone, loudness of your voice, pronunciation and speed may send confusing signal to your dog.
This irregularity is overcomed by clicker training. Clicker Training make use of the clicking sound as a brief signal that dog can capture almost at once when he behave correctly which solve the problem of timing and prevent the problem of irregularity in comparison with the use of the trainer voice.
Clicker training do have its down side when too much dependence is placed on the physical clicker to signal to the dog, especially when there come a situation when you do not have the clicker on you or in a place where sound can be a problem such as in hunting environment or in a certain public places.
You should strive to combine the training of your dog with voice or hand command jointly with the clicker. The clicker can be used as the preliminary training as more command and cues are added. In this way by the time you start to fade out the clicker training there would not be any problem communicating with your dog.
The goal of implementing clicker training program is to produce connection between the clicker sound and reward in your dog perception. This connection is created by clicking the clicker each and every time the dog behave correctly and thereafter giving him the reward which can come in a tasty treat that can be consume almost immediately. This is done repeatedly from 10 -15 times per session. Some dog make the connection faster than others.
One of the procedures to know if your dog has made the connection is by allowing your dog interest to be shifted to other things before clicking. If the dog instantly looks toward you upon you clicking the clicker, then most probably the dog has made the connection. Once this is done, you can use the clicker to indicate desired behaviors. This is done by immediately clicking and rewarding your dog after the dog carry out the desired behavior. The key is in the timing, clicking too early or too late weaken the effectiveness of the training sessions.
As stressed before, clicker training is only one of the training method, and it has its disadvantages, combining this training method with the others will improve the effectiveness of training your dog. Do learn and study the many practical ways you can do with this training method that can make this training a more fun and meaningful way which is so numerous that simply cannot be cover in this article.
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