Tuesday, March 20, 2012

Clicker training; help your dog to learn by encouragement and reinforcement of natural behaviours.

By Michael Volk


Clicker training is an inventive training strategy to teach an animal a particular behaviour on command by utilizing positive reinforcement.

Originally the basic idea behind behaviour reinforcement in animals was developed by dolphin trainers. A whistle sound was employed to pinpoint a particular behaviour after training the animals mind to expect a fish when it hears a whistle

Dogs, cats, horses and even chickens can reply well to this kind of training. The clicker is generally employed in dog training circles. Clicker training is additionally used to train help dogs and is beginning to become more prevalent in pet training classes.

At first the dog must be tuned in to the clicker. This is done by carrying out a few sessions of associating the click sound with a treat. Only a small treat each time or the dog will spend the entire clicker training session eating his rewards. Tuning in is easy. Always give a treat to your dog if the click sound is released. Never click without treating your dog. Your eventual aim is to ensure that when you use the click to identify a specific behaviour the dog will automatically associate the behaviour with a treat.

To affirm that your dog is tuned into the sound wait till you do not have his attention then press the clicker. If he looks straight to you for a treat then he's making the organisation.

When the association is created it has to be maintained regularly to remain effective. The most vital clicker training rule is to never click without reward. If you do click even by mistake the dog must get his treat.

During clicker training sessions when the sound is established in your dogs mind you can begin to pinpoint the behaviour that you want him to copy. By clicking the precise action that you'd like to see again at the specific time it is carried out you'll quickly begin to see your dog beginning to work out the express action he should repeat so as to incite his dear click.

Following this you can add a cue word for the behaviour. This will help the learned dog to differentiate between requests.




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