Dog Training: Clicker Training for Therapy Dogs -part 1

Clicker Dog Training

Hello Dog Loving Friend,

Thanks for joining todyas hot topic...Clicker Training Part 1.

Already I've had a ton of feedback with emails asking for specific information on therapy dog training.

I hope you find it both interesting and entertaining.

Ok. What is a ‘clicker’?

Glad you asked. Remember when you were a kid. There was this unusually popular 'clicker' craze, you could here the sounds of kids clicking away all over the place...every where.

Anyway, I'll spare you all the details of my childhood, lol...a clicker is simply a small plastic box, containing a metal plate which, when pressed, makes a ‘click’ sound.

What is clicker training?

Clicker Training is a method of ‘positive reinforcement training’ – that is, rewarding the behaviours that we like instead of punishing behaviours that we don’t like.

When the dog does what we want him to do, we ‘click’ and give him a treat. So, we train the dog to understand that the ‘click’ means (well done) and that a treat is coming.

Benefits of Clicker Training?

• The benefit of the clicker is that it makes a consistent sound and we can make the sound at the very moment that the dog is carrying out the behaviour that we like.
  
• The dog will learn to associate the good behaviour with the ‘click’ and the forthcoming treat, and will learn to repeat the behaviour.
• Of course using our voice, we can be positive just by saying 'good doggy'

Now there are some potential problems when using your voice. You'll inevitably use a different tone depending on what mood you're in, so it is not a consistent sound.

Dogs are very sensitive to body language and tone so will receive mixed signals depending on your mood!

The other main problem is timing.

By the time we have said 'good doggy', the dog may have stopped the positive behaviour and started doing something else.

Dogs do not have the power to determine which one of the behaviours is the good one, so again they receive a mixed signal.

Thanks for reading...stay tuned for Part 2 where I'll introduce a video showing you just what Clicker Training is all about.

Clicker Dog Training....success made easy.

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