I've never used a clicker with Ella. I wanted to but I take her to obedience training and can't use one there so I was worried that it would cause confusion if I only used it at home. I still really want to introduce a clicker so I'm wondering if I can keep training the obedience stuff as I have been but train other home-type stuff with a clicker?
I don't use my clicker at training, I use it virtually everywhere else and it doesn't cause Ripple any confusion - certainly worth trying @Emily, I find it gives much better results.
Yup definitely use it at home if you want. You might also want to think of a verbal alternative. I use a high pitched, excited 'yes!' which although not as accurate as a clicker is always available and not confusing for other dogs
Yep, no problem with that at all. I use both a clicker and a marker word. Clickers in class only confuse dogs if they are not used to other owners using clickers around them, the solution to that is to allow people to use clickers in class!
I was going to ask why you're not allowed clickers in class. My two don't get confused at all about me using one clicker for the both of them, and they've been find when we've had other clicker-trained dogs around, too.
So if you are introduced to an exercise at training, do you train without a clicker at training but with a clicker at home? Looking at a simple example, if you introduced 'sit' for the first time, would it confuse the dog to C&T at home for a sit and use a bridging word "yes" and treat at training for the same exercise?
I used "good" or "nice" instead of a clicker when I was doing nail training and didn't have enough hands for the clicker. It's definitely not as precise but it worked nonetheless.
I use "yes" and it's worked pretty well but I have heard of such good results from clicker training that I really want to give it a go. I think it could be fun
It is! It's SO much better than using a word (but a word sometimes has to do). What are you going to train first with it? Remember to keep it something that's not important while you work on your timing and coordination
Targeting is easy, if she doesn't do that already. Decide on an object, whether you want paw or nose to target it and have fun
I think one of the most useful exercises I ever did was to get Charlie to paw target three different items on cue (mine were a pot, a cloth and an oven glove). Working through putting each item on cue - properly - so he didn't confuse the pot with the cloth etc taught me more about cues than just about anything else (at that stage of my development, anyway).
I know that this is a really stupid question but do you phase out the clicker ? Is it only for the stuff that's a work in progress? I've stopped clicking for the actions H does when I ask, should I have kept it going?
I don't see a need to click behaviour that is reliably on cue but I think it's harmless to do so. I think people use clickers in all sorts of different ways. I used to do a lot of shaping with a clicker, and I would stop using the clicker once I had the behaviour to a standard when I could put it on cue. So I used to use a clicker to 'get' behaviour. I don't do so much shaping these days, firstly because I less often need to get behaviour (as my dog is older, I've 'finished' more stuff), and secondly because I lure using food more these days (which is something I picked up at ClickerExpo) to avoid clicking 'interim' steps on the way to the finished behaviour. I'd still use a clicker to train targeting though and anything else that is difficult to lure. If I can lure the first few steps, I will do so, and use my clicker to sort of 'refine' behaviour, when I need a very precise marker, or one that is particularly powerful (a click is very powerful for my dog).
I use a clicker at home for new things or things Coco is struggling with (ie I'm struggling with!), but never at training. Clickers are not allowed there as our trainer dislikes hearing clicking coming from all directions, he says it's loud in the big echoey barn - fair enough.
I've read somewhere (but I couldn't find it when I last looked - grr) an article that argued that it was harmful to continue clicking once a behaviour is reliable in the environment you're asking for it in. This was when I was very early on in my clicker journey, so it wasn't relevant to me at the time and I didn't retain the information. I wonder if it was based on the fact that we use the clicker to refine to such a degree that any mistakes we will inevitably make with precise timing will end up confusing the dog. I'm not sure. I'll have another concerted effort at some point to find the article and see if there was any good reason to it. As for fading, let's take the sit, for example - my dogs understand that "sit" means sit. Awesome. So when they sit, they know they've done what I've asked because we've done it a lot and they've had C&Ts for doing it. Now, they no longer need the click to pinpoint the movement they're making, because they've made the association between the word and the movement. At this point, the click has little meaning, so I can drop it, but I still continue to give treats each time they do it, so they still understand they got it right. If, however, I decide that I want to get the sit snappier, I'd bring the clicker back out and use it for that precision again - the dog only gets a click when they are fast enough for me. Or, maybe, I want them to sit straighter, so I'd use the clicker for identifying that.
