What is Clicker Training

At Cue & Click Canine Training, we use a clicker to facilitate reinforcement. You might have a few questions about what, why and how we use those during training. I’d love to answer some of those questions.

What is a clicker? 

• A clicker is a tool that makes a clicking noise. We use the clicker to mark the exact behavior we are wanting to see happen again. So, we cue a behavior we want, we click the behavior the very moment it happens, then we treat the dog to reward the behavior we previously marked. 

Why do we use it?

• have you ever noticed that sometimes your tone of voice can elicit different responses from people? It can be confusing.  Well, a clicker’s tone, volume and intensity never changes. A distinct, discrete sound to let your dog know they did something right and will immediately be rewarded sounds good to me!

How do we use it?

• We will cue a behavior from our dog. We will then CLICK! the exact moment our dog performs the behavior we were asking for. We will then pay the dog handsomely for agreeing to do what we asked.

When do we stop using it?

• When we have reliably and consistently been using the clicker and the dog is eager and accurately doing what we ask, we can phase it out. Since we cue, click, treat so often, the dog should be extremely excited to work. At that point, the cue becomes the reinforcer. Meaning: the dog wants to elicit a behavior in order to get more food. He is just waiting for you to ask!