Clicker Training?

edited June 2009 in General
I've been starting to do a little research on clicker training. Do any of you guys use it? Is it working? Do you always need to carry a clicker around? I'd really like to hear what some of the more experienced nihon ken owners think about it since we're pretty much noobs. I've noticed a boost in Katsu's confidence since we've started obedience class and I want to keep building on that.

joe

Comments

  • edited November -1
    Just had a playdate with Miko, Ruby, and Montana the Corgi. Too exhausted to expound on it too much, but....

    CLICKER TRAINING IS BRILLIANT!

    I keep a jar of clickers in my kitchen for a reason. Just find a trainer who really knows how to do it. It is a really subtle art, but worth the effort.
  • edited June 2009
    Joe,

    All my training with Kuma has been done with clicker training. I also have a lot of clickers in my kitchen. It is the fastest and easier way to teach a dog how to do something. Once they have learned it, I don't carry the clicker around (unless I was trying to perfect the movement). But I definitely think it is a must for training all types of dogs. It really works and the dog learns that it is FUN!

    Here is a great site which will walk you thru how to train different levels of behavior from simple to difficult. This women is very well known and very well thought of in the clicker community.

    http://www.dragonflyllama.com/ DOGS/ Dog1/levels.html

    And just for kicks, here is the hardest thing I taught Kuma to do, mainly because he was deathly afraid of the device from the beginning (let alone when the bell rang...that sent him into the next room). But by breaking it into steps and using the clicker/treat method, he learned that in reality, it wasn't so bad and he got yummy treats! I do NOT think that I could have trained him to do what he does in the video without clicker training.



    Also, all of his obedience was trained and further refined (ie, correct positioning) by clicker training.

  • edited November -1
    WOW!!!! Thanks Jess and Kris. As soon as I get my jaw off the floor I'm going to start looking into this big time. It really makes a lot of sense how this works. From what I read I'm impressed how you can really pin point what behavior you want to reinforce with your dog, and just by using a simple device make it positive and fun.
  • edited November -1
    I swear by Clicker Training. I have used many different methods on my journey in Ninja's training and Clicker Training has shown the most results by far. I know Petsmart uses Clicker Training for Obedience Training...if you can't find any trainers who use it. For more info - my behaviorist wrote up this little intro into Clicker Training, you can view it HERE

    She also made a video to Intro Clicker Training that you can view HERE

    And this is a video she made with a 13 week Catahoula she rescued from the shelter, showing how to teach "down" using clicker training. You can view it HERE

    Hope that helps and gives you a visual of how it works.
  • edited November -1
    Clicker=awesome. Enough said.

    Haru and I swear by it.
  • edited November -1
    We love the clicker! We used it at Sake's class at petsmart and now I can't put the thing down! I just ordered Karen Pryor's clicker training kit as well, which has a book, DVD, and clicker.
    http://www.clickertraining.com/
  • edited November -1
    Yes, the Karen Pryor site is very good. That is actually how I found the site I posted above (the www.clickertraining.com had an interview on it with a link to the website I posted). I bought my clickers from the Karen Pryor site too.

    Good luck Joe! It is fun and easy. Just remember, you have to have good patience at first and wait for the dog to offer the behavior. :-)
  • edited November -1
    Best thing ever invented. Love it!
  • edited November -1
    It's better than sliced bread :-P

    Kuma's training has been all done with clicker and it was the best decision I ever made about that. To answer your question, no you don't have to always have a clicker on you. With time, the amount of times you click and reward a behaviour decrease, as your dog gets more and more conditioned to that behaviour.

    As an example, we used to click and reward Kuma for every single time he sat. After a few days/weeks, it started to be every 3 or 4 "sits", then it became 6 or 7, then it started to be a random thing (click reward the 9th time, then the 5th after that and so on). I don't remember exactly how long it took, but I think after 2 months or even less, I wasn't even clicking a sit anymore, and I never did after that, and Kuma's sit is quite good (it might be a little slow sometimes, because he can be a bit stubborn, but he always delivers). This example is valid for everything we taught Kuma. I don't use my clicker anymore, unless I want to teach something new or do some freshening up on old stuff.
  • edited November -1
    I concur with everything said above : clicker training really opens up a whole new possibility in training a dog, especially one that shows any sort of fear or isn't as confident as they could be.
    We used positive reinforcement which lead to clicker training which now lead to Natural Dog Training... training is so much fun now!

    Good luck! Finding a trainer who will train you to clicker train is a Godsend!
  • edited November -1
    I think I'm going to get a book on it and do a little online research now. We'll talk to the trainer we've been using at petco, she is 100 % positive reinforcement oriented so I wonder if she's ever done clicker training. Thanks for the help guys, I'll let you know how it turns out.
  • edited November -1
    I like clickers for refining behaviours, or for particularly tricky bad behaviours that need fixing. It's kind of like wiring their brains - make sure you do it really good, and some routine maintanence, and it's all good! It's good for rewiring their brains when they have bad behaviours, too.

    I don't carry a clicker around. I don't take it out too often, actually, but I looove it for sticky situations.
  • Sorry to bump up an old thread but I've been watching a lot of training videos lately and the sequence of using the clicker has me confuzzled. It seems that many trainers have different ways to reward their pets.

    So, is your sequence for clicker training hand motion, verbal cue, click, treat?

    Or, as stated in The Culture Clash verbal cue (wait a full second), hand signal, click and treat, then treat?

    Is it all just preference?
  • It depends on if your dog knows the verbal cue or not. If you're teaching a new behaviour with a lure, I would skip the verbal cue altogether until it is associated with the hand signal. If you're just introducing the verbal cue, I would say it while doing the hand signal simultaneously, then do verbal cue followed by the hand signal. Eventually the hand signal will just be a prompt when they don't respond to the verbal cue.

    Does that make sense?
  • Yes. Thanks.
  • As Nekopan suggests I would not add a verbal cue to begin. You can add it later when the first steps are sound without luring. Yes as with any teaching there are different preferences, and or discussions particularly when getting into linking deeper behavior chains.

    For simplicity sake though here it is in a nutshell:

    Be sure you "charge the clicker" first....i.e. dog is familiar in deciphering what the clicker is all about.

    Phases would be somewhat like this:

    I -> Lure (or "capture" your choice) -> gain appropriate motion response by dog -> click -> slight pause and treat.

    II -> visual signal -> lure -> gain appropriate motion response by dog -> click -> slight pause and treat.

    II -> Fade the lure, instead use verbal @ same time as visual signal -> gain appropriate motion response by dog -> click -> slight pause and treat.

    I would not attempt to do all three in one session or two sessions. Work on it a bit at a time for each behavior you want to work on.


    PS: You will drop luring altogether as soon as the behavior is pretty fluid with visual signal. Also be sure to have your vocabulary (name for behaviors) already in mind well ahead of time (personal dictionary so to speak) for training. The first letters in a verbal cue is the most important, so avoid similarities in sound and or letters.

    If you have not found them yet, Karen Pryor also has resources and you can down load bits and pieces for view as you are ready. clickertraining.com

    Have fun! : )
    Snf
  • How would you go about having your dog to focus on you instead of the food/toy?

    Should we wait until they look at you and treat? Or move the treat towards your eyes after the dog does the action?
  • edited November 2012
    Make sure you are not holding your hand in the food bag/pocket or container in order to shave off time in delivery. Put the treats in various places, bag behind your back, place treats on a shelf or move toward the treats rather than dispensing from your bag. You can vary it so the expectation it's not from the same place

    It is also helpful to teach a "watch me" command. Hold the food to the side arm straight out and wait until the dog looks at your face, then click and treat. At first it will be just a blink or even slight head turn, it does not have to be perfect, click and treat for the slight action. It happens fast so you should be able to capture that really quickly.

    Vary sessions with play on fuzzy toy and with treats as well.

    Snf
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