To click, or not to click - now that’s an interesting question.

Over the last 10 years I’ve introduced hundreds of new puppy parents to the wonders of Clicker Training. It’s fun, creative, and helps to build the foundations of a truly remarkable relationship between you and your dog…it’s also something I recently gave up.

So, what exactly is clicker training and why is it so good, how do people get it SO wrong, and what am I doing now I no longer Click?

Clicker training uses both Classical & Operate Conditioning

Simply put, a clicker is a little plastic device with a button that makes a “click” sound when pushed. Very quickly your dog will learn to associate the sound of the clicker with the imminent arrival of a tasty treat. This is Classical Conditioning, as demonstrated by Pavlov and his dogs, e.g. doorbell rings, dogs start to salivate because they know food is about to arrive. The dog doesn’t have to do anything except wait for the bell to ring, and the food to be delivered.

Once your dog learns that the sound of the clicker equals a treat, then you can start training. This is where Operate Conditioning takes over. You’ve heard of the Skinner Box? B.F. Skinner taught his rats to operate a leaver every time a light in their box got switched on. If the leaver was pushed within a certain amount of time the rat would be rewarded with a food pellet (positive reinforcement). The difference between Classical and Operate Conditioning is that the rat had to do something in order to earn a reward.

(Skinner also experimented with negative reinforcement and avoidance learning, which wasn’t so pleasant for the rats, but that’s a topic for another time).

How does the clicker work in dog training?

In dog training, the sound of the clicker marks the exact moment your dog does something right, and then it acts as a bridge between that moment, and when the food arrives.

There’s normally a delay of a few seconds between the behaviour that you are clicking for, and the moment you give your dog the treat. Using a clicker as a reward marker, makes it very clear to your dog that they are being rewarded for the behaviour that earned the click, and not the behaviour that immediately followed (such as running to you after they heard the click).

Clicker training can be used to teach really simple puppy skills, like getting your pup to responding to their name, or walking nicely on a leash, as well as more complex behaviours such as trick training, scent detection, or service dog skills. It really is a great tool.

What are the common mistakes people make?

As with any methodology, the student is only as good as the teacher, and unfortunately there is a lot of mediocre information out there when it comes to dog training.

Clicker training, when done right, is all about precise timing and the ability to break down any skill into a number of small steps, simple enough that even a chicken can follow them. 

The clicker is NOT a Magic Button. 

I've seen people call their dog's name at the park, and when their dog ignores them they pull out their clicker and click to get their dog's attention. Their dog comes running, obviously, because through Classical Conditioning the dog knows that a click means a treat is on it's way, but instead of training their dog to come when called the owner is basically shaking a treat bag to get their dog to listen to them. 

If you want your dog to come when called what should you be doing instead? At the very least you should be clicking when your dog making eye contact with you. After all, Operate Conditioning is based on the animal "doing something" to earn that click, not for ignoring you.

Think Slot Machine, not Vending Machine.

Another complaint I often hear is that a dog will only perform a new skill if there’s a treat in it for them. As soon as the owner puts away the clicker (and thus the treats), the dog will no longer listen. This is really common with people who’ve gone through group classes.

In puppy school you’re often taught a new skill that you have to practice at home, with a clicker, but after you and your puppy have mastered the skill you’re not always shown what to do next.

How do you switch from “one click equals one treat” to getting your puppy to listen when you’ve suddenly run out of treats at the park?

The key is to get your puppy on a varied reward schedule as soon as they've mastered a new skill, and you do this by switching to a verbal marker (I like to use "Yes"). Whereas the clicker is always paired with a food reward, a verbal marker is a little more flexible and allows you to act more like a slot machine (that rewards randomly), as apposed to a vending machine (that rewards every time).

Let's admit it, we all get a little frustrated when we put our money into a vending machine expecting a treat to fallout, and then nothing happens. But the casino slot machines are very different, not only do they hold our attention, but they're exciting, and addictive. How many times do you have to play before you get a payout? Three times? Fifteen times? Yet you keep playing because it's fun, and a reward maybe just around the corner. The same concept is used when dog training, and it's very obvious when someone has got stuck in vending machine mode.

So, if a clicker is so great why have I stopped using one?

I may have given up using a clicker, but I still use a reward marker when training. I've simply switched from a click to a verbal "Yes", everything else is still the same.

Clicker training makes learning really clear and simple for your dog, but many owners are getting tripped up in the mechanics of it. Their timing is off, or they find the clicker to be hard to hold when using a leash, or they'd forget to bring the clicker with them. All too soon the clicker gets left in a junk draw, as does the training methods that were attached to it. Bags of treats get lost at the back of cupboards, and owners forget to take food on walks with them. It’s almost as if the treats and the clicker are a single entity, and if you weren't using one, you couldn't use the other. We all know that's ridiculous, but that's what I’m seeing.

By simply avoiding the clicker and instead teaching people to capture and reward behaviours using their voice instead suddenly training became easier, at least for the human at the end of the leash.

If training animals has taught us anything, it's that we’ll repeat behaviours that we enjoy, and drop those that we don't.

By removing the plastic clicker from my clients hands, I have alleviated a little bit of the stress, mistakes, and embarrassment that comes with learning a new task, while still retaining all the positive training skills that clicker training has taught us. It's not that a verbal marker is any better than a clicker, it's just that humans are a little more consistent when they use it - and in the end that's what matters when it comes to training our dogs, and seeing positive results.