What You Need to Know about Dog Clicker Training
It is difficult to take care of a dog. Dogs are very playful. They can chew on your couch, your shoes or the legs of your coffee table. They can get rowdy sometimes, becoming aggressive to people and other animals. Having a dog means you need to train your pet and maintain discipline at home.
There are several ways to train your beloved pet. Most of these methods would need for you to reward the dog for every deed that he does correctly. and these methods would also tell you to put verbal or physical punishment on your dog whenever he does something you don’t like. Physical punishment on the dog has proved to eliminate unwanted behavior. But what most people overlook is that it also breeds other unwanted behavior in the dog.
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Now, Ivan Pavlov, a Russian behavioral expert, conducted an experiment on a dog that would help establish the relationship of sound and sight. He claims that sounds can be associated to an event or an action even if the actual situation is not happening. There is reaction gained in association to the sound. So, Pavlov rang a bell whenever he would feed the dog to make the dog associate food with the sound of the bell. After some time, it was found that the dog salivated at the ring of the bell even when food was not given to him.
Marian and Keller Breland came up with a new way of training dogs that employs Pavlov’s idea. They say that it all began with a study for university, and eventually, it became a business. Animal Behaviors Enterprises now manufactures materials and conducts training for obedience other behavioral corrections in pets, and they have come up with the breakthrough dog clicker training.
Dog clicker training is a way of training dogs that allow zero-force applied on the dog. The training makes use of a clicker. As the name implies, it is a small plastic device that makes a click when the button is pressed.
The training is made to make the dog associate clicking with something he has done correctly. Of course, when a dog does something correctly, he will be rewarded with a treat. The treat is then given immediately after the click. Therefore, the dog associates the click with rewards.
The dog clicker training is said to speed up a dog’s learning by 30%. This is now the training method employed by the police, armed forces, dog patrol and security for training their canine counterparts. It is also said to work with other animals like lions, tigers, pigeons and even whales.
The elimination of force applied on the dog actually helps lower the aggressiveness of the dog. The dog is not punished but actually rewarded more. The dog clicker training is positive reinforcement, letting the dog know what they did correctly.
However, this method of training can be frustrating at first. This type of training is gradual training. You can reinforce the clicks with verbal commands. It is best to use this training method in developing individual skills. Then put these individual skills, coming up with a series of clicks. Remember the equation: verbal command + click = deed done right = reward.
As was said earlier, the training method requires a lot of restrain and patience from you. The process must not be confrontational. You must not force the dog to do any action. The action that you expect must be spontaneous. The idea is to trick the dog to do what you want. This results in a spontaneous reaction from the dog next time. The dog is actually presented with a change to gain control over the effects of his actions. He will be motivated to do what you command him to do as he knows that there will be a reward, like petting or a treat. The dog does not do the deed out of fear that he will be punished if he doesn’t do it.
Dog clicker training will reduce the yelling when your dog doesn’t want to calm down when visitors come over. A single click and he would know that you are making him stop. He doesn’t do it because you are angry but because he knows what the click means. There is no harm inflicted on the dog, and it will be a lot easier for you to give commands to your pet.