Clicker Training is Simple, Everyone Can Do It

Clicker Training is really simple and definitely something everyone can do. In fact, you probably already use something similar to a clicker, your voice.

A clicker is (unsurprisingly) a device that produces a click and simply helps dogs to understand which behaviour lead to the reward. This enables the dog to repeat the behaviour.

You probably say something like “good dog” every time your dog does something you like. You do this to tell him that you are pleased he just did what he did.

A clicker is just the same, it provides instant feedback on the behaviour just offered and predicts that a reward is coming. Once your dog understands the meaning of the click, he’ll quickly become addicted to trying to get you to click again.

Using a Clicker to Train Your Gundog

Clicker Training is by no means a new concept. It has been used to train animals of all shapes and sizes for many years.

From Chickens to Killer Whales, clickers have been scientifically proven to help animals learn behaviours much faster than any other method of training.

I’m sure you’ve been to the zoo and seen the Sealions and Dolphins jumping through hoops in the pool? You’ll probably remember that the handler blows a whistle every time. The whistle is the equivalent of a clicker. It’s an event marker that can be heard under the water which tells the animal they were successful and are about to be thrown a sardine.

More and more, the often traditional world of gundog training is turning toward the use of modern training techniques. As a result, there’s been a sudden rise in the usage of Clicker Training to train gundogs.

It’s all in the Timing

We know that dogs repeat behaviours that lead to things they find rewarding, much the same as humans.

If, every time you pressed the right combination of buttons on a keypad, you received £5, how hard would you try to work out the correct combination and repeat it?

Top tip: To work effectively, the click needs to be at the precise time the behaviour occurs

This is how dogs learn best, by pairing what they were doing when they heard the click, with receiving a reward.

Bribery and Corruption

Many people use food treats for training and find that training this way doesn’t work. They say that as soon as they head out of the house without a pocketful of sausages, their canny dog seems to know and won’t do anything they ask. This is because the food isn’t being used in the right way.

Food is often used to lure the behaviour, to make it happen. It is not used afterwards as a reward for the behaviour.

The subtle difference is that food given first is an enticement or bribe. This means that to get your dog to walk by your side and not pull on the lead, you always need to hold a sausage over his nose. As soon as there’s no sausage, your dog loses interest. Food used in this way means he learnt nothing and therefore the desired behaviour isn’t trained at all.

The key to successful dog training is to work on the underlying motivation, we need to teach the dog how to get the reward he wants. The best teaching comes by way of instant feedback when we see exactly what we want, followed by a reward.

Why Can’t I Just Use Food Treats On Their Own?

Commonly, people will pump their dog full of food for everything they do and think that this means they are training them. Food is given randomly and, whilst the dog is quite happy being fed tasty treats, he really isn’t learning anything.

Other people will use food as a reward, but without telling their dog is was given for the behaviour that has just happened. This is better than nothing, but really very ineffective in terms of helping the dog learn. In the time it takes the handler to rummage in their pocket for a food treat, their dog has done several things. He has looked away, stood up, sniffed the air, looked back and then been given a sausage.

In the time it takes to rummage in their pocket for a food treat, their dog has done several things. He has looked away, stood up, sniffed the air, looked back and then been given a sausage. The dog has completely forgotten what it was doing 10 seconds ago.

With a well-timed click, the food reward can come a short while later and still be associated with the click. This means you have a bit longer than you think and can slow your training down. Concentrate on getting the timing of the click right.

The Sound of Your Voice is So Boring

The difficulty with training dogs is that they don’t speak English and so we can’t just tell them what to do. We need another way to communicate.

The good news is, you don’t always have to carry a clicker around with you

You can use your voice as an event marker and there is nothing wrong with doing so. Let’s face it, you won’t always have a clicker to hand.

You probably already say “yes”, or “good dog”, from time to time. This is perfectly fine. Your dog is getting feedback when he has just done something that you’d like him to repeat.

The downside of relying on your voice alone is that your dog will hear your voice in general conversation all the time. Often, the words won’t even be directed at him. Your dog will tune-out and your voice will just become background noise.

A clicker, on the other hand, is an artificial noise that your dog will only hear in one context. The training context.

Clicker Training is a lot more powerful when used correctly. The click will always pre-empt the arrival of a reward.

Getting Started with Clicker Training

We must teach your dog to associate the sound of the click with a reward. This is a process known as ‘charging the clicker’, which is a bit like charging a battery.

Through repetition, we teach that every click means the reward is coming.

Charging the Clicker

1.) First, have a handful of roughly 20 pea-sized pieces of tasty food. Sausage, chicken, frankfurter and cheese all work well.

2.) With your clicker in one hand and the food in the other, go about your normal business. Randomly click and give your dog a piece of food over the next 5 minutes or so. Try and vary the time interval between clicks, and also whatever your dog is doing at the time you click. This part doesn’t require your dog to be doing anything specific. Just allow him to do what he pleases whilst you click and treat. By randomising when you click, your dog will pair the click and the treat together more quickly. It’s easy when these are the only two variables that are consistent each time.

3.) Just like charging a battery; the more often you charge it, the longer the association will last.  So, repeat this process twice a day for roughly a week or so. Your dog’s head will snap round to look for a reward at the sound of every click. This shows you that your clicker is charging up nicely.

Gundog Training Using a Clicker

Here’s a list of what you can train gundogs to do using Clicker Training, including when to Click & Treat (C&T):

• Teaching a puppy to sit (C&T when their bum touches the ground)

• Extended sit, including with distraction (C&T after the desired duration at the point the dog is to be released from the sit)

• Recall (C&T when the dog arrives in front of you, provided you are happy with the speed of his return)

• Heelwork (C&T every few steps if the lead is loose and dog is in the correct position)

• Stop Whistle (C&T as soon as the dog sits upon hearing a blast on the whistle)

• Holding the retrieve and delivery to hand (see below)