Clicker Training

written by Kerry Bradbury

Teaching the Basics

The sit

At the beginning of a training session let your dog know that there are rewards on offer. With a dog that has already learned some things, especially with a clicker, this fact alone should start them experimenting to see how they can get you to click. With a new dog, if the reward is right, they will try to get it from you. All you have to do is wait for what you want.

As soon as your dog sits, click and treat. Rather than giving him the treat whilst he is sitting, throw the treat a little way so that he has to get up to have it. This way he is up again and you should soon get the opportunity to click & treat another sit. As the click is also a release it doesn’t matter that he doesn’t maintain the position while being rewarded. Wait for your dog to sit again and repeat.

Aim to get between 20 & 50 repetitions. At this point you should find that after each click and reward your dog will sit again for the next reward.

Try to vary the situation a little while you are teaching this initially. Do not always stand in exactly the same place, or you dog will learn that sit is only rewarded in a certain place in the lounge or while you are stood with both hands behind your back. Try to make the situation a little variable, but not hugely so that your dog becomes confused.

Tip When teaching sit, standing up with a piece of food in your hand will often result in your dog sitting.

Introducing the verbal signal

Once you are at the point where immediately your dog knows you have a reward he sits, you can then introduce the verbal signal or command. Show your dog that you have a treat to offer, say sit in a friendly voice and when he complies, click & treat. Do not do this unless you are sure your dog will sit immediately. Don’t be tempted to repeat the command if your dog does not comply. Remember at this point you are introducing a label for the behaviour your dog is showing you. He does not know what sit means. (Incidentally, you could use the word bananas or shelf and it would be just as effective, but harder for you to remember!)

Try to observe your dog carefully so that you can predict when he is likely to sit. You can then time your cue so that he hears it just before he offers the behaviour.

You can introduce a hand signal in exactly the same way. A good hand signal for sit is a raised hand, as this generally causes the dog to look up which is likely to make him feel more comfortable if he sits anyway. However, any signal will do.

Once your dog has learned one signal, you can teach the other signal by giving it immediately prior to the already learned one. This way your dog will get one signal, be given an already established signal he knows and so perform the behaviour. Once the two signals have been paired together regularly the first signal will also be recognised as the behaviour will always have followed it. You can then cut out the initial signal or use either at any time.

If you use the word (or hand signal) and he doesn’t show the behaviour immediately, help him out by using the food to show him what you wanted (luring). Then go back to a few repetitions with out the signal.

Once you have introduced the signal you can begin to teach your dog that you will only reward the sits that you ask for. Now if your dog sits and you haven’t asked him to, ignore him. Only click & treat when he sits with a cue.

Maintaining the behaviour

A sit is little use if it only occurs for a split second. To teach your dog to sit for longer, simply delay the click. For example - ask for a sit, dog sits, count 1 second, then click & treat. Build up the time gradually second by second until your dog will sit for 10 seconds or 20 seconds waiting for the click. Whilst your dog maintains a position be sure to use your praise as a way of letting him know that he’s doing well and that he should keep going. Should he move before you click - immediately cease to praise him or give a "wrong" signal. These are both good ways of getting across to him the exact moment where he made a mistake.

Proofing

When you first teach the sit it is likely that your dog will be near to you and you will be standing or sitting still. You should also be in a fairly distraction free environment. It is important that your dog learns to sit and hold the position regardless of the environment and also regardless of what you, his handler is doing.

Many dogs find it difficult to sit and hold the position if his handler moves around. To teach your dog to accept this, practice as follows:

Ask your dog to sit, begin praising and then put one leg out to the side or in front of you as if to take a step. If your dog remains in the sit, click & treat. If he moves either ignore him or give him the ‘you went wrong’ signal. Repeat until you have successfully managed to move your leg three times without your dog moving.

Do the same, only this time take a step. If your dog remains still, click & treat. If he makes a mistake - no reward. Repeat this until you can move around as much as you like and your dog knows that he need not follow if he has been asked to sit. By doing this you will also end up with a very effective ‘stay’ without having taught it separately.

Try the same system with bending down, jumping up and down, slapping your thigh, singing! All of these things are small distractions to your dog but will teach him that ‘sit’ means sit regardless of whatever else is happening.

It is also important that your dog understands the command ‘sit’ wherever you go with him. To ensure this happens it is important to train your dog in a variety of different places. Your initial training area should be relatively distraction free - i.e. your lounge or garden. You can then move onto the park, someone else’s house, walking along the road etc. A dog training class is also a great place to practise because there will be other dogs as distractions but ones that are under control and won’t interfere with your dog. It is wise to have done some clicker work at home first, before trying to teach in this environment.

Whenever you train your dog somewhere new or with a new distraction, always make it easy for your dog to get it right. Make him aware that you have rewards available and then if you think he is likely to respond, ask him for the behaviour. If he does not respond, help him with a lure and then go back to stage one, waiting for your dog to offer the behaviour and then clicking & treating. It will be tempting to ask for the sit again, but if you do, you may well end up undoing the association you have made between the word and the behaviour because you dog is not responding in the same way.

Once you have trained in three or four different places you will be able to ask for the sit in a new place and your dog will be more likely to do as you ask. This is because he will now be learning to generalise and will have had experience of sitting in many places.

When using distractions it is best to have them under your control at first. For example to teach your dog to sit whilst people are running about ask a friend or family member to jog about while you train your dog. This way if your dog finds it hard to concentrate you can get the person to move very slowly or leave if necessary. The other way to introduce distractions is to be far away from them at first and then gradually move closer.

Try this:

With your dog off the lead and aware you have treats ask him to sit. Click & treat. Ask your assistant to run about and you ask your dog to sit. If he does Click & treat and perhaps get your assistant to reward him as well. If he ignores you and chases the assistant, get the assistant to stop and ignore the dog, you show him the treat he could have earned and then try again - this time with the assistant moving more slowly, or further away.

If your dog really can’t help but be distracted, put him on the lead and try like that.

Never make excuses for your dog - ‘he can’t do it because its raining, there’s another dog, he’s tired’ etc. If he can’t do it in a certain situation it’s because he hasn’t learned to yet. It is up to you to teach him in the widest range of situations possible. DON'T COMPLAIN, TRAIN!

Improving performance

When proofing you should use a reward every time in the new situation but can now reward only the best sits in the environments where your dog is confident. It is not required that you must reward your dog every time he sits for you in the lounge but you can speed up performance by setting certain criteria. For example - only sits within 1 second of being asked will be rewarded. Only sits beside me will be rewarded. This way you can gradually improve the sit response and your dog will work harder in order to get his rewards. Always praise your dog regardless of whether you intend to give a food treat or toy.

You should now be able to substitute the clicker for just a release command in this situation, as you now have a verbal signal to ask for the behaviour and your dog has learned to hold the position. Now instead of signal, praise, click & treat the sequence becomes signal, praise, release word & treat (or just praise if the performance is not good enough for a treat)

Down

This is a useful position to clicker train. Initially it may be slower to train than the sit, as your dog may not go into the position as readily. To start with, begin as you did with the sit, simply waiting for the position to occur. Click and reward if it does.

TIP You may find it useful to sit on the floor to begin with as this may encourage your dog to lie down.

If your dog doesn’t readily lie down you can break the behaviour down into small stages. For example - first click when your dog looks down at the floor, then when he looks down at the floor whilst in a sit position, then if he bends his body towards the floor etc until he lies right down. Each time you have an improvement on the closeness of the behaviour your dog is offering to the behaviour that you want, this should become your new behaviour to click. Don’t go back and accept less, unless you think your dog is losing interest and will give up.

It may help to use a lure to get this position to begin with if your dog really isn’t showing any signs of moving towards it. Use a treat and hold it on the floor, clicking and treating when your dog moves toward it. Alternatively draw the treat underneath a low object such as a chair, or your leg (depending on your dog's size) and click and treat when your dog lies down in order to get the food. If you use a lure, try to do so for only a few repetitions and then simply show the dog the food and allow him to figure out how to get it.

Once your dog is lying down in order to get you to click & treat, you can add your command or signal. Do this just before your dog lies down and don’t be tempted to repeat yourself.

You should proof the down in exactly the same way as the sit. Get your dog used to you moving around when he is laying down, step over him, set up other distractions. Some dogs dislike lying down in the wet, or on cold floors so it is a good idea to train in these situations as part of your proofing.

A really useful exercise is to get your dog to lie down at a distance from you. You can do this by asking your dog to lie down at a pace away from you and only clicking and treating if he maintains the distance. If he moves towards you and lies down, simply ignore him and start again. Gradually build up the distance pace by pace. If your dog is interested in toys then using a toy as a reward in this situation can be very useful. Instead of clicking & giving a treat when your dog lies down at a distance, click & then throw the toy away from you past your dog. This will teach him that the reward will be disconnected from you and so discourage the tendency to come towards you and lie down.

Testing the verbal signal

As you now have two positions taught you can test out whether your dog has properly learned the correct signal for each position. A dog will tend to repeat the behaviour he has just learned more strongly and in favour of other behaviours. He may therefore offer you the down when you ask for a sit, if that is what he has most recently learned.

Try out the sit and the down, ignoring any wrong guesses from your dog and rewarding the correct response to a signal. By withholding the treat when he gets it wrong and perhaps turning your back on the dog, you signal that you didn’t like what he just did. This is also a good point to use a ‘you got it wrong command’ to inform your dog when he makes the wrong decision. You can then ask him again and give him the chance to get it right. At this point it is wise to reward all correct responses so you do not confuse your dog by not rewarding wrong guesses but also not rewarding some correct ones.

Stand

The third position is the stand. This is relatively easy to get without any prior learning but may be harder once you have taught your dog a sit. This tends to be because your dog may have figured out that sit is a good thing to try on all occasions as it often earns him a reward.

To get a stand initially watch your dog and click & treat whenever he is standing still. The more difficult thing with stand is getting the position for any length of time, as dogs tend to want to move around once they have stood up. Again you may wish to use a lure initially if your dog really isn’t getting it, but you shouldn’t have to.

Try to make sure that your dog learns to stand not only from lying down and sitting, but also from moving around. This is a good way to ensure he learns that it is a static position and not just a case of changing from another position.

Progress in the stand as with the sit and the down making sure that your dog learns to hold the position and not wander about. To get the position for longer simply delay the click. Move on to adding a verbal signal, proofing and improving performance by rewarding only the best stands.

You can then integrate the stand into your dogs repertoire, ensuring that he is listening to the commands and not just using guesswork.

These three positions do not need to be taught in any particular order. When you begin training a dog the easiest course of action is to click the first thing he does and teach that position first, and then move on from there. If your dog is very keen and wants to do more then you may make a good amount of progress on all three positions in one training session. Don’t be in a hurry and always stop while your dog is still happy to work, not when he is sick and tired of it.

Walking on a lead

This can be taught to a dog with or without the aid of the lead. The following is intended for teaching the dog not to pull. You can extend this and use the clicker to teach competition style heelwork, but this is slightly different. See targeting section.

This is easiest taught to a dog who has no history of pulling on the lead. If your dog is a seasoned puller, you will probably find it easier to start without the lead.

Begin by teaching this in a distraction free environment, for example around the house or garden. First decide which side you would like your dog to walk on. It is possible to teach both sides but initially easier to teach one or the other. Let your dog know there are rewards available and then move away from him. Click and treat when he comes to your side (and preferably looks at you - but this may come with time). Move away from your dog and repeat. You should aim for 50 - 100 repetitions.

To get your dog moving away from you it is useful to reward him by throwing the treat away. Click while he is at your side then make him move away to get the reward. This means that he has to figure out to come back to you for the next click. Remember the click is also the release. Before you move on from this stage your dog should be trying his utmost to maintain close contact to you at your side - each time you move away or get him to move away, coming straight back.

Maintaining the behaviour

Now he knows the position you can ask him to maintain it. This needs to be done straight away with lead walking as it is a moving position as opposed to a static one.

As he comes to your side move away one pace, if he is still there, stop, click & treat. Repeat. Next move two paces, click & treat, then three, then four and so on. Do not rush this stage, progress over several training sessions if necessary. Praise your dog while he is walking beside your prior to the click & treat.

TIP If he finds it hard to stay beside you, you can use a lure to begin with. Hold a toy or treat in your hand in his view. Try to keep any luring to a minimum.

Once your dog has learned to stay beside you for some time you can begin to reduce how often you reward him. Let him know you have a reward, begin to walk, praising him for following you, count 4 paces click and treat, then count 10 paces click & treat, then 20 paces, then back to 3. Varying the period of time between rewards helps to avoid your dog learning to ‘kangaroo’. In other words, to come to your side for a treat then pull at the end of the lead for a few paces, then come back for another treat and so on. Keep him guessing and he will stay beside you more readily. Only reward him for having been beside you as opposed to simply just arriving there.

Signal

Once he has learned to maintain the position you can add a signal. Some people choose to make the fact that the lead is on the signal. This means that whenever you put the lead on your dog he is expected to stay by your side and pay attention to where you are going. It is also useful however to have a verbal signal, as this means you can request your dog to walk beside you even in the absence of a lead. As with previous behaviours do not introduce a signal until you are sure your dog has fully understood what is required and is doing it readily. Once he is, give the command "heel" (or whatever you choose to use) followed by the click and treat as he comes to your side. Go back to clicking immediately for a short while whilst introducing the signal. This helps your dog to understand what the command is connected to and listen out for it.

Proofing walking on a lead

Proofing this may be more difficult than the sit as dogs do tend to have a strong instinct to pull, particularly if they want to get towards or away from something.

Try to proof this initially in easy situations i.e. not when your dog is extremely excited and wants to go for a walk. To start with practise perhaps when he knows dinner is at home and so you walk for two minutes up and down the drive. Or after a long run in the park, walking back to the car.

Once your dog is happily walking along beside you on a loose lead without distractions, begin to set up distractions that are under your control. Practice walking along, with a dog approaching in the distance. If your dog pulls towards the other dog, simply stop and wait for him to return to your side, then click & treat. When you first begin to introduce distractions you can lower your criteria for success a little and go right back to clicking your dog just for coming to your side. You can then build back up to getting him to maintain the behaviour.

An excellent reward when working with distractions is to allow your dog to get to the distraction should he maintain the behaviour correctly. For example - if he walks towards the other dog, and the lead remains loose, you can click and then allow him to greet the dog. You may find that when you click, he looks for the treat and would rather have that than see the dog. If this is the case, reward him with the thing that he wants.

Do not ask your dog to do this for long periods of time while he is learning as he may get bored and stop offering the behaviour. You will then be in a position of rewarding the opposite behaviour of pulling, should you find yourself in the middle of a walk with a fed up dog and you need to get home. Ideally you should not have your dog on a lead other than when you are doing short training sessions with him. You will find your progress is speedier if you work this way. Gradually build up the amount of time you ask your dog to maintain this behaviour, as with the other commands.

Inappropriate rewards

Walking on a loose lead is a behaviour which has many rewards for not doing it. For example dog pulls to the park, gets let off his lead, has a good time. Dog pulls towards other dog/person gets a play/fuss. It is therefore important when clicker training this that your rewards are better than all the possible rewards for pulling. It is also important that you do not allow your dog to gain the other rewards unless they are for walking on a loose lead and not pulling.

The important thing with extending the principle of walking on a loose lead, to real life situations is consistency. Make sure that you always reward your dog for getting it right and never proceed on a walk while the lead is tight.

Once you have begun to reward your dog at varying points whilst walking him on the lead you are on your way to having a dog that walks nicely all the time. Gradually increase the amount of walking you do in between rewards until finally the only rewards required will be natural ones. e.g. being allowed off the lead to play on arrival at the park, or being given a treat when you get home after a walk around the block.