Good Dog Behavior & Training

Clicker training (Applied Operant Conditioning) is a fun and exciting way to train your dog (or any animal with a brain for that matter). It involves no force, compulsion or abuse and does not rely on controlling the dog's misbehavior.

It is about shaping good behavior with clear-cut conditioned signals for reinforcement. Clicker training has been around for many, many years and is based on the sound scientific principles of learning. A Clicker is really just a silly little child's toy. However, it has an enormous amount of power when used to train animals. An animal learns that the sound of the "click" has value by it being paired with a primary reinforcer such as food. So after several repetitions of click/treat, click/treat, click/treat, and so on, the animal learns that the sound of the "click" means that food is coming. It's like Pavlov's Bell (classical-conditioning). Once the connection has been made, we can use the clicker to "mark" or reinforce behaviors we like (operant-conditioning). Unlike your voice, the sound of the clicker is very distinctive; the dog has not heard it before and therefore can identify it accurately and quickly. Our dogs are constantly hearing our voice; we talk to them all the time. Talking to our dogs is a good thing, however, when it comes to telling the dog what behavior earned reinforcement, our voice falls short. By the time you say "good dog" or "good boy/girl" and deliver a treat, the dog has done two or three other things. Thus, it is not clear to the dog what behavior earned the treat. For your dog, clicker training is a game, a game in which your dog tries to get you to click the clicker (because it signals the arrival of treats). You click only those behaviors you like. Once those behaviors are established, you simply wean away the clicker and treats. With clicker training, your focus on what the dog does right, not what it does wrong! The advantages to using a clicker are:


	PAVLOV'S BELL You're probably familiar with the story of "Pavlov's Dog." In the early 1900's, Dr. Pavlov, a Russian Chemist and Physiologist, was studying the digestive process in dogs and the interaction between salivation and the action of the stomach. He realized that they were closely linked by reflexes in the autonomic nervous system. Without salivation, the stomach didn't get the message to start digesting. Pavlov wanted to see if external stimuli could effect this process, so he rang a bell at the same time he gave the dogs food. After a while, the dogs-which before only salivated when they saw and ate their food-would begin to salivate when the bell rang, even if no food was present. He called this a "conditioned reflex," an action that has to be learned. Pavlov called this learning process "conditioning." (He also found that if the bell rang too often and food did not appear, the conditioned reflex would become repressed. The dogs stopped salivating at the sound of the bell).

	CLICKER TRAINING Clicker training (Applied Operant Conditioning) is a fun and exciting way to train your dog (or any animal with a brain for that matter). It involves no force, compulsion or abuse and does not rely on controlling the dog's misbehavior. It is about shaping good behavior with clear-cut conditioned signals for reinforcement. Clicker training has been around for many, many years and is based on the sound scientific principles of learning. A Clicker is really just a silly little child's toy. However, it has an enormous amount of power when used to train animals. An animal learns that the sound of the "click" has value by it being paired with a primary reinforcer such as food. So after several repetitions of click/treat, click/treat, click/treat, and so on, the animal learns that the sound of the "click" means that food is coming. It's like Pavlov's Bell (classical-conditioning). Once the connection has been made, we can use the clicker to "mark" or reinforce behaviors we like (operant-conditioning). Unlike your voice, the sound of the clicker is very distinctive; the dog has not heard it before and therefore can identify it accurately and quickly. Our dogs are constantly hearing our voice; we talk to them all the time. Talking to our dogs is a good thing, however, when it comes to telling the dog what behavior earned reinforcement, our voice falls short. By the time you say "good dog" or "good boy/girl" and deliver a treat, the dog has done two or three other things. Thus, it is not clear to the dog what behavior earned the treat. For your dog, clicker training is a game, a game in which your dog tries to get you to click the clicker (because it signals the arrival of treats). You click only those behaviors you like. Once those behaviors are established, you simply wean away the clicker and treats. With clicker training, your focus on what the dog does right, not what it does wrong! The advantages to using a clicker are: 1. Accurately identifies the correct behavior. 2. Works well from a distance. 3. Helps animal focus on the behavior. 4. Defines the END of a behavior. Making it easier to get longer durations. 5. Easily transferred from person to person. 6. Does not rely on force or punishment. 7. You do not have to be physically stronger than your dog. 8. Will not lead to aggression or avoidance behaviors. 9. Can be used to shape a variety of behaviors. 10. It is REALLY FUN for you and your dog!!!! The clicker, because of its accuracy in telling your dog WHAT behavior earned a treat, maximizes learning!!


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