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Originally Posted by Britster  I didn't use the clicker at all to teach Jackson his first like 15 tricks or so, and he did great without it too. But I decided to go ahead and buy one and see what it was all about... it made him 'click' (hehe) alot faster about what exactly I wanted him to do. At the exact moment he did what I wanted, he gets a click and treat.
Oh and I don't use the clicker for tricks he already knows. It's not something I carry around or anything... once he knows a trick, clicker is not used, it's just in the initial training process of a new trick. For example, when I taught him 'cover your eyes' I used a piece of scotch tape, put it on his mustache and he would swipe at it with his hands... at that EXACT moment I clicked and he immediately shot up and knew he did something right so then he got a treat. After about 15 practice tries, he already had the trick down so I removed the tape, and he did it about 10 times without any tape on him (but still clicking for correct behavior at this point). And then no more clicker.. now he does it just by the command.
I have just personally found that the clicker makes it more clear to Jackson what I want him to do... it's also nice for shaping. Sometimes we will just sit on the floor, and he will start making up his own tricks, and I click for what I like. The other day he decided to stand on a blanket and kinda swipe his feet backwards (it looked like he was hiking a football lol) and I clicked it because it looked so cute so then he learned to keep doing it. I'm not saying you can't do that with your voice either... because you def. can! I never thought I'd like the clicker but now that we've tried it, I couldn't imagine not using it to learn a new trick! |
That sounds great! When are you going to update a vid of Jackson's newest tricks? The football hiking one sounds cute!
I'm glad the clicker is working great for you. I couldn't get it to work with the dogs at the shelter, or Kaji. I understood the shelter dogs, because I'm not there enough for the training to be consistent. So I stuck to grooming them. But Kaji's just different. I don't need treats to teach him anything. He'll take them of course, but I can get him to perform new tricks without any treats. He aims to please!!