Clicker Training Your Puppy

There are so many different ways to train your pup, and the way that I have decided to train Bailey is through clicker training. Clicker training is a method where a dog learns to associate good things, for example getting a treat or praise, with the sound of a clicker. This can make training your dog to do certain tasks a lot easier.

Here is some of the methodology behind the clicker training technique that I use with Bailey. Keep in mind that I am not an expert on the subject by any means. I am a college student studying animal behavior, specifically focused on animal psychology. I also target train rats and clicker trained my rabbit. Everything in this post comes from my own experience, but I am still learning!

Why it Works

First I want to talk a little bit about why the clicker training method actually works. If you are not interested in this and just want to learn how to clicker train your new puppy skip ahead to the method.

Clicker training occurs when an animal forms an association between the sound of a "click" and getting some sort of "reinforcer." A reinforcer is something positive and motivating to the animal. For many dogs an easy reinforcer to use during training is food. The goal of associating the click with food is to make the sound of the clicker into a reinforcer; the sound of the click is associated with something positive and for that reason it is positive.

Bailey sitting for a treat

This reduces the need to give your dog a treat every single time they do something good - you can just click the clicker and tell them they did a good job! This is good for a number of reasons. Number one: you don't end up feeding your new puppy a million treats which are not super healthy, and number two: you can start doing more complex training like target training, where the clicker acts as a reinforcer for going towards a specific target. This is something that I will be doing with Bailey once she is a little bit older for her service dog training, as one of her specific requirements is to be able to retrieve certain objects. You cannot use just a plain treat in this situation because the puppy's attention needs to be on the object rather than on you. The clicker is the signal that the puppy has given his or her attention to the correct object.

The Method

Clicker training your puppy is super simple but needs to be done continually and consistently. If there is no consistency your dog is not going to learn the association that is necessary for clicker training to occur. Use the following steps and tips to help you with your clicker training journey.

Clicker training your dog is super simple. A good time to start is when your dog is out of the crate and somewhat distracted, but don't leave too many distractions around. I like to do this during playtime when Bailey is playing by herself and has only one or two toys to play with. You can also just sit in an empty room and let the dog explore on his or her own. At random intervals during the training session click the clicker and immediately present the dog with a treat. It is super important to present the treat immediately in order to form this association. Once you have given your dog the treat let her go back to whatever she was doing previously before clicking again and presenting the treat. Eventually, your dog should look to you when the clicker goes off as if they are expecting a treat. This is how you know it has worked!

Bailey looking proud after hearing the clicker and being told she did a good job!

With Bailey, I do a few of these types of training sessions but I also use the clicker every single time we do other training. When Bailey sits on command, I click the clicker and give her a treat. When she lies down on command, I do the same. Basically, every time I give Bailey a treat for doing something good I also click the clicker. This consistency will make the association between the clicker and the yummy treat much stronger!

If you have any clicker training tips that I have not mentioned here, be sure to leave a comment below! Good luck with your clicker training!