Animal Training & Behavior ModificationAbout Clicker Training (Part 1 of 2, continued in Gem of a Pet)
A brief comment on Clicker Training: I don't fault this TOOL, but have issue with those who claim that it is a METHOD, or that it's a quick-fix formula to replace real, qualified, competent training. Training happens in your head and between you and the dog, not in a party favor.
How it works: The dog is given praise and/or treats while the Clicker is sounded. This creates a Pavlovian association between the sound of the Clicker and the good feelings, equating the sound with the reward. In order to continue that association (and keep the human end of the bargain,) once it is learned that the sound means Reward, the actual reward is postponed until the dog (or other animal) comes to accept that the reward WILL be coming... eventually. In effect, the click gives them the same warm-fuzzy feeling, then, that the praise or food did, and so the clicer's sound becomes the reward. The animal has then been programmed to be pleased to hear the sound. This is why I say it's still Pavlov's dog. (Pavlov, a behavioral scientist, noted that if you ring a bell when you feed a dog meat, in short order the dog will salivate when it hears the sound of the bell even if there is no meat present.)
To use the TOOL, then, one first programs the dog to think of the sound as a reward (or a promise of a reward soon to come,) and then makes the Clicker sound at the moment that the dog is performing a desired behavior.
What the Clicker compensates for is that many trainers, especially novices, are simply moving too slow, taking too long to realize that their pet has done the right behavior. By the time they realize, for example, that their dog has indeed put its butt to the ground and they pet or give food, the dog has since risen its butt from the ground and is now leaping up and off. The problem, of course, is that you've now just rewarded the dog for leaping up and running off, rather than for sitting; if you're too slow, you end up rewarding bad behaviors. The clicker solves this problem.
The Clicker is also good for reinforcing behaviors at a distance. One may not be able to pet the dog while the dog is running an agility course, for example. By using the Clicker, one can encourage the correct/desired behaviors, and it seems to be less distracting than heaping praise on the dog by telling it how good it is (which can result in the dog leaving off the exercise to go over to you to get praised.)
It's true that this can make teaching a behavior faster and easier... but we're still talking only about TEACHING it. That isn't all that training is about - not hardly. I can TEACH a behavior in very short time... but proofing that behavior, making it a Given that the dog will do as it has been taught, is another matter entirely. Rewarding for that behavior is only part of the story and process.
There MUST be a consequence for disobedience. We don't want to focus upon that. As my clients have heard several times, the idea is to avoid having bad behaviors in the first place, so they don't get to become bad habits... and nothing breeds success like success. That said, if the dog knows what Come means and I issue the command only to have the dog hike its nose in the air and trot off with total disregard for me and the command, standing there holding that Clicker isn't going to do much to solve the problem.... and therein lies the first limitation of so-called Clicker "Training" and those who claim to use all-positive methods.
The vast majority of my training and most all of my teaching techniques are positive. To claim that they are ALL positive, that no compulsion is necessary or acceptable, only proves to me that the person is either lying or living in a fairy tale. Dogs obey us because we are Alpha. They KNOW that beneath the good, healthy, loving relationship there IS an "or else".
Remove the Or Else and you'll find that the dog, like any other reasonably intelligent creature on the planet, will soon come to see commands as suggestions or requests. If the boss says he'd LIKE you to be in at 9 am, but you learn it's not required, that you won't be fired over it, you'll soon come to consider anything before 9:20 or so to be "on time". Why would you think the dog would be any less capable of figuring that out?
How it works: The dog is given praise and/or treats while the Clicker is sounded. This creates a Pavlovian association between the sound of the Clicker and the good feelings, equating the sound with the reward. In order to continue that association (and keep the human end of the bargain,) once it is learned that the sound means Reward, the actual reward is postponed until the dog (or other animal) comes to accept that the reward WILL be coming... eventually. In effect, the click gives them the same warm-fuzzy feeling, then, that the praise or food did, and so the clicer's sound becomes the reward. The animal has then been programmed to be pleased to hear the sound. This is why I say it's still Pavlov's dog. (Pavlov, a behavioral scientist, noted that if you ring a bell when you feed a dog meat, in short order the dog will salivate when it hears the sound of the bell even if there is no meat present.)
To use the TOOL, then, one first programs the dog to think of the sound as a reward (or a promise of a reward soon to come,) and then makes the Clicker sound at the moment that the dog is performing a desired behavior.
What the Clicker compensates for is that many trainers, especially novices, are simply moving too slow, taking too long to realize that their pet has done the right behavior. By the time they realize, for example, that their dog has indeed put its butt to the ground and they pet or give food, the dog has since risen its butt from the ground and is now leaping up and off. The problem, of course, is that you've now just rewarded the dog for leaping up and running off, rather than for sitting; if you're too slow, you end up rewarding bad behaviors. The clicker solves this problem.
The Clicker is also good for reinforcing behaviors at a distance. One may not be able to pet the dog while the dog is running an agility course, for example. By using the Clicker, one can encourage the correct/desired behaviors, and it seems to be less distracting than heaping praise on the dog by telling it how good it is (which can result in the dog leaving off the exercise to go over to you to get praised.)
It's true that this can make teaching a behavior faster and easier... but we're still talking only about TEACHING it. That isn't all that training is about - not hardly. I can TEACH a behavior in very short time... but proofing that behavior, making it a Given that the dog will do as it has been taught, is another matter entirely. Rewarding for that behavior is only part of the story and process.
There MUST be a consequence for disobedience. We don't want to focus upon that. As my clients have heard several times, the idea is to avoid having bad behaviors in the first place, so they don't get to become bad habits... and nothing breeds success like success. That said, if the dog knows what Come means and I issue the command only to have the dog hike its nose in the air and trot off with total disregard for me and the command, standing there holding that Clicker isn't going to do much to solve the problem.... and therein lies the first limitation of so-called Clicker "Training" and those who claim to use all-positive methods.
The vast majority of my training and most all of my teaching techniques are positive. To claim that they are ALL positive, that no compulsion is necessary or acceptable, only proves to me that the person is either lying or living in a fairy tale. Dogs obey us because we are Alpha. They KNOW that beneath the good, healthy, loving relationship there IS an "or else".
Remove the Or Else and you'll find that the dog, like any other reasonably intelligent creature on the planet, will soon come to see commands as suggestions or requests. If the boss says he'd LIKE you to be in at 9 am, but you learn it's not required, that you won't be fired over it, you'll soon come to consider anything before 9:20 or so to be "on time". Why would you think the dog would be any less capable of figuring that out?
Continued in "Gem of a Pet " (his is a treatise in two parts)
Labels: Clicker Training, Compulsion, Correction
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