Clicker training is positive reward based training with a ‘yes’ marker signal.  The audible ‘yes’ signal is paired with a reward or positive reinforcer that the animal wants, something he will actively work to attain. Commonly food is used as a reward, but a ball or toy or game or a rest or pats or praise or anything the animal finds reinforcing can be used. The ‘yes’ signal is important as it lets the animal know that he has found the right answer, or performed the right behaviour and will now receive a reward.

The clicker is especially useful for pin pointing the exact fraction of a second that the correct behaviour has occurred. You may for example be working on obtaining attention from a dog, he can look at you and  look away faster than you can say ‘good boy’!, but with the precision of the clicker you can mark the exact second he makes eye contact, and guess what, rewarded behaviours happen again, which means your fraction of a second of eye contact will be repeated, you can reward again, and so on. Building eventually to a dog that maintains that connection with you whenever you wish. And until you get the attention, it is pretty hard for your dog to do what you ask!

Clicker training is in fact operant conditioning, pioneered by BF Skinner. It is scientific methodology applied to dog training, which means it is not folklore or just what we’ve been doing for hundreds of years, but quantifiable scientific fact. Yes it definitely works! In laymans terms, behaviour has consequences. The dog sits, the dog gets patted. The sitting causes the patting! The dog thinks he can train us, ‘I can get them to give me treats, I sit, they feed me!  Positive training is pro-active training, not reactive training. We don’t wait until our animal has done something wrong and then correct him, which is the old way, we actively show him what is the right thing to do, by rewarding him for doing it, and the clicker helps to pinpoint the behaviour that earned the reward.

So clicker training is a positive reward based training method used with the addition of an audible signal which tells the animal when he has performed the wanted behaviour, which signifies a reward is coming.  Positive training is faster, better, more efficient, easier to use, easier to understand, and MUCH more enjoyable for both you and your animal. Done correctly it helps your pet to try to find out what you would like him to do and offer it, instead of waiting for you to either direct him or correct him.