Malli wrote:obviously I have some training experience so I'm really just making sure I'm not missing something and somehow going to mess this up...
The lovely thing about clicker-ing (see, there it is again!) is that you can't harm your dog if you mess up. If your timing or something is off, it just takes a little longer to learn. No harm, no foul.
dogged wrote:As a chronic clicker loser, I use verbal markers. Although the sound is not as novel as a clicker, its still effective enough for me and mine.
Hundilein wrote:I used to use "yes" as a marker, but ever since I went to a clicker training seminar last year and learned more about why the sound works, I use a mouth click instead. I also found that I got much better results from Renee with the actual clicker than with "yes". Personal choice, and the whole philosophy of clicker training is about so much more than the sound.
Ditto on Liz's comments on Reaching the Animal Mind. I'm reading it right now, and I'm getting a lot out of it, but it's not really a "how to", especially not if you're looking for the basics. (I realize that you know a thing or two about training, but it sounds like you're pretty new to clicker training in particular.) I have a couple of clicker training books, but it's been a while since I looked through them, so I can't remember whether they're good for basics or not. I can try to look through them in the next couple of days to refresh my memory.
You definitely don't need a "special" food to clicker train. Like Liz, I often use kibble. What I use depends more on what I am working on, and what kind of distractions I'm dealing with. More distraction means better treats. You can also use rewards other than food, though it is typically the easiest thing to use most of the time if you can get away with it. As long as you follow the click with some kind of reward, you're good. With some dogs at the shelter, they would much rather just keep walking than stop to eat a treat, so if they pull, I stop and when they release tension on the leash, I click and move forward. The opportunity to move forward is the reward. With a shy border collie I worked with one time, I clicked and then tossed her frisbee, because she didn't care about treats when she was nervous, but would still play. With really shy dogs, sometimes I click and move away, because what the dog really wants is social distance.
katiek0417 wrote:I can never remember to do it, so I end up (out of habit) using my verbal marker...
I started out using a clicker with my puppy...and it was going great...but I could never remember the clicker, so I went to the same verbal marker that I use with my older dogs, and I think my timing is just better with that (because I'm used to using it)...
Hundilein wrote:katiek0417 wrote:I can never remember to do it, so I end up (out of habit) using my verbal marker...
I started out using a clicker with my puppy...and it was going great...but I could never remember the clicker, so I went to the same verbal marker that I use with my older dogs, and I think my timing is just better with that (because I'm used to using it)...
I was the same way. "Yes" popped out of my mouth without thinking, because I had gotten so used to it. But once I committed to using the mouth click, it became just as natural for me, and now that's what pops out when I suddenly realize that I want to click, but I don't have my clicker handy. You just have to retrain yourself and build a new habit.
Again, clicker training as a philosophy is about so much more than the noise, so I say use whatever works for you. There's a lot more to clicker training than a click.
There are also a few studies out there showing the increased speed of learning new behaviors when using a clicker vs a verbal marker. Once the behavior is learned there is no difference in retaining that behavior but there is a direct correlation in increased learning speed in a clicker
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