I love when people ask me why I use clicker training to teach dogs. It gives me a chance to explain some basic dog training principles, such as how using behavior-contingent rewards:
1. Makes the right things easy and the wrong things hard because I can “shape” a behavior,
2. Allows me to pair a “click” with a “treat” so that it teaches a dog the exact moment that a specific behavior earns a reward,
3. Demonstrates the idea that leader controls food, and
4. Compels the teacher to pay attention to details.

Using food as a reward is a real hot-button issue for some people… because they confuse the idea of a behavior-contingent food reward with a bribe. They think that food is used to bribe the dog to obey. However, a “click/treat” (C/T) is never a bribe… it’s a paycheck!

As I wrote in Tao of Puppies: How to raise a good dog without really trying, a C/T is an exact moment in now. It immediately tells the dog that a specific physical action is correct.

The problem with giving a dog a friendly pat or saying “good boy” is that by the time you get the words “good boy” out of your mouth… or reach your hand down for a friendly pat… the dog’s behavior that you want to reward has altered.

For example, when I teach a dog to find the weave entrance in agility, I C/T the exact moment that a dog enters on the correct side of the weave poles. The dog immediately recognizes the specific action she did that earned the C/T. Does this make training easier? You bet!

An extra benefit is that the dog doesn’t become dependent on my position to find the entrance to the weave poles. I can “click” from 10 feet away and the dog can still hear it!

The use of C/T allows you to dig deep and really get to know your dog. What you discover when you start paying attention to small things is that the “big” behaviors happen quickly and easily.

The first step to getting the exact behavior you want… is to decide what the ideal behavior looks like. Then, you can figure out the small steps that will shape it. (If you don’t know what you want, how can you determine (and reward!) the tiny steps that will lead you to the “finished” behavior?)

Let’s say you want to teach your dog to pay attention and focus on you… first you must decide what the “finished” behavior looks like.

In obedience… focus means the dog raises his head, arches his neck, and watches me out of his right eye while I walk with him at heel.

In agility… focus requires that a dog learns the difference between handler focus and obstacle focus.

With family dogs… focus asks the dog to look at you and keep looking at you until you release her.

That’s the advantage of clicker training… it recognizes that every dog is different, and every person’s needs are different.

And it encourages you to decide what “focus” means for you and your dog. Then you can dig deep, really watch your dog, pay attention to small things, and C/T the exact behavior you want.

In the beginning to teach your dog to focus… you might C/T a movement as small as a flick of an ear in your direction. With other dogs it might be a head turn… The point is you do what your dog needs to shape her ability to focus on you.

And the beauty of clicker training is… it encourages you to pay attention to the small things.

And to paraphrase a famous saying… “Dog” is in the details!

May you always have…

The Best Dog Ever!

Krista Cantrell

p.s. My thanks to Tom Carlough for asking me why I use food as a reward.