Leerburg Clickers

Our thoughts on Clicker training

$1.25+s&h

2" x 1"

 

We sell Wrist Coils to go with the clicker.

 

Our Thoughts on Clicker training

We are a big fan of MARKER training here at Leerburg. If you are not familiar with what this is and want to learn about this very exciting way to train your dog get our Basic Dog Obedience video

Learning to give MARKERS is basically the beginning of learning timing in your dog training.

Good timing is critical to every aspect of dog training. The timing of marking a behavior and the timing of giving a correction is something new handlers must learn if they are ever going to effectively train their own dog.

Marker training means we assign a value to an action that the dog does. An action can be the dogs butt hitting the ground when it sits, or an action can be when the dog turns to come to us, or an action can even be the dog giving us eye contact.

An action can be MARKED by using your voice and a specific word (i.e. YES) or it can be MARKED by using a clicker.

When an action gets MARKED it always gets a Reward - either food, a toy or praise.

My personal preference is to use my voice to MARK an action. I say this because I will always have my voice and I may not always be able to find my clicker or have it with me when I want to MARK an action

But with that said there are places where we recommend a clicker.

IF YOU CANNOT BE CONSISTENT IN SAYING "YES" – if you one time say YES, one time say "OK" and one time say "GOOD DOG" then you are better off using the clicker.

Another application for the CLICKER is with people who have trouble getting an excited tone to their voice. These people are better off using a clicker to start the training. Especially if they are retraining a dog after it has had crappy compulsion training by that specific handler.

Some people have a hard time learning the timing for marking an action. These people can benefit from training with a second handler who knows how to MARK an action. The second handler MARKS the action with a clicker and the handler can use his voice to say YES as a verbal marker right after the click

This works well with teaching children how to learn timing. Parents or instructors can use the clicker and every time the dog gets a clicker MARK the child says YES.

When the child gains experience he or she can pick his own spots to mark a behavior with a verbal YES and the clicker can be eliminated.

The important thing to keep in mind is that at some point in time using a clicker needs to be combined with a voice MARKER and then after that the clicker is eliminated.

All dog training has 3 phases. A learning phase, a correction phase and a distraction phase.

People who try and tell new trainers that the CLICKER is the end of the training and that the CLICKER does not need to be combined with a correction phase and a distraction phase of training are dead wrong. These are the people who need more training themselves and they give CLICKER training a bad name.

When it comes to behavioral modification a CLICKER can be used to MARK the behavior you want. The clicker and THE REWARD that goes with the MARK is not the end of behavioral modification for 99% of the dog problems. So if you are new to dog training - do not be misled by people who tell you differently.

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Leerburg® Clicker

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