wikifido already has some wonderful do-it-yourself basic training instructions as well as good links to other training information and to some of the specifics of clicker training. Please go there for reliable information.

For unreliable information you are probably at the right place. The author of this page knows absolutely nothing about clicker training for obedience, but Bix is undergoing it and this just seemed an appropriate place to stick our personal observations, comments and links. First some background. Just scroll past this if you want to go directly to our current clicker experience.

Sit/Down/Stay etc. - a little personal history

50s, 60s and 70s No obedience classes of any sort but our Irish Setter and, later, Samoyeds were well behaved dogs who also knew some basic obedience commands. I've no idea how, I don't remember any training. They probably read our minds.

mid 80's Mac, our rambunctious lab mix, a Yellow Dog, was obedience trained in a traditional manner with a choke collar and all. We went through several sets of classes all directed toward competition. Accompanied by lots of serious reading of Barbara Woodhouse and the Monks of New Skeet. It worked. Moreover the dog enjoyed the classes and practice sessions. (More than the human did.) Shaping was certainly going on, using conversational yes/no just as one would hot/cold with a kid playing a search game. The treat trainers did not introduce behaviorism.

Lila, our little Titian, seemed to just pick it up from watching Mac. No classes seemed to be needed.

90s Balto, the husky mix, wandered in as a beaten, adult stray and was so gentle and eager to please that there never seemed to be any reason to try to formally train him, and the idea of putting a choke collar on such a dog was deeply disturbing. He would stop stock still and stare into your eyes with adoration if you just whispered his name. He walked great on a leash too. What happened if he got loose? He took off once and was back home in about 15 minutes. As he only liked to make left turns, he simply circled the block a couple of times until finally we just grabbed his collar as he passed by the gate. Waz, the beagle, didn't get any formal class training which is a pity. He would have loved it. Instead he was lure/reward trained at home.

00s Vowing to give the new puppies what we had not given Waz, Koda and Marco recently took a lure/reward puppy kindergarten class, modeled on Ian Dunbar's methods and taught by a very well-known trainer. Without clickers, though one can apparently use clickers with lure/reward.
Homework ...

• 2 books by Dunbar, Before & After Getting Your Puppy: The Positive Approach to Raising a Happy, Healthy & Well-Behaved Dog and Dog Behavior: An Owner's Guide to a Happy Healthy Pet;
• his video, Sirius Puppy Training,
• and an excellent non-Dunbar DVD Train Your Dog - The Positive Gentle Method

Now Bix is getting clicked (and treated). See the Bix Clix section below for the specifics.

A basic article on obedience training and control.

The disputes

Lots of clicker/food/whatever trainers are absolutely enraged by both traditional training and behavior changing techniques such as those used by Cesar Millan and Matthew Margolis. For examples of real vitriol, look at any of the message boards at Bark Magazine.

Some of the non-food trainers return the hate with brio. Examples: dogsecrets.com and K9Care

Some clicker trainers even want to you to understand that lure/reward with clickers is not true clicker training.

In my neighborhood we seem to have come to a consensus - whatever works. Several of use tend to use some sort of operant conditioning for sit/stay/down, but are Cesar devotees for behavioral issues such respect and trust. Bix's clicker trainer turns out to be a Cesar fan.

(By the way, be sure to watch Morgolis' DVD of his PBS series Woof! It's a Dog's Life to hear the voice he uses with dogs. Bix delights in my Uncle Matty imitations. The Woof! housetraining advice works.)

Now for Bix Clix

Treats: Picky, Picky. Bix likes Charlie Bears, Koda doesn't. Both love Natural Balance roll food cut into microscopic pieces, Waggers beef lung pieces that snap into tiny fragments, and crust cut off pizza, allowed to get stale, and pinched into fragments. Also real Cheshire cheese. Though per/pound pricey, In tiny pieces it is cheaper that purchased treats. No biscuits. They don't like any sort of dog biscuit, and the only ones they will tolerate are some from the Petco biscuit bar shaped like white pretzels.


Basic books read as prep:

1. Pryor, Karen Don't Shoot the Dog: The New Art of Teaching and Training
2. Palika, Liz The Complete Idiot's Guide to Dog Tricks clicking optional
   
3. Dennison, Pamela Complete Idiots Guide To Positive Dog Training

Clickers We are becoming clicker connoisseurs. The yellow button clicker is what we were given in class, and seems to be available at pet stores everywhere. The boxy clicker is very cheap ($1 including the wrist coil) and loud, which is good for Bix. But a lot of clicking causes Sore Thumb - an occupational hazard ? The little animals are also inexpensive. Some don't work, but at 4/$1 that doesn't matter too much. They are entertaining and small enough so that we have stuffed one in the pocket of every coat, in the pockets of treat bags, and so on. The Clickstick has an extensible wand on the end and comes with directions. Koda has circus ambitions.


Leave it (wikifido instructions) was taught the first way, food in hand, then later with a piece of food on the table. Bix's class went directly to a pile of treats on a piece of paper towel. Did it work? For the most part. Biz will leave anything but cat poop or Waggers. Koda will leave anything but pizza or dead moles.

More Clicker Resources

Lots of little videos. (If you are using Linux your Firefox may crash)
Beginning clicking.

Sit and down with a clicker. Actually that looks like lure/reward with clicker as opposed to pure clicker training. Whatever. It has some good hints.:

For most of the training goals there seem to be many methods, even within clicker training. Examples
loose leash walking 1
loose leash walking 2
target stick 1
target stick 2
and so on.

Bix's Buddies - What about training more that one animal at a time?

Clicks are not silent or private. I can't figure out how to clicker train just one animal in a household. Sometimes I can stuff one in the crate while working with the other, but then the little groans of outrage and hurt are distracting.

So far Bix couldn't care less about the clicker. He seems to do things just well with a brisk !yes!. I do understand that eventually it will be easier to shape behaviors with the precision clicks, but a sit is hardly a complex trick.

Koda, on the other hand, who was not clicker trained, seems to do much better with the clicks meant for Bix. She often seemed confused before and the clicks seem to clarify. Take stay. She would stay absolutely frozen in place as long as she could see me. Once I disappeared from view she would get up and roam. Two minutes with the clicker and .... she stays in place until I return to her. I click once when I'm at apogee or something - when I am ready to reverse direction and return. I can even go down to the basement and move laundry. One click when I am ready to come back up the stairs and when I get to her she is still sitting or lying down without any sign of having moved. This is no doubt NOT how one is supposed to use a clicker to get a great stay but it works for us. It does not work for Bix, who follows me almost immediately.

The old, old cat (17) now hauls herself off the heated bed to show up for the clicker training practice sessions. She just sits elegantly, but gets clicked and rewarded for that. If she swats the dogs just for the fun of it she doesn't get her treat.

She is still a good mouser and this morning left one for the dogs near their big crate. Mouse kills. To click or not to click?

Problems

1. Twice Koda has tried to eat the yellow button clicker. Fortunately it is large enough to be easily pulled out of her mouth.
   
2. Unless one is an octopus, it is hard to manage clicker, leash, treats.
3. Bix does his most adorable, spontaneous tricks when no clicker is around and he doesn't seem to hear the surprised !yes! Example: sliding down a small hill headfirst, on his back, with his feet in the air. The little animal clickers were an attempt to solve this, sowing them around everywhere. But ... they are easily eaten and so have to be kept out of the reach of dogs and kids.