When I am doing a first session with clients I usually start with introducing them to a clicker. A clicker is a small hand held noisemaker, much like you would find at kid’s parties. But for the purpose of training, it is used as a marker for behavior. A clicker is ideal for this purpose because it is a quick noise that is almost instantaneous and completely repeatable. That means you can easily teach the dog by learned association, that if they hear a click, they will get a treat.

Once the dog understands that a click will always get them a treat, you then teach them that they can demonstrate behaviors and make you click. In this way they become active in their own training and actually enjoy the learning process itself!

Because of this, clickers are used all over the world to teach a variety of different animals new or complicated behaviors.  When I worked with Big Cats we used clickers as a means of communicating to our feline friends that we liked what they were doing. This is especially important because with many large predators you can’t force them to do what you want, you have to make them want to do what you want! Frequently you are working behind a cage wall so even if you wanted to you couldn’t use physical cues to model the behavior you needed.

The same is true for dogs, if you can get them to want to do something, whether that is staying off the couch, going to the toilet on cue, or just shaking hands. You can show them how much fun it is to do the things you like! And lets be honest, if you don’t like something, you don’t do it, and if you do like something you do it even if someone doesn’t give you a cupcake afterwards.