A dog clicker is a small device that will make a medium to loud clicking sound when you press a button on it to activate it. These mechanisms have been in use among trainers of dolphins and other animals for many years, but they've only received the attention of dog owners and trainers very recently. They have a number of advantages over standard and traditional training methods, and many people prefer them to training methods that involve punishment for misdeeds, because they are less cruel and will not hurt or shock your animal.
Dog Clicker Training Effectiveness
Dog clicker training can be highly effective. It makes use of the natural association that dogs come to develop between sounds, rewards and behaviors. As your dog exhibits good behaviors, you'll click the mechanism and give him some sort of reward. He'll come to realize, over repetition and through time, that this behavior earns such a response. You can then associate the command for the behavior along with the behavior and the reward. Eventually, the idea is to be able to remove the clicker sound and the reward from the equation, and to have your pet obey your command by following with the appropriate behavior.
Dog Clicker Training Disadvantages
There are a few things to keep in mind if you begin to train your pet using a dog clicker. These are a few of the reasons why this method of training is either problematic or not as effective as it could be.
Dog clicker training requires that you give your pet a great number of rewards. This is often in the form of a food treat. Any time that your dog exhibits the positive behavior that you're looking to instill in him, you'll be required to click the clicker and to give him a reward of some type. As you can imagine, if you give your dog too many treats, you may contribute to an overall weight gain in the animal. This can actually be very damaging and risky for his long term health.
Dogs will often come to rely on the presence of treats in order to behave. It's not uncommon for dogs that have been trained using the dog clicker training method to begin to not respond to a command or to the clicker as soon as the owner removes the treats. Dogs will easily become dependent upon these particular elements of the training in order to want to behave at all.
Other Considerations
Many people therefore find that a combination of different standard training methods and the dog clicker training method will work the best in order to train their pet how to make use of good behaviors while simultaneously avoiding bad ones. Ask your vet or a professional trainer in your area for additional advice relative to your pet.