Plastic and tin. Clickers are pretty straight forward. Press the tin and click. Dog training clickers are a great way to mark desired behaviors. If you aren't sure why you'd use one, we'll quickly explain. Dogs don't speak your language so to isolate precise behaviors in dog training, we have to 'mark' or signal the moment a desired behavior occurs. How does it work?
Ever hear of
Ivan Pavlov? He was scientist that studied "psychic secretions". Stick with us, we're getting to it. When dogs in his lab were fed by the lab assistants (food is a
primary reinforcer) they would salivate in anticipation of their feeding. Pretty natural stuff. What he realized was that they
ALSO salivated when the lab assistants appeared WITHOUT food. He realized the lab assistants, through their consistent appearance with food, became conditioned as
secondary reinforcers. We're almost there, if you've made it this far,
you're amazing, keep going (that's a
tertiary reinforcer by the way).
When conditioned, the clicker works the same way as the appearance of the lab assistants
(or a bell or click) but because it's a unique sound, devoid of emotion like a word, it's a great signal for communicating during dog training. Many dog trainers like to use a word but when observed are rarely consistent, inflect emotion, use a variety of words or use those same words daily around their dog which desensitizes the signal. When you're dog training, a unique marker that serves one purpose becomes very powerful and the dog realizes that this signal means reward will be presented for it's behavior. What's better is that the dog understands to work for the click which avoids all of the issues that having a primary reinforcer in plain view can create.
Because it's so clear, the learning process progresses very, very quickly. Scientific studies prove they are more effective than verbal markers and we recommend the clicker, or a whistle or an environmentally unique sound to train your dog. The clicker is simply a signal, a very effective one for dog training any dog breed, or cat or bird or whatever! You’ll want extras around to reinforce at the right moment. Sold in sets of five. These clickers fit perfectly into the pocket of our clicker treat pouches and training vests! (hint, hint)
Our current stock of clickers are TABBED which means there is a small round tab, or bump on one end that you can attach a lanyard to. We don't use lanyards ourselves but find it very helpful when holding a clicker or removing it from a pocket, pouch or vest in that you can tell which end is which when orienting it in your hand.
If you want to know more about how world class trainers use markers, scroll down to see a list of products that will get you started! There is even
rare footage of Ivan Pavlov and his dogs in our 7X International Award Winning DVD,
Training Through Pictures with Dave Kroyer- Learning to Learn.
