I have seen some criticize clicker training as impersonal and artificial — what do you mean, I’m not supposed to talk to my dog? He’s supposed to work for food instead of me? Hands-off? I’m not supposed to touch my own dog?!
Of course this is a skewed view at best, and occasionally outright wrong, but it can be propagated by well-intentioned but confounding directions from some clicker trainers. Let’s clear this up!
Of course you can talk to and touch and play with your dog during training! But the timing of it is very important.
We humans like to chatter and coach, often too much for efficient training. It’s not uncommon to see handlers, first training dogs for matwork, who encourage the dogs, “Go to your mat! Now go on! Go touch your mat!” with accompanying gestures. We feel like we’re encouraging or even cluing in the dogs who aren’t sure yet what we’re wanting.
What all this chatter and gesturing does, however, is draws the dog’s attention to us instead of his task. He can’t possibly focus on the mat, because he’s too busy watching our cheery face and trying to guess what all the waving is about. And all that excess noise, aural and visual, overshadows the click which tells him exactly what we do want, meaning we need far more repetitions before he recognizes the key behavior. Can it work? Sure, but it takes longer!
Once the dog has achieved the click, now you can get excited for him! Praise, pet, treat, play, whatever makes you both enthused about the process and his success. Be cautious that you don’t get so excited that he loses track of what he’s just done — just enough that he wants to do it again!
Actually, I’m not really keen on mental math. That’s why I developed ClickStats.
I tell clients who are tempted to talk during shaping that it’s much like someone cheering for me while I’m doing long division in my head. No matter how much I understand that you mean it to be encouraging and supportive, the fact is that your incessant encouragement — “That’s right, Laura, you can do it! Carry that remainder! Good job! Don’t lose track of that tens place — keep it, keep it, good!” — is really just distracting and even annoying. Wait ’til I’ve got the answer, and then tell me how brilliant I am.
If you’re not used to staying still and quiet, it can be difficult at first, but the results of faster training are worth it!
(ClickStats can be found here, to help with your own mental math!)
Arrgh! Did ye miss t’ piratey version o’ this post?
