Quote:
Originally Posted by WonderPup
Using a clicker doesn't mean you need to have it with you all the time. What I tell my students is that you use the clicker to teach the behavior and then you fade it.
For people who are uninterested in using the clicker itself I make them use the concept and replace the "click" with a vocal cue. The most popular word to replace the clicker with is "YES". You do everything just as you would were you clicker training only you use the word, (your positive marker if you want techinical terms) in place of the click. All your doing, with click or word, is "marking" the exact moment in time that your dog did whatever behavior you were after. The theory is that if you can snapshop the behavior the dog picks up on exactly what it is being rewarded for thus learning the behavior more quickly.
I personaly perfer to use a dog whistle,(adjusted so that I CAN hear it), just because my dogs are around other people and their clickers soooo often, but still revert back to clicker training from time to time. ALL of my dogs will work with just the vocal marker though.
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I have a clicker, as I use it with horse training, and was going to start using it with my poodles... I have always had a doberman for many, many years and have never had to use a clicker for training them, but found that the poodles are going to need it. They are extremely intelligent but also have their "own mind" lol. They seem to LOVE the "are you talking to me?" look when called, looking up at me and then looking around deciding IF coming is what they want to do..lol. Anyway, I was going to start with the clicker training but I LOVE the idea of the whistle instead, I may go that way instead of the clicker... or maybe even use both as well as vocal so I have different positive markers to use in case I have one or the other or no marker objects on me. Thanks for the idea of using a whistle, I believe I will pick one up tomorrow.
