Clicker Training Makes It Easy to Train the Little Details

Clicker Training Makes It Easy to Train the Little Details

This is one of the things I really like about clicker training.  A good clicker student is always listening to you and trying to figure out how to get the click.  I like to use clicker training to improve the quality of Cole's movements.

If I am working on a behavior that Cole is really good at, I ask him to get better.  Let's say he is parked out, but he isn't parked out perfectly.  I want all of his feet square.  In the early days, sometimes he would have one foot further in front of the other.  He would look at me; waiting for his click.  Instead of a click, I tapped my foot on the ground.  He didn't know what it meant, but he tried a few things and finally he evened out his feet--and got the click.  

With a little practice, he now knows that if he isn't square and I tap my foot, that squaring up will get me to click him.

The details can even get smaller than that.  I won't click him when he is parked out unless his ears are pointing forward, and I will wait until they are.  These days, they are nearly always forward.  Of course, he can't turn his head to the side if he wants a click, either.

There are more practical things you can train the details on.  Sometimes we will be practicing our walk/trot transitions by doing a series of them with clicks.  If he swishes his tail on the transition, he doesn't get a click.  He doesn't get reprimanded for it, either.  He just doesn't get a click.  The swishing just fades away...

When we aren't practicing transitions but just riding around, I certainly don't click him for every single one--but if he does a perfect one, he will often get a click.  I like perfect, and I want it to happen, again.  The most likely way to get a repeat is the click it.

Clicker trainers just have to decide what is perfect and keep working to get it.