Dog clicker training is a stress-free technique that allows you to achieve great success in training your Staffordshire Bull Terrier.
In modern dog training this method is considered the most effective. Clicker opens up new possibilities and allows you to work the performance both the circus tricks and basic commands through in the most accurate way.
Dog clicker training is based on the mechanism of the conditioned reflex that was studied by prominent Russian Academician Pavlov. With his research results are known to everybody, but if you have forgotten the principle of conditioned reflex formation, we recall:
As you might guess, in our case, the signal will be "click" and the salivation will be replaced by a joyful waiting of your Staffy.
Handy Dog Training Clicker
Clicker Training Step by Step
Clicker training for beginners run is the following way:
Step 1: Introductory Exercise
Find a quiet place to teach your Staffy to the clicker.
Click and give the dog a treat (at first the time between the "click" and giving a piece of treat must be no more than 1 sec).
Repeat this exercise 15-20 times, and then finish the training and let your Stafford rest or play.
Step 2. Exercise continuation
Everything happens as well as in the introductory clicker-training exercise, but you should hold a treat not in your hand but in your bag or at some distance on the table.
Put a treat at some distance and go back to your SBT.
Click, and only then take a treat and give it to the dog with a gap in time between the events in 5 seconds. You can change the period in the process.
This exercise is aimed to give your pet to understand from the very beginning that even though the dog always gets a treat after the "click", sometimes have to wait a few seconds until it get it. In the future, this will allow you to use the most important advantage of clicker training with your Staffy: it will be enough just to click at the right time of a training session.
It is recommended to repeat this exercise on different days and at different trainings. It will give the dog to understand the essence and make it start to look out for a treat after the "click".
Step 3. Completion of Exercise
When your Staffy masters these exercises, you can start directly clicker training. The dog already understands the principle of "click = success, followed by a reward."
As an example, analyse the trick Give Paw. Show your pet a treat and hold up it in your hand. Keep a fist in front of the dog. At a time when the dog touches your hand, click and give it a treat. When your Staffy learns to perform an exercise at verbal commands or gestures, you can put aside the clicker.
The success of your training will depend on the correct calculation of the time interval and the motivational state of the dog. Take note that there is no need to aim the clicker at the dog to accelerate emergence of the exercising effect.
Healthy Treats to Reward Your Staffy
Basic rules for working with the clicker
Be sure to read the rules to know how to use a dog clicker:
Do not start to teach your Staffy commands by using the clicker until the dog has not yet formed a conditioned reflex.
With a click you need to confirm the correctness of the actions of your dog during the desired behaviour in order to avoid the formation of incorrect connections, and non-violently tell the dog what it is about.
Dog training clicker can not be used to draw attention of your Stafford or to take it aside.
Desirable details of behaviour must be accompanied by "clicking". After that, the dog gets its prize. Thus the success of the dog can be brought by its own way of behaviour.
If you want to achieve great results, increase the quantity and improve the quality of treats. This is considered as a "jackpot" for dogs.
The dog should periodically be able to receive a jackpot. Jackpot is only given when your Stafford make a significant breakthrough in the exercise.
Often after clicking the dog runs up to get a treat. This is quite normal - "click" ends the exercise, and it should be confirmed.
Unwanted behaviour should not attract your attention. The training is free of punitive measures. The absence of "click" means failure for sensitive dogs intensively training with the clicker. Therefore, it is always better to divide an exercise into several smaller parts, so that the dog has a confirmation signal of the clicker more.
Clicker dog training is not focused on the order. Its purpose is to develop and consolidate the desired type of behaviour. Only when your Staffordshire Bull Terrier is reliably shows the desired behaviour, individual commands or signals are introduced. It is a big advantage compared to usual training, as in this case the dog always connects the signal with optimal success.
Once a certain kind of behaviour is put under the control of the command in this exercise, the clicker needs no longer.
Check other dog training supplies you can use during training process
