clicker training

Do you have a dog that likes to jump up on family members or strangers? In today’s Animal Behavior and Dog Training Tidbit video, “How Do You Keep Your Dog From Jumping?” I discuss some tips on how you can keep your dog from jumping up by teaching your pup “what to do” and instead of shouting “no” at him.

If you prefer to read about “How To Keep Your Dog From Jumping?,” below is a lightly edited transcript from the video.

Hi, I’m Terrie Hayward from Positive Animal Wellness thanks for joining us again.

Today I’m going to talk about a question that comes up quite frequently and the question is “How do I keep my dog from jumping up?”

I would submit that the first thing that we want to do is reframe that question. Instead of asking what we want to do to stop or prohibit a type of behavior, we want to think about what do we want the dog to do instead.

Specifically, instead of keeping my dog from doing “something,” we want to teach them what to do instead and then make that behavior really reinforcing. Let’s say we have a dog who’s jumping up. What type of behaviors could we ask them to do instead? We might ask them to settle. We might ask them to lie down. We might ask them to sit or we might just go ahead and reinforce four paws on the floor.

After teaching or capturing the desired behavior we need to reinforce it! In doing so we’re reinforcing an incompatible or an alternative behavior instead of jumping up. That means we’re making the new or different behavior much more worthwhile for the dog.

The final piece, is that we want to use management while we’re teaching and reinforcing an alternative or incompatible behavior to jumping up. We want to set the dog up for success. That means we might use baby gates, for example if we have a dog that’s jumping up on the couch. Or we might use baby gates so that the dog can’t access a particular room.

If we have a dog who’s jumping for greetings, again, we’ll use management and we might have the dog on a leash or within a gated area so that they can’t get to the person and practice that unwanted behavior of jumping.

We’ll use management while we’re working on reinforcing and teaching incompatible alternatives that we can reinforce and that we want to see continue to into the future. Thanks for joining us!

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Are you a dog parent who constantly shouts “no” at your pup? Then this weeks Animal Behavior and Dog Training Tidbit video, “Why I Don’t Teach No” is for you!

If you prefer to read about “Why I Don’t Teach No” when training a dog, below is a lightly edited transcript from the video.

Hi, I’m Terrie Hayward from Positive Animal Wellness. Thanks for joining me. In today’s “Animal Behavior and Dog Training Tidbit” I’m going to talk about a popular question, “How do you teach your dog no?”

Actually, I don’t teach “no” to my hearing dog nor my deaf dog. There are many reasons why. First, because I feel like it provides some murky communication. Specifically, it doesn’t teach the dog what to do.

As such, I’d rather dedicate the time to teach the dog what to do, instead of saying “no.” Another reason is that when you say “no” the dog doesn’t understand–is that no not now, or no ever, or just no when you’re not looking?

And if you have had to say “no” more than one time, in actuality, is the “no” really working the way you’d like it too? Has the dog learned anything, or do you just need to continue to say “no” in different scenarios?

Also, here’s the issue if the “no” is as intended, to stop or decrease behavior. For example, let’s say a dog is jumping and you would prefer that the dog not do that. If you said “no” you’re trying to stop or decrease the jumping. Anytime we add something with the intent to stop or decrease behavior, then behaviorally defined, it is called positive punishment.

This doesn’t mean positive in terms of something good, it means positive like the addition of punishment. And punishment comes with dangerous side effects such as apathy, aggression, escape avoidance, and generalized fear. None of which any of us want for our dogs.

Instead what I’d prefer to do is use the time and teach incompatible or alternative behaviors. Let’s go back to my example with jumping. Say your dog is jumping up on you and you’d prefer they not do that. You can capture “four paws on the floor” and mark and reinforce that. Additionally, you can teach a settle or lie down and mark and reinforce that behavior.
You can teach these incompatible behaviors and make them much more reinforcing than the original behavior of jumping up. And you’ve also got a happier better relationship with your dog as a result.

If you, for example, did want to teach the word “no” and you’re only using the word “no” to mean an incompatible behavior like a recall, that could possibly work. For example, let’s say your dog was running after a bunny rabbit, and your version of “no” didn’t mean stop or decrease that behavior. Instead, your version here means “turn your head around and head back towards me.” In that instance, I would say full steam ahead. However, in that instance, we could also call that recall word “banana.” In other words, we don’t need to use the word “no.”

But traditionally as the word is often used to stop or decrease a behavior I would advocate that you use your time to teach things that you want your dog to do and that you want to see more frequently. Again, that will build trust and choice and more harmony in your relationship with your dog overall.

Thanks for joining me!

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For today’s dog training and animal behavior tidbit we answer the often asked question, “What is a clicker and how do you use it in dog training?”

If you prefer to read about what a clicker is, and how to use it when training your dog, below is a lightly edited transcript of the video.

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Hi, thanks for joining us. I’m Terrie Hayward from Positive Animal Wellness and today we’re going to talk about a question that I often get asked which is, “What is a clicker and how do you use it in dog training?”

For those of you that are not familiar with a clicker, a clicker is a small device that makes a consistent and repeatable sound. This is called a box clicker and on the back, it has a little bit of metal and when I push my thumb into one part of it, it makes a clicking type of a sound. There are other clickers that look similar maybe with rounded corners, maybe with a little bump instead of the box design, but they’re all set up to do the same thing.

Basically, clickers are a marker and a marker is a communication device. They allow us to communicate with an animal and explain, when you hear this noise it means that the thing you just did was what has now earned you access to something you find reinforcing.

A marker allows us to pinpoint a behavior that we’d like to highlight and then what we need to do is make sure we pair our marker with something the animal, the individual learner, finds reinforcing. That’s key because otherwise, a clicker on its own is just a plastic box. But if the animal understands that every single time you make this “click” noise it means something good is on the way to them–then they start to look out for that noise. The animal realizes the thing I just did earns the click–let me do that more often because it means I now have a road or path to access something I like.

In particular, clickers are handy because they are a unique sound in the environment, they carry no emotion, and it sounds the same no matter who uses the clicker. However, in addition to a clicker you can also use a verbal marker. Sometimes people use the word “yes” or the word “good.” Remember, a verbal marker is always paired with something the dog finds reinforcing.

Additionally, you can use another type of auditory marker. You may have seen the use of a whistle with marine mammals. We can use whistles with dogs too, again, always pairing our marker–whether it’s a clicker, a verbal marker, or an auditory marker–with a reinforcer. We can even use visual or tactile markers. I frequently work with deaf dogs and so this “closed fist, open fist, closed fist” is my visual clicker. Just like my auditory clicker anytime I make that sound or make this “starfish” hand gesture I always pair it with something that my learner finds reinforcing.

When it comes to training your dog, I hope that you’ll consider using a clicker and doing some clicker training. Whether it’s with your clicker, with a verbal marker, or with a visual marker to better communicate your with your animal.

Thanks so much for joining me!