Clicking’s the ticket!

How to use a clicker to train a motivational retrieve – By Amie Glasgow

Do you remember learning to drive a car? The first time you changed lanes was a bit of a nightmare, wasn’t it? You had to check your mirrors and put on your signal and check your blind spots and gradually move over. It was overwhelming in the beginning, but now it all comes very naturally, and you hardly have to think about it.

That’s probably a lot like your dog feels when learning a new trick! What may seem simple to us can, in fact, be a confusing and complicated series of smaller tasks to our dogs. Take, for example, an innocuous game of fetch. Simple, right? You throw something, he brings it back to you. But to many bully owners, a game of fetch is something you only hear about from other friends–our dogs are not natural retrievers and games like fetch can be quite challenging to teach them. It’s not just “bring it back”–it’s go to the item, pick the item up, bring the item back, and hold onto the item until commanded otherwise.

Clicker-training is a wonderful and positive way to climb those steps and reach the final behavior. It is reward-based and can be done with any behavior. The key is to break each final behavior down into smaller behaviors that your dog can master and then chain together. A clicker is a small gadget you can get at nearly any pet store–try it out first and see how it feels! I like the kind with a raised button (I find it’s easier to click when my hands are full with treats) but you may prefer the boxed style. You can also use a vocal cue (“yes!” or “good!” perhaps) but the benefit of the clicker is that it is more precise in timing, neutral in tone, and won’t be used accidentally in conversations. For the sake of this lesson, the dog will be assumed male (because my dog is male!), but obviously there is no difference in training a male or a female. The term “mark” will be used to signal a clicking of the clicker or use of your chosen verbal cue and then giving the dog his treat.

To start, you’ll need to do something called “charging” the clicker. You’ll probably only need to do this in one session, but if you feel unsure, you can repeat it for two or three training sessions. It’s the necessary foundation, so be certain the dog understands before you move on.

Get a handful or two of your dog’s favorite treats—not dry, crunchy biscuits, but something sinfully good, like cut up hot dogs or small chunks of chicken or cheese. Bring the dog to you (if he really likes the reward you’ve picked, you probably won’t have to call him over, he’ll just be there already). With a bit of food in one hand and the dog very close to you, click, then immediately give the dog food–within a second of the click. Do it again–click/treat, click/treat, very close together. Before long, the dog will start to see that the click means a treat is coming and he’ll start trying to figure out how to make it happen again. My dog, Oscar, usually tries Jedi Mind tricks at this point, staring intently at the clicker.

At this point you want to be careful not to mark the same behavior repeatedly. When he looks at you, mark, when he looks away, mark. You’ll see him start to sit, lie down, or anything else he can think of that might make that mark happen and get that treat to his mouth. (I’m still hoping he’ll offer to do my taxes, but he’s a little shaky on his tax law.) When it’s very clear that he knows the click means a treat is coming, you’re ready to move on.

This is when your work needs to happen–you’ll need to break your targeted behavior down into as many smaller steps are necessary for your dog to understand. You’ll also need to be very patient. There is no timeline for anything to happen–some dogs will get things in two or three marks, others may take 100 marks, and most will fall somewhere in the middle. What you’ll see happening is that the dog learns how to get the reward, and then when he doesn’t get it for that behavior anymore, he’ll push harder to get the treat by going one step further. You’ll gradually mold the behavior you want–it’s called “shaping” in this process–and can fine-tune it as much as needed. The principle works with all kinds of animals (even humans) and can be very exciting to watch.

For fetch, the example we’ll look at here, you may have a dog that automatically runs to the item you throw and picks it up–that’s great! I don’t have a dog who does that, so we’ll start at the very beginning. Oscar is training to do Search-and-Rescue work, and that requires that he retrieve a practical item (not a ball) so we’re working with a flashlight. Because he has shown no aptitude for fetch whatsoever on his own, I stashed a bit of his reward food into the base of the flashlight to give it a tempting scent. If you’re working with a ball, you can purchase many that are able to be stuffed with food, and this may help in getting your dog’s interest initially. That interest is so important, because it’s our first step in this process. (Please note that all of Oscar’s training is done in a controlled setting with an appropriate leash or fencing. Safety is always the first concern – obey the leash laws!)

First I put the flashlight on the ground and wait. The second Oscar nuzzles it or touches it in anyway, I mark.

Before long, he realizes that touching the flashlight is what I want, and is doing so intentionally. Then I gradually increase the distance of the flashlight from me, tossing it out a few feet so that he has to move away from me to touch it. (Note: If you’re using a ball, be cautious that it doesn’t bounce and move too far away–the dog isn’t bringing it back yet, so you don’t want to have to hike to get it yourself!)

Once he knows you want him to be interested in the item, you’ll need him to pick it up. Unless your dog has grown thumbs, this means in his mouth, so you’ll start marking the behavior of actually mouthing the item. From now on, there will be no mark for nosing the item, only when he actually mouths it. The stashed food will help with this, too! Remember, no marking for the last behavior (nosing), but don’t dwell on it either. Don’t say “no” or make any other comments or gestures that suggest correction or reprimand, just wait for him to do the correct thing. In this case it should happen fairly quickly, since dogs do a lot of exploring with their mouths.

If you’re training another trick and he doesn’t get it in a few tries, consider whether you’ve really broken down the steps to their smallest intervals. This does not mean your dog is “stupid” or “slow”–remember that dogs think of things very differently than humans do, and do what you can to keep him from becoming lost in translation.

Once you’ve worked from simply mouthing the item to actually picking it up (and rewarding only for lifting it, not just mouthing it) the dog needs to bring the item to you. In Oscar’s case, this happened accidentally, in that he picked the flashlight up and started towards me to get his reward before he dropped it again. You may be lucky on this, too, but if not, mark any movement towards you at all–even if you have to mark for a lean in your general direction. Mark that lean, and when he’s consistent with that, wait until he steps towards you. Mark that one step. Each time he understands the movement that gets a mark, ask more of him. Before long, he’ll be running back to you with the item (and that’s when you don’t have to worry as much about the distance from you when you toss it out!)

When the dog is consistently bringing the item back to you, he’s essentially playing fetch! For Oscar’s Search-and-Rescue training, however, he needs to be able to hold that item until I tell him to release it. So now instead of simply marking that he returns the item, when he gets to me, I throw my hand under his mouth as fast as I can and say “Out!” before he drops it. If I beat him, he gets marked. If he beats me, and drops the flashlight before I’ve given him the command, no mark. Even if he tries other tricks like lying down or attempting to hypnotize me into dropping a treat!

Again, when he doesn’t earn that mark, he isn’t reprimanded at all, I simply pick up the flashlight without a word and toss it and start the process over. When he does it right, he gets his reward, when he doesn’t he gets to do it again. We keep shaping things until our goals are met, and then we move onto something new! Next we conquer tax law!