Clicker Skills
Before you begin training, there are a few more details you will need to understand. Good trainers have a keen sense of observation and have impeccable timing, so they are able to quickly and consistently communicate to their dogs exactly what they want and they are able to reward it immediately. With just a little practice, you can become a very effective trainer, as long as you remember the following four details:
Timing: What is the dog doing when you click?
Criteria: Which behaviours do you reinforce (reward)?
Rate of Reinforcement: How much time passes between each reward?
Reinforcement Value: How motivated is the dog to work for the reward?
Timing
You must use click while the dog is performing the behaviour you want. If you are a fraction of a second too late, you will be reinforcing the wrong behaviour. You get what you click, not what you want. Most beginning trainers are much too late with their clicks. Try to click a bit early and catch the dog beginning to start the desired behaviour: if you wait too late, he is likely four or five behaviours past the one you want to reinforce. If you are shaping a sit, click your dog before his rump hits the ground. If he is already sitting when you click, you are reinforcing staying, not sitting. Remember, you are clicking for actions, not destinations.
Criteria
Criteria are the standards the dog must meet to get his click. This is strongly linked to timing. It is important that you know specifically what you want your dog to do. If you can not clearly state your expectations, then it will be difficult for you to communicate them to your dog and you will not be ready to click. Have a picture in your mind of what you want so that you will be ready to click it when you see it.
It is important when setting criteria that your standards are not too high, especially with beginning dogs. In order for your dog to be motivated to play your games, there must be a reasonable opportunity for him to win. If your dog has little chance to win the prizes, he will not want to play your game. You can help keep your dog in the game by keeping your standards reasonable.
Rate of Reinforcement
Rate of Reinforcement is how often your dog is getting reinforced. This is closely linked to criteria setting. If your criteria are high, your rate of reinforcement is low. If the rate of reinforcement is low, your dog will lose interest in your game. Young dogs and dogs who are new to clicker training should earn about 12 to 15 reinforcers every minute. You will learn with time to adjust your criteria so that your dog stays motivated. You can do this by taking a good look at what you are asking him to do, and breaking the behaviour into the smallest bits possible (this is called splitting). If you want to teach your dog to touch a target, don't hold out for a touch. You might want to start with first looking away from you. Your next criteria might be to look away from you and in the general direction of the target. Your next might be to take one step toward the target. You would gradually increase your criteria as you would shape your clay bunny, making sure that your dog is earning adequate reinforcement along the way. Reinforcement is feedback: it lets him know he is getting warmer and is on the right track. Don't be stingy with your Reinforcement.
Reinforcement Value
As mentioned previously, pay scale matters. The more work and effort you put into finding high value rewards for your dog, the more work and effort he will put into trying to earn them. Food is an easy to use reward that most dogs love and we use it a lot because it is convenient and because we can get a lot more training done in the same amount of time. Some dogs live and breathe for balls and tug games and these can also be effective reinforcers. The problem is, they slow training down because a lot of time is spent playing instead of just swallowing a treat and moving on. If your dog is really ball crazy however, use it to your advantage and have him work for it. The higher the value of the reward, the less you have to reward your dog. If your dog really loves the rewards you have, he will work longer and harder for you. Remember, the better the treat, the better the trainer!!
Placement of Rewards
Dogs gravitate toward the rewards: where there are cookies to be had, there will be dogs waiting to take advantage! A little thought into reward placement can shorten up training sessions and help your dog to learn quicker. If you are teaching your dog to come to you, toss the cookies away from you so that he will race to the cookies and then race back to you. If you are teaching your dog to walk beside you, feed him beside you, not in front of you. If you are teaching him to look at you, drop the cookies on the ground so that he will lift his head in your direction after eating them. Put some thought into where you are going to feed your dog and you can make training sessions much more productive.