A Dog Trainer’s Tools

I discovered “Clicker Training” more than 12 years ago. I read about it in a book and tried to learn all I could about how it worked and how it could be used. When I got my Tiramisu as a puppy, I was astonished at what this new kind of training could do. In a matter of days, I had taught her several behaviours and even gotten some of them on cue. I was delighted to show everyone I could find what I had trained my 14 week old puppy to do.

“These clickers are amazing!”, I would tell people. All I had to do was CLICK! when my dog did the behaviour I wanted and reward her. I thought that clickers were the most incredible invention ever brought to dog training. But I was wrong.

You see, I’m a bit of a geek when it comes to technology and gadgets. I learn everything I can about what something is and learn how best to use it. In learning about “Clicker Training”, I was actually learning about the basic principles of Operant Conditioning. The clicker was just a tool that I was using to apply the scientifically proven techniques of well known behavioural science. It wasn’t the tool, it was the user.

Clickety Clack

In the dozen or so years since I first learned “clicker training”, I have seen a lot of people use clickers while working with their dog. Some of them are even more skilled than I am at teaching their dogs. And some of them succeed brilliantly at frustrating and confusing their dog with the little noise-maker in their hand. If you don’t believe me, take a look at some of the videos on YouTube tagged with “clicker training.” Poor timing, poor understanding of the technique, even just an inability to properly observe the dog or handle the clicker comfortably can all contribute to creating a situation where the dog has no idea how to get the reward.

A friend of mine recently remarked on an incorrect use of a clicker in the recent film “Jurassic World” where a dinosaur trainer raises the clicker over their head in a karate-like stance and fires off a rapid “click-click-click-click-click-click” and then tosses food rewards in a haphazard and poorly timed fashion. Not exactly good technique, at least as I was taught to do “clicker training.” So while clickers can be wonderfully precise tools in helping us teach our animals, not only is incorrect use possible but it’s surprisingly common. A tool is only as good as the person using it.

On your mark…

Just a few weeks into my “clicker training” adventure with Tiramisu, I was reading about other applications of Operant Conditioning that used whistles, hand-signals, and even verbal (or voice) signals in place of the clicker. The important principle was that some signal could be taught to the dog that signalled “That! That thing you just did is what earned the reward!” A marker for the correct behaviour. I found the concept so interesting that I adopted two verbal marker signals – “Yes!” and “Good Girl!” – that I used consistently with rewards so that they were nearly as effective as the clicker, if not as precise.

Once again, it was an indicator that it was the principle and not the tool that was doing the work. All of this “Mark & Reward” training depended on my skills to employ it. It was all about my timing, my observation skills, and my ability to help my dog do some version of the behaviour I wanted so that I could use my marker to say “That’s correct!” It was an important realization for me. Clickers worked great for me but I was the one making it work and not the other way around.

It’s a toolbox

Over the years I have watched many different trainers work with dogs in many different ways. Some prefer clickers, some use verbal markers, and still others use no markers at all but are incredibly skilled at precisely delivering rewards at the right time and in the right way to teach the behaviours they like. Some trainers like to use food when they train. Others use toys or play as their primary reward. Still others use life rewards like a release from training to explore or to give access to a preferred place. There are lots of tools in the trainer’s toolbox.

But just like my experiences with clickers, many of those tools can be used well or they can be used poorly. The fallout from using tools badly doesn’t often rise to what I would call “cruelty.” Often the main difficulty is that the trainer isn’t really getting through to the dog. Training can take longer. The dog might not be as eager to work. But by and large they manage. Eventually trainers get where they want to go and dogs eventually learn what is being asked of them.

Blunt instruments and crude tools

Consider the leash and collar. These tools function best as a way to manage our dogs while out in public. They allow us to keep our dog from getting into something dangerous or running out into traffic where they might be harmed. Their use seems simple enough. They allow the dog a degree of freedom of movement within a radius around us but, being connected to us, we have the ability to encourage them to come with us away from the disgusting road kill or the dangerous traffic.

It didn’t take long for humans to realize that we could also use a leash and collar as a signalling device. A quick tug on the leash can be just annoying enough to interrupt a behaviour we would prefer our dog not do. Like the clickers I talked about earlier, they are fast and intuitive. Just give a little tug and the job is done. But in time, we learned to “improve” upon that tool. The “choke collar” is a metal chain that tightens around the dog’s neck and also gives a metallic sound as it closes. The “prong collar” not only tightens with leash pressure but also applies blunt metal stubs to increase the pressure on the dog’s neck uncomfortably. And then there is the “electronic collar” which doesn’t even require a leash. The “electronic collar” uses radio signals to trigger electrical “stimulus” from a special collar around the dog’s neck. Some models can provide everything from a mild vibration to extremely painful jolts of electricity.

There are some incredibly crude tools available to help us modify our dog’s behaviour. But like all tools, it is important to consider the user more than the tool itself. As a dog owner, I am the one who has to look at all of my options when working with my dog. And like a good craftsman, it is important that I choose the right tool for the right job. Once I’ve made my choice, the responsibility is mine to use that tool correctly and effectively.

The trainer is most important tool

My wife recently reminded me of a wonderful quote from dog trainer and researcher Dr. Ian Dunbar – “To use shock as an effective dog training method you will need: (1) A thorough understanding of canine behavior. (2) A thorough understanding of learning theory. (3) Impeccable timing. And if you have those three things, you don’t need a shock collar.” Dr. Dunbar is talking about skills and knowledge. The more I learned, the more I understood about dogs, the better I became at selecting and using the right tools to teach my dogs. Blunt instruments and crude tools can serve their purpose but you will never build a sports car with a hammer and nails. Not one that would be fun to drive, at any rate.

It is the person operating the tool, me, and not the tool itself that matters. I have to understand what I’m trying to do and know enough about teaching dogs to select the right tools to help me teach them. And just as it isn’t fair to me to say that a clicker trained my dog, it also isn’t right to blame the more crude tools and let the dog owners off the hook. Someone chooses to use that choke chain or electronic collar. And if their dogs look miserable or have the misfortune to end up in a shelter because of bad behaviour, it’s not right to let the trainer off the hook and blame the tool.

There are lots of tools we can use to teach our dogs from clickers to clever treat dispensers to the more crude tools. All of them can be used with skill and precision or misused to cause frustration, pain, and discomfort to dogs. It all depends on the brain behind the hand that uses them. In my own work, I strive to learn as much as I can. To be the best trainer I can be. To learn about the latest and best tools available and to learn to use them well.

One of my goals is to help people learn what I have learned. That there are better, more precise tools that are more efficient and effective that the blunt instruments I used in the past. It can be a slow process. I didn’t learn this stuff overnight. Hopefully, through articles like these, I can help people learn and discover new and better ways to work with their dogs. In the meantime, I think it’s wise to remember that we are the ones responsible for how we train our dogs. Don’t blame the tools. There really is no excuse for bad training.

Until next time, have fun with your dogs!

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Photo credits –

Clickers – All About Great Danes from their website
Choke Collar –Wikimedia from Wikipedia
Happy Dogs –Hoi copyright 2008 from Flickr

Recent Eric Brad CPDT-KA Articles:

• The Dog That Changed My Life
• Keeping Your Dog Informed
• Teaching Your Dog to Not-Behave
• The Simple Complexity of Dog Training
• What The Dog Wants