ABSTRACT: Clicker training has now become a world-wide phenomenon, with many trainers recognising its benefits for training different species with kindness and behavioural understanding. This article investigates how this method has implications for veterinary practice as well as the training class, and whether we are still only scratching the surface of its potential impact on behavioural problem prevention and treatment.

Want to train a pig to come when it’s called? A cat to do an agility course? Or an elephant to offer up a giant foot for nail filing? OK, maybe your ambitions are less dramatic and, like the rest of us you would simply like your own dog to come when he’s called in the park, your clients’ puppies to behave calmly in the waiting room, or to have another useful tool in your behavioural ‘tool kit’.

Clicker training has been gaining in popularity in this country for some years and many trainers and behaviourists have embraced the concept for faster, kinder and more effective training in their classes and consultations. However, in my view, the numerous applications for this positive method are seriously under-exploited.

Wide application

For some years now, clicker training has been used to help in the treatment and prevention of health problems in zoo and other captive animals. Indeed, in some instances this has revolutionised basic routines and check-ups, reducing the use of sedatives and anaesthetics in animals which are often vulnerable to their effects. One of my colleagues, for example, has been happily clicker training a wide variety of animals at a wildlife park, training fallow deer to gently target human hands (rather than jump up in an attempt to mug human visitors), and ring-tailed lemurs to become habituated to touch for husbandry purposes. This has not only made the lives of the animals less stressful, it has also increased staff safety – and job motivation!

Clicker training emerged from methods used by marine mammal trainers who could not rely on choke chains or physical coercion to get dolphins or whales to comply with their commands. The click was used as a signal to tell the animal when they had done the right thing – like a tick on a page telling a child that the sum they did at school was correct. This had major advantages over just using rewards, such as food or play, alone.

Imagine for a moment that you want to train your dolphin to perform a back flip out of the water. You have rewards on offer in the form of tasty fish, but it’s impossible to give the fish at the very second that the back flip occurs. Timing is everything because the animal needs to know exactly which of its behaviours earned the reward in order to be able to repeat it in the future.

The ‘click’, therefore, acts like a marker to tell the animal the precise second that the correct’ behaviour occurred and that a reward will follow. This results in an interaction where no compulsion or force need be used and there is minimal risk to the handler.

Of course, it was quickly realised that if such a tool could work so well with dolphins, why not other animals too? Since then, rats have been trained to hunt for landmines in Afghanistan using this method, dogs have been trained to detect the presence of cancer cells and even to predict the onset of epileptic seizures in people. ‘Marking’ such behaviours, which are often remote or very subtle, takes accuracy and precision timing – something that the unique sound of the clicker does far better than the human voice which often portrays emotion and is just too commonplace in the animal’s world.

Pigs versus pups

During the course of my work as a behaviour counsellor and trainer over 20 years, I have had the pleasure of training cats, horses, llamas – even an iguana – to respond to their owner, using clicker training. Another colleague even tried a comparative study which compared whether piglets or puppies were faster to learn basic commands, such as sit, walking on a lead and target training – where the animal is cued to touch a hand or object with its nose or foot.

Although statistically inconclusive owing to the small sample size, the results were fascinating; with piglets apparently faster to learn the three chosen behaviours on cue up to eight weeks of age – at which stage puppies then took over in leaps and bounds in terms of cue discrimination and response times.

I have clicker trained my own pond fish to swim on to my hand for examination, my cat to sit up on his hind legs and ‘be a bear’, and my dogs to yawn on cue, sneeze and even limp on command – all great party tricks, but more importantly, behaviours which would be almost impossible to teach using conventional methods. After all most dogs will simply start to avoid their handler if they try to artificially stimulate limping, sneezing or yawning in repeated training sessions.

Benefits in practice

So, apart from winning bets and amazing your friends, how might clicker training be useful in daily practice? Well, all our training at puppy parties and puppy classes focuses on positive, practical basic concepts. We want puppies to be happy with being handled all over – so why not teach them to stand still for examination, with their chins resting on their owners’ hands, right from the word go? We want dogs to sit calmly and quietly in the waiting room – so why not teach them to do it as a routine that will last them for life? Ear examination, nail clipping, even being weighed on the scales, can all be covered using clicker training as a means to getting fast and lasting results.

Clicker training can be used with any dog no matter what age. Older dogs, or those that have had a more traditional training background, may take longer to get started than younger dogs, but with the right motivation all dogs can learn to respond to – and enjoy – this gentle training method. Once a dog understands the clicker concept, his or her perception of a situation can rapidly change for the better. It is for this reason that clicker training has become an integral tool with which to alter not only problem behaviours, but also the emotional states which often underpin them.

Research continues in this area, although much evidence supports the hypothesis that it’s not a reward itself that creates neurochemical – and hence emotional – change, but the anticipation of that reward. Dr Robert Sapolsky is an American scientist and author. He is currently professor of Biological Sciences, professor of Neurology and Neurological Sciences and, by courtesy, Neurosurgery, at Stanford University. He suggests that the observed increase in dopamine levels, for example, is a likely outcome of an animal hearing a signal of impending reward – such as the clicker.

Conclusion

People respond just as well to the principles of clicker training as animals. We all know that receiving a pay slip is just a piece of paper, but it represents the real rewards that we have earned.

This reflects clicker training where the sound of the click itself starts to have meaning – as it predicts the reward that is coming. So, if you want to really hone your skills as a clicker trainer, why not practise on your boyfriend, your kids, or even your boss? 

Case study – A question of thinking backwards

Karl the Cocker spaniel, aged five years, was referred to me with suspected rage syndrome'. His aggressive episodes would be triggered by simply walking through certain doorways in the home – a major problem as you can imagine and he was on his last reprieve, having bitten his owners mother- in-law only three weeks before.

Having studied hours of video footage of his behaviour and having ga
ined a thorough history from his owners, I realised that it was impossible to change the trigger for Karls behaviour – doorways are pretty immovable! Instead, we worked on teaching Karl a new option when faced with a doorway. Using clicker training – and away from the triggers in his home – we taught Karl to walk backwards on cue within only two 20-minute sessions. He would strut in reverse whenever we gave him the cue – which was as endearing as it was inspiring!

Once home, Karl's owners were asked to practise in every room of the house, backing Karl through doorways and up the hallway as a trick, keeping it fun and friendly, motivating and rewarding. Whatever association Karl had previously made when entering a room seemed unimportant when he was walking backwards and within two weeks the habit was broken and the family had a way of controlling their dog without recourse to the punitive methods that had previously made matters worse. After two months, Karl could walk normally into a room again – but his owners report that they still frequently ask him to back out to reinforce the positive behaviour.

Author

Sarah Whitehead BA(Hons) MSC

Sarah Whitehead is a canine and feline behaviour specialist working on referral cases from vets across the South of England. Combining Arts and Science, she has a BA(Hons) Degree in Literature and an MSc in Animal Behaviour from the University of Southampton. Sarah is a full member of the Association of Pet Behaviour Counsellors (APBC), the Association of Pet Dog Trainers (APDT), and director of Alpha Education, an organisation offering accredited courses in canine behaviour and training.

She is also an author and regular contributor to the media.

To cite this article use either

DO!: 10.1111/j.2045-0648.2010.0044.X or Veterinary Nursing Journal Vol 26 pp 165-166

• VOL 26 • May 2011 • Veterinary Nursing Journal