The clicker itself is a small plastic box with a metal tonue and when pressed creates a "click" sound. Clickers can be found at most large pet stores like Petsmart and Petco.

In the beginning you "click" then within a half second feed the puppy/dog a treat. Repeat this procedure for 2 minutes...click/treat...click/treat...click/treat. The puppy/dog will associate the click very quickly with meaning food is coming.

Always click only what you like, reward it, and ignor what you do not like the puppy/dog doing. Over time you will notice that your puppy/dog isn't working for the reward as much anymore and is now working more to get you to "click".

When a trainer tries to mark a behavior with words, such as the popular "good dog," it's hard to tell whether or not we're late in marking the behavior or not. With the clicker, we can easily tell when we're late, which will help us to then fix our timing. If we have been continuously late with our verbal "good dog," then we can pretty much assume that our dogs are confused and probably not understanding us completely.

Positive dog training takes the pressure off the dog and puts it squarly where it belongs--on us, the trainers. The dog is NEVER wrong. We are the teachers and it is up to us to teach them so that they are able to respond from our ques.

We will add more on this topic in the coming months as we ourselves begin to implement this training method into our training procedures here at Cruisin Cavaliers.

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