It seems like everywhere I go, I hear stories about how people use clickers to train their dogs! I was in a card store yesterday looking for a graduation card, and Nicki, the clerk who was helping me, mentioned she has a dog. When I asked if she has ever heard of clicker training, she said a friend had given her a clicker for training her new puppy, Tess, and she had just started using it. She wanted to clicker train her four-month-old puppy to sit.
When Nicki first started telling the puppy to sit, the puppy just looked at her as if saying, “What does that mean”? But Nicki kept giving the command “Sit,” and after a few times the puppy finally sat. Nicki immediately clicked the clicker and gave the puppy a treat. Nicki practiced clicker training the puppy a few more times, and the puppy obeyed every time. In just five minutes of clicker training, her puppy recognized the command to sit, eventually even without the clicker.
“I love the clicker! I can’t believe how easy it was to clicker train my puppy to sit,” Nicki exclaimed. “I plan to use clicker training for other commands. I really like how clicker training is a positive reinforcement for my puppy to learn. And Tess thinks the clicker is fun!”
