The Clicker Retrieve Part One

As with any other early training, make sure you and the dog are alone in a room with no distractions. Sit on a chair next to a table on which you should place the cup of treats. Make sure the dog cannot reach them. Hold the clicker in one hand. Place a retrieving dummy under the arm of this hand, tucked into your armpit.

Please remember not to talk to your dog. This ‘game’ is played in silence until you add the cue word. Don’t spoil the impact of the cue by chattering to the dog. Let him focus on the ‘game’.

Each session can be up to ten to fifteen minutes long. Look at the clock before you start, it is easy to get engrossed in clicker training and forget the time. You can do several sessions a day if you wish. Make sure they are at least two hours apart.

Unless your dog is very possessive with the dummy, you can begin by presenting the dummy from your hand. This teaches a nice 'hold' first. For the dog that runs away with the dummy you should begin by teaching the pick up from the floor.

Presenting the dummy from your hand

From time to time, as explained below, you will ‘present’ the dummy to the dog. When you are asked to present the dummy, this means you will take the dummy with your non-clicker hand, removing it from under your clicker arm, and hold it out at the height of your dog’s mouth. You won’t be stretching out your arm, just hold the dummy quite close in to you, horizontally, and keep it there for five seconds. At the end of the five seconds, replace the dummy under your arm. Wait at least ten seconds before presenting the dummy again.

Defining success

If the dog responds according to the criteria you have set, he earns a C&T. You must not move on to the next step, that is to say make the criteria more difficult, until the dog is repeatedly successful with the previous one. The definition of success is when the dog earns a C&T for 9 out of every 10 presentations of the dummy. You can count your progress by setting out 10 or 20 treats before you begin and putting aside those which the dog does not earn.

Basic procedure

When your dog carries out the behaviour you want to reward, press the clicker and place the dummy back under your clicker armpit. With the hand in which you were holding out the dummy, take a treat and throw it to the dog. The gap between the correct behaviour and the treat arriving does not matter because the click was rewarding to the dog.

Steps One, Two and Three

STEP ONE - LOOKING AT THE DUMMY

Sit yourself in your chair and present the dummy. Make sure the dog is near enough to you to see what you are doing. Observe the dog’s reactions.
If the dog looks at the dummy C&T
If the dog does not look at the dummy do not C&T
Remember to withdraw the dummy after five seconds.
Repeat until you have used up 100 treats or after fifteen minutes, whichever is sooner.

What you are looking for is baseline behaviour from which to progress. Ultimately we want the dog to take hold of the dummy, but we are going to get there in stages. To begin with you want the dog to look at the dummy. That is all. You will have to watch the dog carefully as he may only glance at the dummy very briefly to begin with. If the dog studiously avoids looking at the dummy, you can tap, or wiggle it just temporarily to get a result. Stop doing this as soon as the dog is repeatedly looking at the dummy to get the C&T. This usually happens quite quickly.

STEP TWO - APPROACHING THE DUMMY

Before you present the dummy imagine a circle five feet in diameter the centre of which will contain your presented dummy.
If the dog’s nose enters the circle C&T. Throw the treat well out of the circle after you replace the dummy under your arm so that he has to deliberately return to the circle to get his reward the next time.
As soon as the dog is repeatedly entering the circle for his C&T make it smaller - three feet, then two feet and so on.
In a couple of sessions you should have the dog’s nose entering a very small circle just big enough to contain the dummy. Remember success is a C&T for at least 9 out of 10 presentations.

STEP THREE - TOUCHING THE DUMMY

Now you will C&T only when the dog’s nose actually comes into contact with the surface of the dummy. Repeat until he is deliberately and repeatedly touching the dummy with his nose.
Next you will be even more specific, he will only get his C&T for touching the centre of the dummy, you will ignore any contact with the ends of the dummy. When he is repeatedly (9 times out of 10) bumping the centre of the dummy with his nose you will move the goalposts again.
Now you are looking for the dog’s mouth to be very slightly open. This is quite a subtle difference, but the dog’s mouth should not be tightly shut if he is to get his C&T

By the end of step three, your dog will be bumping the centre of the dummy with his nose every time you present the dummy to him. We are now getting closer to the time when the dog will take the dummy in his mouth. We will look at how we get there in the next instalment. It may take you a few days to get to this point. Remember not to give any commands or interact with the dog verbally. Right now he is simply learning that it is rewarding to put his mouth onto a dummy which you have presented to him. Not just occasionally, but every single time. From this foundation we will become increasingly more demanding of the dog.

Click here to read The Clicker Retrieve Part Two - Getting to Grips with the Dummy!

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