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Basic obedience tasks are all suitable for clicker training.
All dogs can be clicker trained to carry out basic
tasks such as the 'sit', 'heel' etc. with relative
ease, by all handlers.
With gundog work however, we are ultimately looking
for a good deal more. We are expecting a dog
to remain focused on the task in hand despite huge
and unpredictable distractions. How much is
possible is gundog training is still something
of an unknown quantity, though a few
specialised trainers are beginning to appear.
Temperament is a factor There is no doubt
that some dogs with a suitable temperament are
capable of being trained to a high level in
fieldwork by a skilled clicker trainer.
Whether or not every gundog no matter what its level
of 'drive' can be taught to work under these
conditions without the use of any aversives
whatsoever, and in a reasonable length of time,
is still open to debate.
Intrinsic rewards The reason that there is
a question mark over the feasibility of training
some or our higher drive working dogs (in particular
the spaniel breeds) without any aversives, is
that clicker training relies on controlling the
dog's rewards, and ignoring his mistakes. But
in the field, a simple mistake can lead to the
dog discovering a whole world of rewards over which
the handler has no control. These intrinsic rewards
are the enemy of the clicker trainer, and a powerful
challenge to those wishing to achieve high level field awards with
high powered gundogs.
Read more....
Time factor. For those whose dogs are
predominantly pets, the question of training
duration will not be so relevant. But for
those of us who are training a dog to do a job of
work, we want the process to be completed
sooner rather than later. Although
basic behaviours can be established rapidly with a
clicker, there is
some evidence to suggest that the major part of
training which involves dealing with the
distractions found in the field, may take longer and
be
more challenging with positive-only training
techniques than it is with the judicious use of
corrections. However, no controlled
comparisons between the two techniques have yet been
carried out, so much is down to speculation.
Selective use of the clicker. Some clicker
trainers feel that mixing clicker training with
other training methods is a betrayal of the
underlying philosophy behind this method. The
Gundog Club do not support this viewpoint and regard
clicker training as a science, not a way of
life. We consider that clicker techniques are
a valuable tool for the gundog trainer to have
access to if and when he needs them. With
certain provisos, there is no reason why clicker
training should not form a part of
your training technique, together with more
traditional methods if the system appeals to
you. Read about
mixed method training here.
Pros and cons. Most of us will also ask
ourselves what the pros and cons of any given
training system are before we set about using it,
and we look at some of the advantages and
applications for clicker training your gundog in
this section here... We also take
a look at some of the disadvantages of clicker
training here...
Next - Understand how dogs learn -
What is operant conditioning |
