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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

 
   

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