Clicker dog training – cue or reward?

There are lots of ways to integrate a clicker into your dogs training. Depending on how you introduce it, it can mean different things to your dog. In this blog we’ll look at how they work and the three main ways a clicker can change a dogs behaviour. Plus, we’ll discover why it’s important to know which you are using, and how to get the best out of clicker dog training when you have two dogs!

As a predictor or marker…

When two things happen in sequence often enough, one becomes a predictor of the other. So, if I press the clicker and then give my dog a treat straight after, often enough, my dog learns that a treat always follows a click. In this case it acts a bit like an IOU. So, when the dog does what you want, you click first, and the treat follows. Once the sequence is established, the clicker then becomes a good way to mark the exact response you have asked for.

This type of training works well for task based training and trick training, and is especially useful when the dog is not beside you. For example, if you ask for a well known trick, such as a sit. As soon as he performs the sit, he gets a click to mark the right action, and then he gets his treat after. If the dog was not close to you, the clicker allows you to still mark the right action, and at the exact second it happened. If you were doing treats only, you would need to be beside your dog to offer the treat at the right time which wouldn’t be very useful if you wanted your dog to sit away from you.

Clickers can do more than that though, but we need to change the way we introduce it…

As a reward too…

As well as being a predictor of a reward, the click can also act as a reward in itself!

When two things happen at the same time, often enough, the brain confuses them both and links them together. We already know that a treat makes a dog feel good, that’s why it is effective as a reward. So, when we trigger that rewarding feeling (usually by feeding the dog treats) at the same time as making the click noise, the brain connects both things together. If we do that often enough, the click will then trigger that rewarding feeling, even without the treat.

When you introduce the clicker in this way, you are able to trigger a rewarding feeling in your dog every time you click it. It’s a very precise noise, so you can now reward even tiny amounts of the right behaviour. And when a dog feels rewarded at the same time as doing something else, they start to prefer that behaviour and do it more. So gradually, your dog will start to change their own behaviour to this new one. This way, you get the benefits of it being a predictor and a reward!

This is better for changing behaviours, rather than teaching cues, as it changes the way a dog feels on the inside. For example, if you want your dog to walk past another dog without barking, you could start walking towards the other dog. If you are far enough away, your dog will start quite calmly. As you walk towards the dog, you can click, click, click every quiet step. Once you’re all clear, you can stop and give your dog a treat – he’ll be expecting one! Eventually, he’ll walk all the way past!

As a cue…

A clicker can look like it’s working as a cue, too. Although, hopefully you’ll see why this is not a great way to use it. A cue is just an instruction such as a hand signal, a word, or a noise. People often use a whistle to signal to their dog that they want them to return. The whistle can be a cue, just like the word “come” or a finger pointing to the ground can also work as recall cues.

Because of the way we introduce the clicker, dogs expect a treat after they hear it. Some might even run to you to get their treat. This might look like a great recall, and if you are not careful you might even start clicking to get your dog to come to you. But, if the click itself is used as a cue, it’ll be a bit rubbish as a reward or a marker. Remember, your dog has been taught that the click means “good job” so if you want the sound to mean recall only, you’ll have to introduce it in the same way you would a whistle or a hand signal. If you are going to do this, you might as well just use a whistle or a word. They are going to be much easier to hear, especially when you are outside, and it is less confusing.

Can it be all three?

We can see that the clicker can work as a predictor, and a reward, really well, as long as you introduce it as a reward using the linking method. If you use the sequence method, it will only ever be a marker and you’ll never get the benefits of that happy feeling.

If you use it as a cue, it will still reward behaviour. But, it could end up making other behaviours worse. As you can see, once you have introduced it as a reward or a predictor, the dog is encouraged to do whatever they are doing at the time of the click. Over time they will figure out the required action and do it more. A cue is an instruction to change a behaviour. Mostly, we use cues when our dog is NOT doing the thing we want, and there is something else that we’d like them to do instead.

A cue aims to change a behaviour, a reward aims to prolong it

For example, imagine your dog is running towards another dog in the park and you don’t want them to do that. You might decide to use your recall cue to get them back. If you have introduced your clicker as a reward or marker, and you click it now, your dog will learn that running away is a good behaviour. Running away got a click, and a treat is now promised. Your dog might head back for the treat at this point, and you might think this was a success. But, your dog learned that running off is a good choice (it’s what got the click) and so even though they came back, they might start running off more often – to earn more clicks. Much better to teach a different cue (like a whistle) and use the clicker to reward them only once they have responded to the cue. The cue becomes the instruction and the click is the reward again.

When you have two dogs

Clicker training two dogs at the same time can be pretty problematic. If you introduce the clicker to both dogs, you’ll only be able to use your clicker if both dogs are doing reward worthy things at the same time. They’ll have to work as a team because it encourages them to do more of whatever they are doing when they hear it. If one dog is doing a brilliant sit, and the other is eating your plants, at the time as you press your clicker, they will both hear it and feel rewarded. That means that one will be perfecting a new trick while the other thinks you want them to eat your plants!

So that’s not a good idea. Dogs aren’t daft though. If you have two dogs and you want them both to learn the same thing, you could introduce the clicker to the first one, while the other watches. As you click and treat the first dog, keep breaking and give the second dog a treat (without a click). They will learn a third kind of sequence that will not be rewarding, but will teach them to follow the first dogs actions.

“He is getting clicks and treats – I’ll do what he’s doing!”

So, if you want them to both sit at the front door, clicker train one, and let the other train themselves. Just make sure they both get their treat at the end!

Before you go… When you are choosing the dog to be fully clicker trained, I would choose the most anxious out of the two. The process of clicker training has the extra benefit of boosting confidence, so they will benefit from that too. If there is nothing to pick between them, choose the one that needs the most training help!

Head to my YouTube to get more clicker training tips and tutorials.