Clicker Training - What is it, and How Does it Help?
Ahh, clicker training. If you've been around any animal trainers, you might have heard the words "clicker-trained animal". But what does this mean, and why is the "clicker" so helpful?
A clicker is just an object that makes the same noise/signal every time you press it. This clicker can be something as simple as a baby food lid with a popped out safety feature, a noise created by your own voice, or even a commercial devise made specifically for clicker training.
Clicker training is just the name given to a animal training method that involves using a "bridge" to connect a certain behavior to a reward. This allows the animal trainer to have greater precision when communicating their wants to their trainees, as a clicker trained animal knows that the moment that they hear the "bridge" (the click) they have done something right and will be rewarded.
The logic here is that it takes a human much longer to give an animal a piece of food than it does to just press a button. During this split second of grappling with a treat, and animal may have already moved on to a different behavior. So by the time you reward them they might now believe that whatever behavior they did while you were struggling to get out a treat is the behavior that you liked.
So how would a clicker change this situation?
Clicker training is especially important when you train using a method called shaping. Using a clicker gives you a way to clearly communicate exactly what you liked about your rat's (or any animal's) behavior, which makes the process more enjoyable and less frustrating for both you and your rat.
So how exactly do you "clicker train" a rat? Its actually super easy! All you need is your clicker devise and some good treats, along with your rat (of course!) Now click your clicker, then give your rat a small treat. Repeat this 5-15 times. Next, click your clicker once and see how your rat responds. If they perk up and look for a treat, then they have successfully associated the click noise with getting treats! At this point, you can begin shaping behaviors, as well as using the clicker to supplement any training method.
A clicker is just an object that makes the same noise/signal every time you press it. This clicker can be something as simple as a baby food lid with a popped out safety feature, a noise created by your own voice, or even a commercial devise made specifically for clicker training.
Clicker training is just the name given to a animal training method that involves using a "bridge" to connect a certain behavior to a reward. This allows the animal trainer to have greater precision when communicating their wants to their trainees, as a clicker trained animal knows that the moment that they hear the "bridge" (the click) they have done something right and will be rewarded.
The logic here is that it takes a human much longer to give an animal a piece of food than it does to just press a button. During this split second of grappling with a treat, and animal may have already moved on to a different behavior. So by the time you reward them they might now believe that whatever behavior they did while you were struggling to get out a treat is the behavior that you liked.
- A good example here would be training a puppy to sit. Lets say you use a treat to lure the puppy into position. Once their butt hits the floor, you lower the treat to reward them. Anticipating the treat, your puppy jumps to a standing position to gulp it down. Because you rewarded your pup in a standing position, you have now accidentally reinforced the act of standing up, rather than the act of sitting down.
So how would a clicker change this situation?
- This time as soon as your pup's rear hits the floor you would click your clicker. Because the puppy understands that the clicker means "you did what I wanted, now you'll get a treat!", they have no confusion about what they did right. Now your pup can jump to a standing position to receive their treat yet still understand that they are getting rewarded for sitting!
Clicker training is especially important when you train using a method called shaping. Using a clicker gives you a way to clearly communicate exactly what you liked about your rat's (or any animal's) behavior, which makes the process more enjoyable and less frustrating for both you and your rat.
So how exactly do you "clicker train" a rat? Its actually super easy! All you need is your clicker devise and some good treats, along with your rat (of course!) Now click your clicker, then give your rat a small treat. Repeat this 5-15 times. Next, click your clicker once and see how your rat responds. If they perk up and look for a treat, then they have successfully associated the click noise with getting treats! At this point, you can begin shaping behaviors, as well as using the clicker to supplement any training method.
Watch this video to see me clicker-training Berry for the first time, then go on to shape her first trick! |
To see some awesome examples of shaping using clicker-training, you can watch the video below! |
Disclosure: Esther (and her site rattrix.weebly.com) is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to amazon.com