[Milly and Lily]

Hi, Lily will be home this time next week. I have been researching training as I am wanting to get started in tracking. I was just curious if there is anything to clicker training. There seems to be plenty of materials out there on it but I was wondering if anyone here had used it and if it provided the proper motivation and rewards?
Thanks.

 

[Betsy Iole]

Hi, Mia,

I'm not aware of many trackers who use clicker training to teach tracking. Many people (but not all) use food to start a dog tracking--food on their shoes and food drops every other step to every five steps or so, on starter tracks. Usually, the activity itself is intrinsically rewarding, or can be made to be so by well-placed rewards along the track. It's a little bit different than training behavioral chains that aren't intrinsically rewarding, in and of themselves, and that require the facilitation provided by clicker training.

 

[Mikey T]

The clicker is used to mark percise behavior that is not general what you are rewarding tracking.

Another Problem is the term Clicker training itself. Talk to two different people and you will two different discriptions. That is because a clicker is more of a tool than a methodology.

You can free shape a behavior with or without a clicker. You can lure a behavior with or without a clicker. You can conditional mark a behavior with or without a clicker. A clicker is a tool not a methodology and as such can be and is used many different ways.

I think the following article pretty much sums up the issue

Chucking Food