The clicker-lightbulb isn't on yet

When dogs are trained using clicker training, there comes a beautiful moment when the lightbulb goes on and they really understand that their behavior can control whether or not I click.

E doesn't get this yet (and that's OK, it's not unusual for a dog who has not been trained this way from the start to be a bit slower to "get it"). E came from an environment where he was constantly yelled at, and was not trained, and was afraid to make a mistake. He didn't know what to do, but chances are if he did something, he'd get yelled at.

In clicker training, we want a dog who is confident in offering you behaviors. He doesn't have to worry about getting yelled at or jerked with a choke chain or a prong collar, because if he doesn't get it right, the only consequence is that a reward fails to appear.

The reason we want it that way is that we want the dog to try new variations of the behavior in order to move it along to its final version. Example.... my dog Piper does a cute trick called "Bang". I make a gun with my hands, and point it at her and say "Bang". She lays down on her side, and covers her eyes with her paws. It's adorable. It also took an entire month to shape the whole chain of behaviors!

At one point, she understood that she was supposed to lay down on her side. Good. Now I needed her to take both paws up to cover her eyes. So even though I had been C/T-ing for the laying down part, now I was going to raise the bar and ask her to give me something slightly different so I could give her feedback (either a click, or the absence of a click) about whether that variation was in the right direction. Get it? It's like the game we used to play of hot and cold. Hot means you get a click and a treat. Cold means you don't get a click and a treat. Cold means try again, do something else. In Piper's case I would C/T for any tiny movement of her front paws toward her nose, or of her nose toward her paws (while she was down on her side). Then I required a slightly larger movement in order to C/T. The first time she got the paws up to the nose, she got a big jackpot! "Oh!", she seemed to think, "Is that what you wanted?"

At this point, E understands that the click means a treat is coming (which is great). My job now is to help him understand that his behavior can cause the click. I'll know this is happening when he proactively starts offering me behaviors that have resulted in clicks. He's giving me eye contact, so we're on the right road. I want to start working on something else too (sit) so I can see if he is really getting it. My sense is that right now, it's not a solid understanding.

Once a dog does get it, they progress very quickly and are able to understand that this game applies to a whole toolkit of behaviors.