You can always toss the treats away from the dog too, that way they aren't focusing on you for treats so much, or have the treats in a pot away from you but in reach.

Clicker training isn't an alternative to reward based training, it's the most specific reward based training you can get and the click is just a precise marker to indicate the actual behaviour you are reinforcing. They lick is a bridging stimulus that tells the dog that they have done exactly the right behaviour and a treat is imminent. Used correctly it should calm dogs during training because their brains are working more. Also you don't have to keep on clicking all the time, one the have the behaviour firmly on cue, you drop the clicks and just reward and eventually you phase out the treats....both can be done fairly quickly. You would treat for a more complex chain of behaviours or a new one.

The thing I love about it the presiceness of it. Yes you can use another sound as a bridging stimulus but the great thing about a clicker is that it doesn't sound like anything else.

I've seen amazing things taught with a clicker...

"Little sneeze" "biiiig sneeze"
"Twitch left ear" "twitch right ear"
Rope skipping with their owner. They taught the dog to jump straight up and down on cue (now you can't get a treat in at the exact point of the dog being up in the air so it's open to confusion as to whether they were being treated for the jump, the land, or the waiting time while you got the treat out...that's where superstitious learning behaviours come in) and then said jump and the right time as the rope came round. It was great!

Shaping with a clicker is great fun to. Taking the lead from the behaviours the dog offers you. You have to have clicker wnd treat ready and put an object on the floor, say a box, or a chair, and see what the dog does. Click and treat behaviours you like them doing and before long you have a dog that will sit in a box, put one foot In a box, turn they box over, flip it up in the air etc etc.

Kill joys often say "what's the point in all that rubbish trick training"

The point is it enriches your dogs life massively, taxes their brain (after ten - 15 minutes shaping with a clicker your dog is going to want to have a little break and a kip. If you've finished the session on a high with a jack pot of a treat, your dog will be processing that in its brain while it sleeps and wake up with that behaviour well and truly learnt. It's fantastic for the bond between you and your dog both working as a team...and it's fun!

You do not need to give your dog commands to use a clicker, the idea is that the dog has to work out why he/she s being rewarded the click is a cue for him to know a treat is coming for the behaviour he has just exhibited.

For example:

It took me 10 mnutes to train my then 12 week old puppy(Mr T)to sit & then go down on a mat. I never actually said a word initally.

I simply dropped a treat on the mat, when he put one paw on the mat I clicked & treated. I then dropped another treat on the mat & clicked & treated when he put 2 paws on the mat. Gradually working up to him having all 4 paws on the mat, by this time he was walking onto the mat without me having to put a treat on the mat. I then held a treat just out of reach for hm over the mat & when he sat on the mat I clicked & treated. After doing this a couple of times he started walking on to the mat & sitting on it. I then lured him downwards on the mat & again clicked & treated. I then started adding the cue word-sit/down with the click when he was in the position. After 10 minutes he was walking on to the mat & sitting or going down on command.

I treated him, of course... that was just a scenario. Besides, I admitted that the sound of the device was so annoying and that trying to use it was so bothersome that I quickly gave up on it.

He has learned all his tricks and commands just fine without the device, and I didn't like it... that was my main point.