Are Some dogs not suited to Clicker Training?

Ok I have no experience of Clicker Training. I have just always used normal reward based training which works well for me and Harley.

I want to teach Harley some Targeting and from my reading and research I think that clicker training could be a more accurate way of teaching this.

So yesterday I started with the clicker. Harley is absolutely terrified of the Clicker. He runs into another room and starts whimpering (its very Pathetic and sad) I tried to get him through this even with High value rewards he was so scared so I didn't think it was fair to continue. I then afterwards had to spend some time building back my trust with me. He really wasn't a Happy retriever. He's fine now though. I even tried muffling the clicker sound.

I have no problems teaching Targeting without a Clicker but wondered if others had had this problem. At present I am really not Happy to persevere with the clicker as it's not fair to distress him and possibly damage our training relationship.

Are some dogs just not suited to the clicker? Just wondered what others opinions of this are?

You can get quieter clickers for dogs that are sensitive to noise, the "i-click" is meant to be quieter, the "Multi-Clicker" has a volume control, and I've seen some bug/insect shaped clickers that are meant to be a bit quieter. Alternatively I've seen it recommended to put some bluetack on a regular clicker to quieten it.
However, you could always prime a word or noise made with your mouth, it doesn't have to be a clicker. I've seen someone recommend using a pen (with the clickable end to retract it) too. When I did a reactive dog workshop, we were taught to prime a "clicker word" so you had your hands free, just pick a word you can say in the same tone and try not to alter the tone when you use it. "Good" or "Yes" can work well. Prime it by saying the word and treating, as you would and clicker, and off you go. I met a service dog the other day that was given a click with the mouth (hard to explain in words) before being given a treat.
I think the main reason people recommend clickers is because the tone won't alter with mood - a word can be spoken differently each time and can be affected by frustration, excitement, boredom, etc. and confuse the dog or a noise made with your mouth may vary from person to person, whereas a clicker makes the same noise every time, but if you're confident you can pick a better noise and keep it fairly similar then it's better than a scared dog!

Use the lid of a baby food jar or paste jar---that is very quiet.

rune

Thanks I may give that a go. I did try wrapping tape around the clicker and putting it in my Pocket. It makes me think it wasn't the volume just what the noise actually was.

I use a bit of both reward and clicker - only because I am forgetful and forget where I put my clicker. I have a dog - or she will be ours if we take her on and I have been trying the clicker with her for nearly 2 months - she isnt picking it up but thats a different story.

I used to work on a farm and their BC was afraid of camera taking noises

I used to have a similar problem with my girl. She was so terrified of everything, bless her (brain damaged babe).

However, simply trading the clicker for a clicker word (we used a short 'good') did it for her. She never could retain anything she learned for very long, but did love to try so every bit of training was a new adventure for us both.

I so miss my lovely girl

A friend had a dog that was terrified of the clicker noise - we think he`s been trained using aversive sound. Daisy just tried to eat the clicker.
So yes - for some dogs / owners clicker training doesn`t work. I find Yes! or Good Girl! works well.

The actual clicker is only an easy bridge for dogs - you don't have to use the clicker!
It can be anything that is fairly unique. So for example whistles (such as the dolphin trainers use), or even simply pointing closely at his nose, or turning a flashlight on and off, and so on. As mentioned, you can also use a verbal marker (ie, "good") but they are a bit less effective, and tend to take a little longer (studies have shown), due to it's nature - we're constantly talking, and the other noises are simply a little more unique, a little more distinctive. Also, I notice a little bit of confusion here - such as "are some dogs not suited..." and "i use a bit of reward, a bit of clicker".
You should always use some form of reward, to keep the bridge (the whistle/clicker - the marker which says "that's the behaviour! good!") nice and strong and positive. What I mean is, you should use both - not one or the other. The clicker simply says "that's right! reward will come!" and makes it super clear for animal.
But for best effects, you should vary what reward is given (after the clicker - or even after several behaviours/clicks). And every animal is suited to "clicker" training, because clicker training is simply positive reinforcement only training, and as the reinforcement is individual to each animal (such as tuna for cats, meat for dogs, a cuddle for clingy animals...even the removal of people for extremely shy animals!"), when done correctly, it is for every animal.

Strongly recommend "Reaching The Animal Mind" or "Don't Shoot the Dog" by Karen Pryor to learn about how to make the most of your training.

Yes I understand that the clicker is just a Marker. As is any reward. The reason I wanted to try Clicker training is the accuracy of the reward as I believe it would have marked the correct behaviour far more accurately than a variable word or reward immediately after the event which would have been useful for what I want to add to his training

I have stopped the use of a clicker as Harley is far too distressed by the sound no matter what I do to dissensitse him. My aim with any training is not to distress my dog. My methods of training without a clicker has always been pretty effective. So I will concentrate on those methods. It may take a little longer with the targeting but rather that than distressing him and putting his training backward

I think your missing my point. I wasn't questioning if Positive reinforcement training was suitable for everyone I was question if positive Reinforcement using the Method of clicker training was. So I wasn't questioning the principle just the method.

This is why i'm always cynical when trainers behaviourists say 'such and such method' will work on every dog. Every dog is individual and training methods need to be adapted to each dog

In one sense, clicker training does work on every animal but, as has already been mentioned, you can use a clicker word or signal - it's still clicker training

I have seen people at clicker classes accidentally scare their dog, but it wasn't actually the sound of the clicker. What it seems to be, with one person, was that they were clicking very close to their dog's ears not sure why as the dog would have have very good hearing and it was that closeness of the noise that scared their dog, for sure.

The owner then started to sort of follow her dog around, and her voice altered to one of great concern ... those 3 things alone were enough to scare her dog.

Wys
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