Flying Poodles

How clicker training works…

In clicker training, you use a clicker to make a sound that signals to the dog that a reward (a bit of food) is going to be there any second, based on what’s happening right now.

So you click to signal to the dog that turning her head toward you is the right thing–or sitting–or jumping a jump–whatever you want, and then you have a few seconds to get the treat to the dog. How long?

I don’t know how long is typical for most dogs, but Wednesday night we had huge thunderstorms here, and in one night of thunder and lightning, Elly–who hates loud noises–learned that a flash of lightning predicted thunder. By morning, when I took her outside, a single flash of lightning was enough to send her running for the front door–even though she needed to pee. She did that three times. Now, the storms during the night were not that close. Most were several miles away, so there were intervals of 10 or more seconds between the flash and the boom–sometimes it was less, but mostly it was more than that.

So how long between the click and the treat? Well, for Elly, I guess it could be more than ten seconds and still be connected. That’s a LONG time! A lot could happen between that click and the reward.

I’m going to have to think about what that means for training.