Several years ago when everyone seemed to be pushing clicker training I said several times I didn't need a clicker I could mark with my voice.
Well one day I decided to try it. I loaded the clicker one night and the next day used it with heeling on my Pepper.
O H M Y G O D
The difference was so radical I had to really sit down and think long and hard about it. What I came up with is that my timing generally sucked and I was not making things black and white to her.
I was not consistent. I was not even consistent with my release word.
And did I mention my timing sucked?
Just thought I would throw this in this thread. <grin>
Betty made this comment on another thread and it got me thinking that I am getting pretty sloppy with my word marker as well. I'm getting to the point where I want more precision with my dog for competion obedience.
So I'm wondering if switching to a clicker will help, or if I should just work harder at sharpening up my marker word and timing.
Do you think it would be confusing for a dog to re-learn the mark using a click when she already knows the word so well? do you think it will be too confusing for the human?(lol)
Thoughts and opinions welcome!
Cheers,
Ci
Mine are trained to respond to both the clicker and the verbal marker, and I've noticed no problems in switching between the two.
I use mostly the verbal marker in everyday training situations, mainly because I just don't like to have to always carry the clicker with me.
But when it seems like they're getting lazy or ho-hum about obedience training, I will use the clicker for a while as sort of a "tune-up." The response is amazing. Even though I think my timing with my verbal marker is pretty good (or maybe it's not as good as I think), there is just something about that sound of the clicker that puts a light in their eyes and a bounce in their step.
That's just what I want to do, Cheri, use the clicker to learn new commands and tune up old ones, but also have my marker word for other times.
I think the word will still be good for a release after a longer string of commands such as we do to simulate an obedience routine...
I'll go pick one up today, and let you know how it goes. I should video it
Thanks for the input, everyone!
Ci
David C.Frost Webboard User Reg: 01-23-2002
Posts: 1204
Loc: Nashville, TN
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Honestly, my question isn't asked to be argumentative. If you understand the concept of marker training, why would you even need to ask such a question?
DFrost
Any behavior that is reinforced is more likely to occur again.
Well, maybe I don't understand it fully. I thought the concept involved one sound, whatever it may be, to mark the moment of correct behavior. I also thought that it would be possible that a dog could become confused and set back a bit in it's training if that mark was suddenly changed, so I wanted to get some opinions on that.
And I also thought that my word marker as working fine, but Betty's experience switching to a click, made me reconsider. I did not think it would make much difference, and there are alot of advantages to using a word IMO, but I am willing to try the clicker if it helps my dog get a more precise idea of what I am asking of her.
So... I got the clicker and charged it with her evening training session. Yes, she "got" it right away! I'll do a bit more in the morning and then videotape our regular session - we are working on more focused heeling, and heeling while backing up (I did a "before" recording as well).
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Switching from word marker to clicker?
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