Many pet owners have heard of a clicker but a common question still being asked is how it really works, so let's rewind back to how it was all started and explore the basics of classical conditioning together. There is a concept, and most individuals probably encountered it during high school physiology.
A Russian psychologist, Ivan Pavlov.
Conducted experiments with dogs on salivary responses. the present of the researchers in the lab had an effect on the dogs in his experiments. So he set up automated feeders so the technicians didn't have to be in the room with the dogs when getting fed. And so he had a tone or a bell that would go off before the food dropped in the automated feeders for the dogs and over a number of repetitions he noticed that..
When the tone sounded, the dogs began to salivate.
The dogs exhibited a physical response to what was previously a meaningless stimulus (sound). The bell or tone meant nothing to the dog initially, but by predicting food, the dog developed a physical response to the sound.
He termed this classical conditioning.
And classical conditioning is what we aim to do with our reward sound, our rewards marker wether verbal or using a clicker. We'll classical condition the sound to signify an impending reward. Two intriguing points Pavlov noted were that.
If he sounded the tone the same time the food dropped the was no classical conditioning.
If he sounded the tone while the dog was eating there was no classical conditioning.
The same goes for our reward marker.
If I say “yes” and give the dog food simultaneously or say yes while my dog is eating, my dog won't become classical conditioned to that sound. It has to precede the reward's production by a split second.
You need to go,
"Yes"... reward...
"Yes"... reward...
So, it needs to follow right after—simple but a challenge, as your mouth and body naturally want to move simultaneously. You might have to condition yourself to do that.
Once your dog is conditioned to this sound, it's an incredibly powerful tool!
The dog knows whatever it's doing when it hears that sound is what it's getting rewarded for. So, at the point they're conditioned to the sound, I no longer have to provide the reward immediately to the dog upon completing the action. I just have to mark it with my voice. For instance, if my dog is across the oval, and I tell him to lay down, and he does, I say "yes." He'll jump up and come running across to me. I'll then reach into my pocket and give him a piece of food. Now, that reward might come seconds after the actual act of lying down but
He knows whatever he was doing when he heard that sound is what he's getting rewarded for.
A very powerful tool because now I don't have to be there next to the dog.
Now, when we're training without the use of markers, we try to get the reward as close to the dog as possible, ideally right after the completion of the behavior we're trying to capture. For example, if I'm teaching my dog to sit and not using a marker, as soon as his butt touches the ground, I'm trying to give him a piece of food. Studies do show that dogs learn best without a reward marker "if" they get the reward within a second of completing the desired behavior.
No matter how skilled you are, consistently providing rewards to your dog in under a second won't happen. You might do it occasionally in the begining, but it's will not be consistent overall however, once my dog is conditioned to the sound, I only have to mark the behavior with my voice in under a second. So, it's incredibly liberating, allowing us to pinpoint the moment the dog was correct, and the reward can follow after, which is powerful. Another powerful aspect is that it allows us to have the reward out of sight.
