Living with a shy dog: clicking with Jenny

I am clicking everything with Jenny now! The click marks the behavior which I want to reward. If I just toss her a treat when she does something I want to reinforce, she has a harder time knowing exactly what she did right. Of course, I could mark the behavior verbally (when I don’t have the clicker on me I will say “yes”), but research has shown that animals learn faster with a clicker, perhaps because it takes less mental processing.

The click is obviously not rewarding itself; it is rewarding because it is always followed by a treat, so that she has a strong association between the click and food. The rule is that you must always reward after clicking. If you click the wrong thing by mistake, tough; you still have to reward. With Jack, who is more savvy at this game, I sometimes reward by throwing his favorite toy for him.

What am I clicking Jenny for?

• Coming into the kitchen while I am making food
• Touching my hand with her nose while I am holding out her harness open as if to put it over her head
• The Boy clicks her for responding to him saying her name. Because he is a martial arts instructor, he has a very good sense of how to reward small progressions in physical responses, so he is clicking just as she starts to sit up in response to him.
• Eye contact with me when scary things happen

Jenny on her second day with me

Jenny today: “Why did you put the clicker away? I was having fun.”

Go go clicker training!