Have You Ever Been Right, 47 Times?

The Clicker+, a device that can be set to produce four different sounds, was initially developed to make it easier to clicker train in a household with multiple dogs, or multiple pets of any kind. The idea is, each animal can have its own type of click, so they will all know when it is their turn and when it isn't. In addition, each tone can be set to loud for outdoor use, or soft for indoor use or in public places where you don't want to attract attention.The idea is, each animal can have its own type of click.

The head designers, Liz and Randy Harward, spent quite a lot of time working with sound. All the resulting tones—click, chirp, ping, and trill—have very carefully selected acoustic properties. They can be easily heard and recognized by people, and by all other mammals including dogs, cats, and horses, and by birds. All the sounds start and stop quickly, so you can use them to mark very brief behavioral events. They fire the instant you press the button, unlike most electronic devices such as pagers and collars, which have a delay. They are unique; easily distinguished from other sounds in the environment. So which sound you pick to train with is entirely a matter of your personal preference. Ping for cat, click for dog, and trill for the parrot in the kitchen? Or the other way around? Doesn't matter.

Switching to a new tone

We're getting a lot of e-mail, as people try this new tool. How do you get your dog to recognize his new sound? Just use it. If you've decided on the ping sound, ping and treat. It will take no more than two or three pings for him to understand "Oh, this is another kind of click. Great!" It doesn't take brains and it doesn't take practice; living organisms are programmed to recognize useful new cues, and to switch from one marker signal to another. When I switched my trained fish from a splash-as-click to a flashlight blink-as-click, he got very excited and understood in two trials. I immediately trained him to follow a target stick moving across the glass, without any shaping at all, using the new blink as the marker.

And, by the way, could you switch back to the click if you wanted to? Of course. Go back and forth between them? Of course. Don't you recognize when the phone is ringing, even in someone else's house? Or on someone else's cell phone? Of course.

Training two dogs

If you're working two dogs at once, you have to be the one that does the learning. Start them separately, not for their sake, for yours. You need to build the skill of changing tones when you change dogs. Are they both in the same room? You need to steel yourself; when you ping the new puppy, treat only him, don't give in to how cute the old lady Chihuahua is being (or how obnoxious) and toss her a treat too, "just this once." Make her wait for her own click. Otherwise the ping will be something she wants as much as she wants the click, maybe more (since it belongs to the puppy).

The Clicker+ as a cue

You can do a lot of things with these tones. They could be cues, instead of markers. The tones would be clearer than verbal cues, much more consistent, thus easier to learn; I am imagining setting four of them each to a different tone, and then using the little elastic they come with, to wear one on each of four fingers. Then I could train my poodle to go left, right, forward, and stop, on the different sounds—and see if I could steer him around the dining room. Or through a maze marked out with chalk on the sidewalk.

Is that useful for the dog? Sure. He's earning treats. Is that useful for the trainer? It would be a great way to really train yourself to teach cues, and to make them foolproof. Mistakes would show up right away; "Ooh, he went under the table instead of around the chair, those two cues are not quite clear yet." No blaming the dog or the weather; erroneous responses would always be training mistakes. The resulting proficiency the trainer would develop from such a backyard exercise would save a lot of wasted time in training superior search dogs of any kind, from customs sniffer to disaster dog, without all the deprivation and correction-based techniques traditional trainers rely on. We're now getting requests for "complete instructions" for training applications with the Clicker+. But those "complete" instructions don't exist yet. They are going to evolve.

More instructions please?

On the back of the Clicker+ packaging, there are instructions for setting and switching tones. We're now getting requests for "complete instructions" for training applications with the Clicker+. But those "complete" instructions don't exist yet. They are going to evolve. And they are going to come from you, the users. Horse owners are using it to click the riders while the riders click the horses. Bird trainers use it for multiple birds in one room. Over in England Kay Laurence and her students are working on new uses ranging from the out-and-out silly to front-edge training solutions. By next ClickerExpo, I'm willing to bet the faculty will be demonstrating new ideas with the Clicker+, and people will be exchanging their own personal great Clicker+ usage in the halls and at the lunch tables. We know that you will think up more applications, more shortcuts, more good ideas, than we could ever imagine. THEN we'll write the "complete" instructions. In the meantime, please send us your application experience and we'll create a shared community use place on the website.

My first experience: training the handler and the dog at the same time

The first time I personally used this new tool was on stage at ClickerExpo last season. I wanted to explore a new way to get rid of the pernicious leash-jerking that seems to be so prevalent these days, an aversive being used routinely as a signal to tell the dog to come along when you move. (For more on this pet peeve of mine, see Hidden Aversives.)

In a session on cues and cueing, I asked people in the audience to walk down the aisles with their dogs. Thus I was able look for and select two or three audience members who had this leash jerking habit. I brought them up on stage and narrowed my choice down to one, a woman with a nice polite standard poodle, and a habitual leash jerk.

I gave her these instructions: "Hold the leash in your right hand" (so jerking wouldn't be as easy to do). "When I say 'Go,' tell your dog 'Let's go,' and start forward down the length of the stage and back. When you hear the click, stop and give your dog a treat."

Then we began. The stage was small, and she had to make U-turns at each end, so that took some extra coaching to avoid pulling the dog through the turns, but we managed that.

With my left hand, I clicked the dog at least once on each straightaway if it was in heel position (it always was), and I clicked if it stayed with her on the U-turns. Meanwhile, each time the handler stopped without jerking the leash, I played the ping sound on the Clicker+ in my right hand. And each time I said "Go," if she spoke to the dog instead of jerking on the leash as she started forward, I pinged her again. I had a stash of wrapped chocolates in my right hand. After every ping I moved into her path and handed her a chocolate. Pretty soon she had a pocketful.

Without the incessant leash jerking, the dog actually knew how to heel very well, and was stopping, starting, and turning when his owner did. He was enjoying all the clicks and treats and working attentively. The handler, meanwhile, had earned about ten pings and was beginning to do a nice, coordinated job of stopping on the click, going on my "Go" cue, and speaking to the dog before moving, almost every time, with absolutely no tightening of the leash.

On about the tenth or twelfth ping, the handler took her chocolate, pocketed it, and then suddenly looked at the Clicker+, pointed at it, and said "That's for ME!" I nodded and smiled, "You've got it!" And she did. We'd finished the training, as far as I was concerned.

When she left the stage, the dog was glued to her side. She spoke to the dog before going down the steps, and she went back to her seat without jerking the leash once. Ping!

The exercise had worked. I was pleased. And it had an unexpected result, too. Later in the day, out in the hall, this handler and her dog walked past me and she stopped (without jerking the leash!) to talk. She told me that the five minutes or so of training had been a tremendous experience for her. "I'm always such a klutz," she said. "I never get things right. But this, I got this right, and it felt so good! I feel completely different, I was a success!" Yes, she was. I'm sure I was grinning. Her dog was laughing up happily too. SHE had experienced, in real time, learning a new skill with a very high rate of reinforcement. That was huge. She was standing up straighter, and her face was relaxed; she was smiling. I had put her on the spot in front of 250 people and that didn't matter a bit: she felt great.

It put me in mind of a video clip TAGteacher Theresa McKeon shows. She has been teaching cheerleading moves to some young girls, perhaps ten to twelve year olds, using the clicker, or TAG. Now the lesson is over and she's asking the children about their experience.

"How many TAGs did you earn?" Theresa asks one girl.

"Forty-seven," the child says promptly. Others chime in with their numbers; they counted; they knew.

"Is that so," says Theresa. "How many times in your life before this have you been told you were right, forty-seven times in one day?"

"NEVER," says the child, giggling. Everyone else giggles too. What a weird idea.

That's right. We get told when we're wrong. We don't hear about it when we're right, certainly not 47 times. And just having that experience once can be life-changing. Even if you're no longer 10 years old.We don't hear about it when we're right, certainly not 47 times. And just having that experience once can be life-changing. Even if you're no longer 10 years old.

Next month I'm going to tell you about another Clicker+ adventure, this time with a group of people. Meanwhile, we're getting ready for ClickerExpo's third season. The program has been expanded to allow for many more hands-on interactive opportunities. We are VERY interested in actively teaching people, using clicker techniques to teach clicker training skills. I think you'll find it is unlike any other learning experience available, for advanced clicker trainers and novices too.

About the author

Karen Pryor is the founder and CEO of Karen Pryor Clicker Training and Karen Pryor Academy. She is the author of many books, including Don't Shoot the Dog and Reaching the Animal Mind. Learn more about Karen Pryor or read Karen's Letters online.