I Clicker Trained My Dog To Fear Obeying Commands And Treats?
September 28, 2009 by admin
Filed under Care & Training Q&As
Help! I have a 9 month old Papillon and he’s extremely intelligent. I taught him the few commands that he knows in one training session each. He’s very bright and learns quickly.
I recently got a clicker to train him further. However, after only using it about 4 times (meaning 4 clicks) he got scared of the sound and therefore the treat that followed! Now if I tell him to sit or do anything he’s hesitant because he is scared that a loud sound will follow.
I’ve never used treats as a reward for him before- only toys. The toys have worked very well. Is there hope for clicker training him? I know it’s a very effective training method so I’d like to make it work.
Related Papillon Training & Care posts:
Why? Is it because you heard about it and you figured you should try it? The dog was doing well before the clicker, what made you get one? Why switch from the toy to food? You had something that worked for you and had to go mess with it. Now you will have to go back and start again from the beginning. Good luck.
Clicker training is great – but the clicker is only a marker. You don’t need to use that step. You can train your puppy (and it sounds like you already were) just as effectively using treats/toys and praise. What I’ve always done with my dogs, is once they know what I’m teaching them, they’re weaned off the treats and work for praise (with the occasional treat thrown in). There are clickers you can get that make a much softer noise than the ones Petsmart sells if you still want to go that route.
Your Pap is most likely very sound sensative. If you muffle the sound a bit you should be fine. You can click and use toys, it doesn’t need to be treats. No, you don’t need to start all over, you just need to change its association. Most people use the clicker to get more complex behavior chains or to fine tune a precise behavior where a verbal marker would be slow.
You can use a verbal marker instead of a clicker. Check out the article that I have attached in the source list. It has a step by step plan to follow to overcome fear of the clicker. It’s also a great site to have for any clicker trainer.