5 Important Facts About Clicker Training For Labrador Retriever Owners And Trainers.

I would like to quickly share some basic and critical facts about Labradors that you would like to know before I get into the Clicker Training facts.

Labrador retriever dogs are not just cute and cuddly but extremely powerful. They are very strong, athletic and energetic dogs and require a lot of physical exercise, regularly. So it’s highly recommended that your Labrador retriever is properly trained right from a young age or else the cute and cuddly Labby would one day grow to be a powerful and unmanageable beast. For example if your dog is not properly leash trained from an early age, it will be almost impossible to walk him unless you have superhuman strengths. Walking your dog will become a scary and embarrassing task rather than an enjoyable experience – which it should be.

Labs love to swim and also play for long hours with their favorite toys and retrieve them for you – hey, that’s why they belong to the retriever family. I think I have blabbered more and enough that you might already know, right? Can’t help it you know – I am that crazy about Labs. But hey, in case you are completely new to Labradors, this info should surely come in handy.

5 Important Facts About Clicker Training

If you are totally unaware about Clicker Training method, then I would highly recommend this article – What is Clicker Trianing? By Karen Pryor. Or you can read one of my previous posts – Most Humane Way To Train Your Labrador Retriever.

Watch this video on Clicker Training your Labrador Puppy

1. Dog owners/trainers who are unaware about positive reinforcement training (clicker training) do the mistake of correcting their dogs when they do something wrong and punish them. This is nothing but negative reinforcement training, where the dog would avoid doing something due to fear of punishment. But in Clicker training you would completely ignore the negative behaviors and reward the positive ones. This is easier said than done, but you will completely understand how to do it once you fully know how clicker training works.
2. Negative reinforcement training uses aversive methods to train or correct the dog which results in spoiling a healthy relationship between the trainer and the dog, where as with clicker training you develop a healthy relationship between you and your dog and also with human beings!
3. Clicker training is absolutely not a quick fix formula that will do miracles to your dog. It takes a lot of time and effort to perfect this training method. Clicker training is more of a mechanical skill that you need to practice and perfect than a talent. But once you get the hang of it, it will be more of an enjoyable experience rather than a boring chore - both for you and your dog.
4. The most important aspect of Clicker Training is that it is faster and efficient than other dog training methods. You would see the difference once you start training your Labrador with clicker training. But if your Lab has been already trained on some other method, it will take some time to retrain it.
5. If you are a person who’s looking for an effective training method for training your Labrador on agility, search and rescue and tracking, then Clicker training is the answer for you. You can even train your dog to become a hunting dog using this powerful method.

So try out clicker training on your own and see how you and your dog would start loving it. If you want to learn Clicker Training in depth, then I would certainly recommend this guide – The 4 Secrets of Becoming a Supertrainer by Cecile Koeste and Morten Egtvedt to every Labrador retriever owner.