I am sure you would like your Labrador pup to grow up to be a good companion and a well behaved dog rather than a menace to you and your neighborhood. Then there is no better way to train your dog than Clicker Training. Clicker Training uses only positive reinforcement – i.e. rewarding and reinforcing only the desired behaviors. Clicker training has been in use since many decades and was used to train killer whales, dolphins horses and other animals. But it was only in last few years that clicker training in dogs became immensely popular, as it was proven to be the most effective and humane way to train dogs.
You will get a fair idea of how you can correct or train your Labrador through Clicker training in this article. And I am sure you will never think of any other training methods once know what Clicker training is all about. Clicker training can be effectively used on any breed of dog of any age and can be used for training, re-training or correcting unwanted behaviors. Labrador retrievers can be easily trained using this method.
Reinforce your Labrador’s good behaviors and ignore the bad ones
From now on you must ignore your dog’s unwanted behaviors and click-treat the ones you want your dog to offer. You can train new tricks as well as correct unwanted behaviors using clicker training. This doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t correct the dog at all. But it should be gentle. For example if your dog has the habit of stealing food off of your dining table or kitchen counter, you must gently prevent the dog from doing it – a soft push on it’s chest would be just fine. And then you must click-treat him when he takes his eyes off the food. This way you are reinforcing his behavior of – ignoring the food on the dining table or kitchen counter.
Stop Unwanted Barking - If you have been correcting your dog for bad behaviors till now, then you will be surprised to know that correcting a bad behavior is only helping the dog to reinforce it further. For example when you are shouting or yelling at your dog to stop barking, you are unknowingly reinforcing that unwanted behavior – barking – by yelling at your dog. Instead from today onwards you must ignore it’s barking and immediately click and treat your dog when it stops. But don’t expect a miracle in a day or two! Patience my friend, patience! Clicker training demands a lot of consistency and patience. But you will definitely see the change over a period of time – say 1 or 2 weeks. You will notice that the frequency of barks coming down and ultimately you will have a Labrador that only bark when needed.
Correct Leash Pulling – If you have been a victim of constant embarrassment and fear of leash pulling by your powerful Labrador, then you will be happy to know that now you can easily correct it through Clicker training. So in order to achieve that, from now on you must ignore your labby when he pulls on to the leash and plays the bad-boy with you. Instead click-treat when he makes eye contact with you or the moment when it walks without pulling the leash. Remember, timing and repetition are the two key things to get results out of Clicker Training. If you don’t click in time you might end up reinforcing a bad behavior. And the number of times you repeat a training session makes sure that your Labrador is fully trained.
By only reinforcing the good behaviors, you are actually building a strong and positive bond between you and your beloved Labrador. Your dog would love to work with you for longer periods to get trained. Unlike aversive methods Clicker training will improve your dog’s confidence since it is free to try out new things, hence making it extremely easy for you to teach new tricks and techniques.
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