Did you know that your Labrador will learn to do every trick and technique voluntarily through Clicker Training?

If you are already using clicker training to train your Labrador retriever, you will definitely know how remarkable and effective it is. Right? But if you haven’t started with it yet, you will be amazed to hear that your dog will voluntarily do any behavior or trick for you without even touching the dog. Does it sound too good to be true? But yes it is unbelievably true! Clicker training is highly effective - than other training methods - because the animal's behavior is being reinforced in a positive manner with precise timing and accuracy. It's like taking a snap-shot of the behavior as and when it is offered.

I will explain this phenomenon with a good example. Positive Reinforcement training is not just restricted to animals. You can very well utilize this training method to train your kids. For example, if your kid gets a low grade in Math, you would most likely scold him to get a higher grade next time and warn him of dire consequences (negative reinforcement). Wouldn’t you? But instead if you reward him for his right answers with a good chocolate or his favorite toy, he would more voluntarily try to get a better grade next time; for earning a better reward from you. More than the reward, the kid will relate you and Math subject to something positive. He would then love to solve Math problems and will strive to get better grades in all the exams in the future – without offering him any reward. That’s the power of training children with positive reinforcement. Changing your perspective is what is important. Focusing only on the positive sides of life can work wonders for you. This is exactly what is being done in Clicker Training too; rewarding the good behaviors and ignoring the bad ones.

See the amazing powers of Clicker Training in this Video

For example, if you want your Labrador to lie down on a command using clicker training, there is no need to push his head or rear end to get him lied down. All you need to do is to just hang on patiently - with a clicker and treat/reward in your hand - for your dog to lie down. And when he lies down, click and treat him immediately. Doing this repeatedly over a period of time will reinforce the behavior – lying down - and the dog will do it more willingly and frequently to get the reward. Surely it is going to take some time for your dog to understand that the click/treat were for lying down. So be patient and consistent with the training. Repetition is the key. You can then associate a ‘cue’ to that behavior like, “down” or “lie down” before the dog offers the behavior. Click/treat him immediately when he offers it. But never click/treat before it offers the behavior or offers it before the cue. Once the dog starts acting on the cue, you can gradually wean him off the reward and clicker. But though your Labrador is fully trained, it might be necessary to do refresher training - using clicker/treat - once in a while to keep that behavior reinforced in the dog.

This way you can train your Labrador retriever to do a variety of new tricks or techniques like sit, fetch, come etc or correct behavior problems in it through clicker training.