Positive Reinforcement

• Using no physical corrections, clicker training uses positive reinforcement as its teaching method. When an animal performs a behavior in order to earn a reward, often in the form of food, treats, play or petting, a clicker is used to reinforce the desired behavior. With time, the animal learns to associate an action, event, place, person or object with a particular consequence. The more an event or environment is paired with the same consequence, the stronger the association, until no reward is needed for the animal to perform the desired behavior.
  
  

Basic Steps

• In order for clicker training to work effectively, trainers must click at the exact moment the desired behavior occurs. For example, as soon as a dog sits, the trainer clicks and offers a treat. According to clickertraining.com, an animal associates the clicking sound with its reward rather quickly--after only two or three clicks. The basic steps to clicker training are therefore to get the animal to perform a behavior, mark that behavior and reinforce the behavior.
  
  

Function

• A click is better than a spoken word for several reasons. First, a click is not a sound heard by the animal in other circumstances, so its meaning never changes. Because humans are verbal creatures, our words are sometimes circumstantial, which can be confusing for animals. Second, a click is instantaneous--it can be produced at the exact moment a desired behavior occurs. Plus, it may be difficult for pets to pick up a single word from a conversation containing many other meaningless words. A good example for humans to understand their position is when listening to a foreign language. Trying to catch a single word is not an easy task.
  
  

Effectiveness

• According to clickerlessons.com, proper clicker training results in trained animals that are not dependent on their rewards in order to respond. Trained animals also remember behaviors years later. Plus, clicker trained animals come across as more confident because they feel like they have control over the consequences of their actions. Finally, clicker trained animals show enthusiasm during their training because they expect the consequences to be pleasurable.
  
  

Misconceptions

• Several misconceptions regarding clicker training exist. For example, many people think that you can teach anything with a clicker. Gary Wilkes, an animal behaviorist, says there are some limits to clicker training. Dogs, for instance, have strong instinctive drives that are not fully controllable by any form of training. The idea that clicker training can do anything is therefore characteristic of people with wishful thinking and limited experience.