Let’s say you wanted your puppy to learn to sit on command. Whenever you saw him preparing to sit down, you would wait until the moment his bottom touches the floor, and click and treat immediately. Timing needs to be very accurate – you are aiming for a nice stable sit, and not a squat. You can train some really unusual behaviors if you’re not careful!
Your puppy will figure out for himself that sitting down earns him a click and treat, and should soon start offering a “sit” in an attempt to earn a reward. Once he has done this, you can start adding the verbal cue of “sit” to the behavior along with the clicker, and then start fading out the clicker. It will take some time for the dog to associate the cue with the action, so don’t be too hasty in dropping the clicker reinforcement.
Can you switch your dog over from conventional training to clicker training?
Dogs which change to clicker training from traditional training methods are known as “cross-over” dogs. They are usually capable of adapting to clicker training, but may take a bit of time to pick it up. This doesn’t necessarily hold true though. I switched my adolescent dog to clicker training, as she was very sensitive and got down-hearted very easily in traditional training sessions. Within a couple of weeks, she had really got into the swing of clicker training, and, if you presented her with a plastic box, she would nose it, climb into it, and out of it, stand on top of it, whatever she thought would bring a reward.
However, my golden retriever, who was a bit older and more happy-go-lucky than the other dog, and with a less creative way of looking at things, did cross-over but it took far longer for her to figure out what was required. She had never been asked to use her initiative before, and expected to be told what to do a lot of the time.
Even, my old dog who had never had any real training at all, learned a few basic actions like presenting a sit, turning round, and touching my palm. So, it just shows that you can teach an old dog new “clicker tricks.”