How do you clicker train a behavior that doesn't come naturally to a dog?

If you want to teach your dog to do an action or trick that is not natural to him, you can use a “lure” to do so. You lure your pet by using a treat to encourage the movement you are looking for. If you wanted to teach your dog to beg, and had him sitting, you would persuade him to raise his front legs off the floor by holding a treat just out of reach above his head. You would then click and treat immediately.

How long should a clicker training session last?

It is better to have short, frequent clicker training sessions - certainly no longer than 5 minutes at a time. Your dog will stay much fresher and keen to perform. If you are teaching a new behavior, you should be clicking and treating intensively, every few seconds. So make sure your treats are tasty and easily eaten. Food consumed should be subtracted from the dog’s daily food allowance, or you could end up with a really fat dog!

How would you clicker train deaf dogs?

As you can imagine, it would be impossible to clicker train deaf dogs, but you can teach them by a similar method. Instead of using a clicker to reward an action, you use a small pen flashlight. Once the dog is offering the behavior you are shaping on a regular basis, you would add a hand-signal cue instead of a verbal one.

Can you use clicker training to deal with unwanted behaviors?

There are several ways of extinguishing unwanted behaviors. A clicker-trained dog recognizes that it gains some sort of reward for its actions. If none is forthcoming for the behavior it is producing, the animal is liable to drop it from its repertoire as it is of no use to it. Another solution is to click and treat the unwanted behavior, then put it on cue, and never ask for it. If your dog barks and strains to get at other dogs, you could click and treat it if it turns to look at you, put this action on cue eventually, and extinguish the other one.