Having switched from a "balanced" training type class where treats and corrections were used to clicker training I would STRONGLY recomend clicker training.
It's very easy for you and your dog and in my personal experince creates a very focused highly motivated dog. The biggest difference in my opinion and personal experince having trained both ways in the fundamental way the "training game" is played between you and your dog. With corrections as a trainer you have to be constantly on the look out for a mistake and to correct it; even in balanced training, your still correcting followed by a treat. For many dogs this seems to be as clear as mud and learning takes a LOOOONG time.
On the other hand, in clicker training a failed attempt means a missed attempt for your dog to get reinforced. This translates into a dog who wants to keep training because he wants to get the reinforcer, whatever it may be for your dog. This takes away the struggle between dog and handler for attention or as you put it " having to deal with Doggie ADD". This alone would be enough for me to switch from any training method, but it gets better.
Training with a clicker is simple. Alone its a meaningless sound; Paired with something your dog wants to work for however, it becomes a powerful predictor of good things and acts as brdige between the time the animal performs the behaviour correctly until the treat is delivered. When training with a clicker imagine taking a picture; you want to click just as you would snap the behaviour in progress.
To make this pair simply click and then deliver your reinforcer ( Try 6 different treats and 6 different toys and games to see what your dog finds reinforcing) and repeat daily performing 10-20 clicks and rewards in one session or less if your dog is unintrested.
The only rule of clicker training are IF you click you MUST give a reward. A few clicks at the wrong moment wont ruin the behaviour your training, however, not closely pairing the click and reward will. After all it's not magic, the sound isnt taping in to some primal brain function, it's just the science of closely pairing a novel stimulus with something highly rewarding- classical conditioning my friend.
Then to train behaviours remember this order
Observe the behaviour
Mark the behaviour
Reward the behaviour
Also remember that in Clicker training we add the cue after the dog can perform the behaviour, not before as the word will usually be remembered better this way and before hand it means little/ nothing to the dog.
One more pointer- keep food out of sight until AFTER you click, presenting food before may take your dogs interest off the click noise.
Group classes are great, but make sure you sit in on one first, if you can find a clicker class awsome, even better some places have a one day seminar on how to use the clicker to get you started and then you can do the rest by yourself.
The best part about clicker training is it empowers your dog to actively take part in the training session, its not you jerking around your dog or luring him, it's him using his mind to get the reward- trust me its a BIG difference, and the end results really prove it.
Good luck
Kayla
