Clickers can be an invaluable tool when teaching your dog a new desired behavior. Clickers allow you to mark each time your dog successfully performs the behavior with a click, which provides a confirmation that’s more consistent than verbal praise. Clicker training uses positive reinforcement to encourage good behavior. Anyone who aced high school biology will remember this is formally called “Pavlovian Conditioning.”

We’re following along with the Teach Your Dog To Sit Chewtorial as an example so we can show how and when the clicker would enhance the lesson.

1. Load the Clicker
Before you can use it successfully, you need to establish the connection between the clicking sound and your dog performing the new behavior. For your dog to understand the connection between the click and the reward, you’ll click the clicker and immediately feed them a treat. Once they’ve finished it, repeat the process. Click and feed a treat. Click and feed. After about 15-20 times, your dog should understand the connection between the click and the reward that inevitably follows.

2. Establish the Connection With the Behavior
Using the sit example, you’d click right at the exact moment your dog touches their butt to the ground. The rest of the lesson details are the same, we’re just adding a click at the moment of success. Dog trainers call this “marking” the desired behavior.

3. Click the Clicker and Feed a Treat
As with the clicker-loading, repeat the process about 15-20 times in order to effectively teach the skill without your dog getting fatigued.

4. Phase Out the Treat
Once your dog is able to reliably perform the action upon hearing your cue, you can try phasing out the treat. Continue to use the clicker to mark the successful attempts.

5. Phase Out the Clicker
Once your dog is performing the new behavior upon hearing your cue, even after you’ve stopped offering them a treat reward, you can try phasing out the click as well. It’s important that you retain the importance of the clicker in their mind by limiting its use top training sessions or for when you’re encouraging your dog to perform a learned behavior in a new place.

If a dog is reliably sitting at your command at home, getting them to sit in a new environment, like at a friend’s house or at the park, will feel like a new skill to your dog. The clicker can be a great way to encourage them to perform the learned behavior in a new place.