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Clicker Training Review

Clickertraining: The Four Secrets Of Becoming A Supertrainer by Morten Egtvedt & Cecilie Koeste

Reviewer: Jonn Gideon
Rating:
Guide Reviewed: The Clickertraining website.

Let me first say how impressed I am with this guide. Having a scientific background, the clicker training method which is based upon the work of B.F. Skinner in the area of operant conditioning, appeals to me. Operant conditioning means that the experimenter (or trainer in this case) waits for the desired behavior to occur and then rewards that behavior.

Don't let the scientific origin of this method make you think it is boring. What comes across in the guide is how much fun the method can be, while at the same time being highly effective. The text is very clear and easy to understand. It leads you from the theory and principles of clicker training to detailed training plans for thirty behaviors. The behaviors vary from the usual behaviors like loose leash-walking, recall, sit, down, retrieve to more unusual ones like switching a light on and off.

 Clicker training

The principles of the clicker training method are used to train marine mammals but using a whistle instead of a clicker. You can imagine how much more difficult it is to train a dolphin. This shows the effectiveness of the method.

The term clicker training was popularized by Karen Pryor, one of the leaders in the world of animal training. The authors of this guide, Morten Egtvedt and Cecilie Koeste, a married training team from Norway, are members of Karen Pryor's ClickerExpo faculty.

They are Scandinavia´s leading authors on clicker training and their guide is the number one seller in Nordic countries. It hasn't been published in English in physical form but has now been made available in downloadable form from the Clickertraining website.

They originally were traditional dog trainers until they learned the effectiveness of clicker training. Clicker training is such a useful technique that it has now been adopted in the teaching of guide dogs for the blind. It's like an accelerated learning technique for your dog.

One thing is for sure, Morten and Cecilie know their stuff. They run the Canis Clickertraining Academy where they run classes and train their own instructors. Not everyone who uses a clicker is a great trainer. But with Morten and Cecilie you'll learn the correct way to take advantage of this incredibly useful tool.

You can check out the quality of Morten and Cecilie's material by going to their site and subscribing to their free seven day clicker training guide.

Click here to go to the Clickertraining website.

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What's Covered?

The downloadable book is 213 pages and has fifteen chapters.

Chapter 1 gives the history of clicker training and explains what it is. This chapter explains the four core elements of clicker training which define this training method for Morten and Cecilie.

These are:

  • focussing on rewarding the correct behavior
  • the dog does the desired behavior voluntarily. No kind of force or tempting with treats is done
  • systematic use of a conditioned reinforcer which is the clicker
  • focussing on what we see. We don't have to worry what our dog is thinking.

You should be aware that other trainers using a clicker are not necessarily using clicker training in the sense defined by the four core elements. The authors point out that there is a huge difference between using a clicker and doing clicker training that is based on the four core elements.

Other chapters cover the following topics:

  • Positive and Negative Reinforcement
  • The Four Secrets of Becoming a Supertrainer
  • Find an Effective Reinforcer!
  • Conditioned Reinforcers
  • Training Techniques
  • Target Training
  • Stimulus Control
  • Backchaining
  • The Retrieve
  • Generalization
  • Crossover dogs
  • Five Common Syndromes
  • Actual Training.

The "Actual Training" chapter covers thirty different practical exercises in training your dog as mentioned previously.

The book is aimed at training in dog obedience for the average dog owner, covering all the basic behaviors and some more advanced behaviors. The authors have written a much larger book on clicker training obedience for competition.

Bonuses

Along with the book you get five bonus videos:

  1. Teaching the Retrieve
  2. Getting the Mail From the Mailbox
  3. Teaching heel position with a puppy
  4. Getting a soda from the refrigerator
  5. Teach your dog to wrap itself in a blanket.

The videos are a great bonus because having understood the process from the book, you get to see the process in action for four particular behaviors. This makes the method crystal clear.

What I Particularly Like About It

What I particularly like about this guide is that it's so systematic. If you like a step-by-step approach with nothing missed out, you'll love this guide. I also like that clicker training doesn't use any kind of punishment at all. It is totally based on positive reinforcement.

Clickertraining Review Verdict

I am really impressed with the Clickertraining guide. It's very well written, clear and more than delivers in the wealth of details and in the quality of information.

 

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◦ Dove Cresswell Review
◦ DIY Dog Training Review
Dog Food Secrets Review
Canis Clicker Training Academy
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House Training A Puppy
Easy Puppy Crate Training
Dog Obedience Training
◦ Alpha Dog Training
◦ Dog Clicker Training
◦ Leash Training A Dog
◦ Dog Agility Training
Dog Behavior Problems
◦ How To Stop Aggressive Dog Behavior
◦ How To Stop Your Puppy Barking
◦ Stop Your Puppy Growling
◦ Stop Your Dog Chewing
◦ How To Stop Your Puppy Biting
◦ Stop Your Dog Jumping Up
◦ Stop Your Dog Digging
◦ Dealing With A Whining Dog
◦ Solutions For A Hyperactive Dog
◦ Destructive Dog Behavior
Dogs Emotions
◦ Separation Anxiety
◦ Boredom In Dogs

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