RESEARCH PROJECT

CLICKER
THE NEW DOG TRAINING

By: Ainhoa Nocete Romero Supervised by: Rosa Galiano 2nd Batxillerat B INS. Miquel Bosch i Jover Arts, 16/01/2012

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GRATITUDES
I want to start giving thanks to all the people who have made possible to have finished my research project. This research has taught me to understand the improvement of the dog training world. Firstly, thanks to Rosa M. Galiano, who has been next to me, day after day, reading and rereading, guiding and supervising me in the research. Now I know a little more about it. I appreciate much her advice and patience. Also, a very sincere gratitude to all the people who are involved in the dog world, especially those who have introduced me into this world. This research project could not have been possible without them. They have taught me all that I know now about dog training and have always believed in me. Special thanks to Enric Bruch, my dog instructor, for being always next to me, and to Germn Prez, a local dog trainer, for the time and good advice given to me and for showing me what we can achieve with dogs. Last but not least, I want to thank Yolanda Alvarez for her constant willing to help me. I cannot forget about my parents either. They have been very patient to me all the time. Both of them have accompanied me to the different places for the training sessions and helped me with the recording of all the videos and with the photos I am including in the project. They have been giving me constant encouragement and confidence to move forward with the project and never give up. I also want to express all my love to my two dogs, Iron and Kiss. Without them I could not have done and proved my research.

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INDEX
GRATITUDES .......................................................................................................................................... 2 1. 2. INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................................................. 6 CLICKER TRAINING METHOD ...................................................................................................... 8 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 2.6 2.6.1 2.6.2 2.6.3 2.6.4 2.6.5 2.6.6 3. History ..................................................................................................................................... 8 The clicker ............................................................................................................................... 8 Advantages .............................................................................................................................. 9 Disadvantages ....................................................................................................................... 10 Expectatives .......................................................................................................................... 10 Amazing exercises achieved with the clicker ......................................................................... 11 Basketball ....................................................................................................................... 11 Tidying up the shoes ...................................................................................................... 11 Bowling ........................................................................................................................... 11 Picking up a tissue and closing the bin .......................................................................... 11 Dancing .......................................................................................................................... 11 Jumping with a rope ...................................................................................................... 12

CONVENTIONAL TRAINING METHOD ....................................................................................... 13 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 3.5 3.6 3.6.1 3.6.2 History ................................................................................................................................... 13 Definition of the conventional training ................................................................................... 13 Advantages ............................................................................................................................ 13 Disadvantages ....................................................................................................................... 14 Expectatives .......................................................................................................................... 14 Basic exercises ...................................................................................................................... 14 Walking with the strap slack .......................................................................................... 14 Sit................................................................................................................................... 14

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3.6.3 3.6.4 3.6.5 3.6.6 3.6.7 4.

Down.............................................................................................................................. 14 Calling ............................................................................................................................ 14 Boreaus ......................................................................................................................... 15 Aus................................................................................................................................. 15 Apport ............................................................................................................................ 15

PRACTICAL TRAINING WITH MY DOGS .................................................................................... 16 4.1 4.1.1 4.1.2 4.1.3 4.1.4 4.1.5 4.1.6 4.2 4.2.1 4.2.2 4.2.3 4.2.4 4.2.5 4.2.6 Clicker training with Kiss ....................................................................................................... 16 The steps to do the apport............................................................................................. 16 First Session .................................................................................................................. 16 Second Session ............................................................................................................. 17 Third Session ................................................................................................................. 18 Fourth Session .............................................................................................................. 19 Fifth Session .................................................................................................................. 19 Conventional training with Iron .............................................................................................. 20 The steps to do the apport............................................................................................. 20 First Session .................................................................................................................. 20 Second Session ............................................................................................................. 21 Third Session ................................................................................................................. 22 Fourth Session .............................................................................................................. 22 Fifth Session .................................................................................................................. 22

5. 6. 7.

TRAINING RESULTS BASED ON MY PRACTICE ....................................................................... 23 CONCLUSIONS ............................................................................................................................ 26 INTERVIEWS ................................................................................................................................ 28 7.1 7.2 Interview to Enric Bruch ........................................................................................................ 28 Interview to Germn Prez .................................................................................................... 30

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8. 9.

BIBLIOGRAPHY ............................................................................................................................ 32 VIDEOS ......................................................................................................................................... 32

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1. INTRODUCTION
The first thing I thought when I had to raise the topic of my research project was that it had to be an interesting theme for me. As I love animals, I have had dogs since I was a child. Four years ago I started to train my dog in the training field Els Tres Pins, in Balsareny, where I still teach my dogs obedience and search of persons. As I am involved in those methods of training I once read about clicker, a positive dog training which avoids punishment and establishes a good relationship with the dog for teaching funny exercises. It seemed to me really interesting because it is a different method, which I can work with and teach different exercises to a dog. Therefore, I decided to do some research on this method and try to apply it with my dogs. With this project I want to prove the validity of clicker. That is to say, to show that it is the best method to train a dog by comparing the differences and similarities of this training method with traditional obedience and to describe the close relationship that is created between the dog and the owner during this type of training. To prove it, I first wanted to work with dogs with an aggressive conduct but after asking for advice to Karen Pryor, the person who started the clicker in the world of the dog, she told me that aggression in dogs is a complex behavior, often with a long history and that the behavior of the owner is often a factor that has to be modified as well, so she did not recommend me this as a research topic for a school project, as it would take a long time and could be hazardous and the outcomes can often be ambiguous. Following Mrs Pryors advice, I decided to put clicker training method into practice by doing the same exercise with my two friendly dogs. One dog is going to be taught with clicker and the other one with traditional obedience. The exercise I am going to do is called apport, in which the dog has to bring me a thing, in this case an apport (see picture 1), a device made of wood, sit down and put the apport in my hand. Iron is a German shepherd of four years old. (see picture 2) I have had him since he was tree months. He is a dog with a lot of character, he barks to other dogs and he even bit one once, so he is slightly aggressive but very confident. He does all of this to protect me because when I bought him I was fourteen years and for a dog the age when a human is adult is sixteen years old. At home he is so calm and he is often charming with all the people, and even with his flat mate dog, Kiss. He plays a lot with her. He is so obedient and he learns quite fast all the instructions. He is a very good guardian. With Iron I am going to put into practice the apport by using the conventional training.
2. Iron. 1. Apport

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Kiss is a Golden Retriever of two years old. (see picture 3) I have had her since she was two months. She is a very charming dog; she loves people and also playing with dogs. When I am working with her, she is very attentive to whether I have a reward, some goods or a ball for playing. She is very active but sometimes if there is a lot of noise or if she does not know the place where she is she may be a little fearful. With Kiss I am going to put into practice the apport by using the clicker.
3. Kiss.

My intention was also to be able to contact with some experienced dog educators like Karen Pryor, Enric Bruch, Mary Ray and Germn Prez to contribute with their opinion and knowledge to my work. I have recorded three videos: in the first there are the examples of some exercises achieved with the clicker, in the second all the training steps I have done with Kiss and the clicker training and at last there is the third video, where there is all the training steps I have done with Iron and the conventional training. At first, my intention was to do my project in Catalan, but as I like languages and I want to study them in a near future I have finally decided to do it in English. Besides, most of the research in these fields is done in English, as the USA is a pioneer country.

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2. CLICKER TRAINING METHOD

2.1 History
What the dog trainers are calling clicker training is an application of behavior analysis that was initially invented and developed more than thirty years ago, by Keller Breland, Marian Breland Bailey, and Bob Bailey. They are marine mammal trainers who use conditioned reinforcers, usually the sound of a whistle, to train whales, dolphins, seals and polars bears. The concept was first brought to marine mammal parks and to U. S. Navy dolphins trainers in the 1960s by Keller Berland, a graduate student of B.F. Skinner. Skinner was a psychologist who did a studied of the instrumental conditioning (see scheme 5) which is called Skinners cage. Breland called the whistle a
4. Burrhus Frederik Skinner

bridging stimulus, because, in addition to informing the dolphin that it

had just earned a fish, the whistle bridged the period of time between the leap in midtank and swimming over to the side to collect ones pay. Clicker training is based on the same principles.Gary Wilkes and Karen Pryor put on all these theories writing the book Don't Shoot the Dog. Whith this book was when this method began to pop to the majority training animals as chickens, horses, cats, dogs etc. This training method is quite unpopular because it is quite new and some people do not know it already.
5. Behavioral theory: operant condtioning.

2.2 The clicker

The clicker is a mechanical device with a metallic tongue which sounds like a loud click. There are two types of clickers: the traditional one (see picture 6), that is a box and we press directly onto the metallic tongue and the i-clicker (see picture 7), when we press a button which makes the sound.

6. Clicker with metalic tongue

7. I-clicker

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This is a positive training, so it means that we never use punishment and there is only positive reinforcement in a way of a reward after every exercise, the probability that the act will occur again increases. The orders can be by given by means of a signal or voice. Depending on what we want to achieve we can work with both of it. Food is not a positive reinforcement if the dog is full. In order to be reinforced, the item chosen must be something the subject wants, so it is useful to have a variety of reinforcers for any training situation. Avoiding something you dislike can be reinforcing, too. One extremely useful technique with food or any other reinforcement is the jackpot. The jackpot is a reward that is much bigger, maybe ten times bigger than the normal reinforcer, and one that comes as a surprise to the subject. Clicker removes the necessity of giving the reward as quickly as possible. It allows a little space of time between the behaviors and the reinforcement. Clicker is a training method based on goal approaching. It means that we use the clicker to tell the dog that he is doing the exercise well when the exercise is not finished yet. The reinforcer, the click, has to occur in the very instant the behavior is taking place. We cannot force the dog to do anything; he has to think about what he has to do so it produces a big psychological tiredness. For that reason, a twenty minutes practice with clicker is like two hours running.

2. Goal approaching. Click to 1. Give order

make the dog understand the The first time we click, the dog has not finished the action of sitz yet but it i son the way3. Goal achivedthe to accomplish order order.

Like humans, dogs are right-handed or left-handed, so it will be more easily do the exercises over one side or the other. We have to look how the dog moves and then we will discover what side is better for it. Like people, dog tends to be right-handed because the owner is but if we teach exercises from all sides the dog will be more balance and flexibile With all, the clicker does not solve all the problems: some behaviors in animals and people have genetic components that may be difficult or impossible to modify by training. But with many of lifes challenges, tasks, and annoyances a correct use of reinforcement can help.

2.3 Advantages
I sum up below the advantages I consider there are with the clicker training method. A conditioning reinforcement is used to reinforce the conduct we want to have and improve it.

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Being the sound of the click fast and precise the problem of imprecise synchronization is avoided. Clickers allow a fast click response so the behavior is "marked." The clicker sound is distinctive and is used only to mark right behavior, unlike voice responses. Thus, the dog connects the click to the immediately preceding behavior, which makes training much faster.

It works on the majority dogs. For most dogs, learning how to get rewards without concern for punishment is enjoyable. With shy, timid or fearful dogs, clicker training is calm and clear and allows the dog to learn without stress.

A relationship based on positive responses grows more positive. Concentrating on desired instead of undesired behaviors removes fear of punishment and allows the dog to respond with enthusiasm. Dogs are fearful when being trained may evoke anger, guilt or other negative emotions in the owner. Fear of punishment does not increase the bond of the dog to the trainer. Clicker training creates a response that is relaxed and helps have a positive bond.

Demonstrations, research and video documentations prove that clicker training works with chickens, dolphins, cats, dogs and even people. Although many other training methods also work, training in a positive way, without punishment gives clicker training clear advantages over other methods, as we will see later in the dogs trainings.

2.4 Disadvantages
Some of clicker training disadvantages are the followings. The animal can have hearing problems to listen to the clicker, in this case we can use a scoreboard like lights but it is not as effective as clicker. The clicker is merely one way to train a dog. Eventually, the dog should obey orders without the clicker. Some dogs become conditioned to the clicker and will not obey verbal commands. Once your dog begins regularly responding to the clicker, gradually stop using it. You do not want to have to carry a clicker around with you at all times. It can be difficult to hold treats, the clicker and maybe a leash all at the same time. A clicker must be used with good timing, meaning you must click the instant your dog obeys. A delay caused by juggling several objects will undermine the method and will not work so good.

2.5 Expectatives
Seeing what I have been researching, the result expectations for my research will be that: Kiss, the dog trained with clicker is going to learn more quickly the apport and it is going to work better than the other dog, Iron is going to be trained by the conventional training, only with game and orders.

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2.6 Amazing exercises achieved with the clicker

As I quoted already clicker is a very good device to train fantastic exercises with the dog. Viewing Duna, Gernns dog and Marys Ray show I can realised what kind of activities we can raise with a lot of constant and training with the clicker. I also observed that in some exercises the clicker had disappeared and they did not give the reward until the end of the activity because they have pasted some exercises one after the other. I am going to explain some of these exercises below: 2.6.1 Basketball In this exercise the dog has to catch a ball which is thrown by someone, catch it, go to the basketball and dunk it. This activity is called basket. (see picture 7)
7. Duna dunking a ball

2.6.2 Tidying up the shoes In this exercise the dog has to catch the shoes tidy up in their case and finally close the case. This activity is called dentro and later tanca.(see picture 8) 2.6.3 Bowling In this exercise the dog has to catch a ball and throw it over the bowls to tomb them, later it has to tidy up the ball to the place where the dog has taken. This activity is called tira.(see picture 9) 2.6.4 Picking up a tissue and closing the bin

8. Duna tinding up the shoes

9. Duna bowling

In this exercise when the owner says the order achoo the dog has to bring the owner a tissue (see picture 10) and then when the tissue is in the bin the dog has to close it. The later exercise is called toca.(see picture 11) 2.6.5 Dancing

10. Duna taking a tissue

This activity consists of playing on music during some exercises. The music and the exercises are coordinated between them. They are simple exercises but the owner and the dog have to be much coordinated. The orders of these activities are done by the owners signals. The most famous person involved in this activity is Mary Ray.

11. Duna closing the bin

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2.6.6 Jumping with a rope This is the exercise that I have done with my dog Kiss, like the name indicates it consists of Kiss jumping with me with a rope. I have called this activity hop. I have trained in two seasons of ten
12. Kiss and I jumping with a rope

minutes each and I have had much fun doing it.

To do this exercise the first thing I thought was how I could do it and what is the easiest way to teach this exercise to a dog. Then I thought like a dog and I concluded that: I have to divide the exercise in different parts: in the first one I work the jump, so to make Kiss jump I show her a ball in a high position and then automatically Kiss jumps to catch it and then I click.(see picture 13) In the second part I thought that I had to make the ball disappear, so I make Kiss jump only raising the hand, when she does it I click. (see picture 14) And finally I introduce the rope and when I raise the hand to make the rope roll I say the order hop and when Kiss jumps I click.(see picture 12)
14. Kiss jumping with the hand raised 13. Kiss jumping with a ball raised

By doing this exercise I have learned to be synchronized with my dog Kiss because we have to jump at the same time.

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3. CONVENTIONAL TRAINING METHOD

3.1 History
Working dogs have always learned to obey commands related to the work that they historically performed. In the twentieth century, formalized dog training originated in military and police

applications, and the methods used largely reflected the military approach to training humans.

3.2 Definition of the conventional training

The conventional training is a method to train dogs based in the four paradigms (see picture 15): positive punishment (punish), negative reinforcement (leave punish), positive reinforcement (reward) and negative punishment (leave rewarding).

15. The four paradigms

With this method we use the choke collar (see picture 16), which is too complete and rather difficult to execute because the trainer has to do four actions, the four paradigms very fast and at the exact moment. The
16. Choke collar

conventional training can be used for obedience and it is so effective in solving problems like aggressive dogs, fears, anxiety, dominance, hierarchy,

sociability. The orders given are in German so as not to make the dog get confused with daily order because with this training every time we say an order the dog has to do it because if not then we go back approximately fifteen steps to what we had worked before.

3.3 Advantages
Dog training collars are a way of teaching pet dogs by correction. Just like a mother dog's fast and timed corrections, the dog training collar works with the same results. Training your pet dog with a collar needs proper preparation and research on training mechanics. We established a hierarchy which the dog learned that we are the leader of the pack so it will do the order that we desired in any circumstance. The dog will do the exercise desired in anywhere because the place does not conditioned it.

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3.4 Disadvantages
Invented with good intentions though, training collars end up being misused by people. Misuse of dog training collars can do harm to dogs.

3.5 Expectatives
With this method I expect to work more slowly than with the clicker because the process is longer but this method will surely work in any circumstances and in any place because we order the dog to do the exercise. That is to say, every time we order the exercise the dog will do it.

3.6 Basic exercises

3.6.1 Walking with the strap slack In this exercise the dog has to walk next to the owner without drawing. The dog cannot exceed the left leg. The order we are going to use is Fuss (foot). Every time we say the order and the dog is not doing it we have to draw and put the dog next to us. We can achieve that the dog does a good Fuss without any strap.(see picture 17) 3.6.2 Sit This order is called sitz(sit), to do this exercise we will say the name of the order and after that we will put the strap and the collar with ninety grades. If the dog does not sit, we can fit a little the dog. With this method we can achieve that while running with the dog, it will sit down when we say sitz.(see picture 18) 3.6.3 Down To do this order we have to say Platz (place) and step on the strap at the height of the neck. With this order, while running with the dog we say Platz and the dog lies down.(see picture 19) 3.6.4 Calling To practice this exercise the most recommended is to have the dog in sitz or in Platz positions and then with a large strap we call it and trend the strap over us. With constant work we can achieve to call the
20. Calling 19. Plaz 18. sitz 17. Walk with the strap slack

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dog in any situation. (see picture 20)

3.6.5 Boreaus With this exercise we instruct the dog to run in the opposite direction to us and then we give it the order of Platz. (see picture 21) 3.6.6 Aus With this exercise the dog has a motivator in the mouth and it has to lay the motivator when we say the order aus. 3.6.7 Apport Consists of having the dog in sitz position on the left part of the trainers body. The dog does not move until we do not say the order apport, a sort of wooden headpiece, and throw it for the dog to go after. Once I have said the order, the dog brings the apport in my hands. Over the years it has been quite difficult to do this exercise with the conventional method because the experts tried to punish the dog and it got frustrated and did not want to do the exercise, but nowadays we know that this exercise has to be done with game to motivate the dog so it would like to do the apport.
21. Boreaus

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4. PRACTICAL TRAINING WITH MY DOGS

4.1 Clicker training with Kiss
4.1.1 The steps to do the apport

1. Load the clicker

2. The dog has to look at the apport

3. The dog has to run over it

4.

The dog has to touch

5. The dog has to catch it

6. The dog has to bring it

the apport

7. The dog has to put it in the hands

4.1.2 First Session In order to work with clicker the first thing I have to do is to load the clicker. This process involves throwing a handful of pieces of food (the reward) that in my case will be a hot dog. Every time the dog opens the mouth to eat one I have to click. It is important that I click with every piece and just before the dog eats it. With this process the dog learns that after every click I do she will have a reward, a piece of hotdog. This exercise is also done to know that the dog likes the type the reward you are giving to it. If the dog does not like, I will have to change the reward because the dog has to be very motivated. As I have already said previously, there are two kinds of reward: food and game. I have chosen food because with food the dog is more concentrated than with game, with the game they get

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more excited and active so they could not concentrate so much. Kiss responds to this exercise very well. She is very fast to eat each piece and I have to click very fast too. I have done it two times with fifteen pieces every time. Kiss loves food and specially hot dogs, so I do not have to change the reward. I am very happy with her and I am very motivated with the research. Once I have loaded the clicker, we can start doing the exercise we want to do, the apport. To start this exercise, the first thing I have to achieve is that Kiss looks at the apport. It is a small step but the clicker consists of going step by step approaching more over the final objective. Kiss goes directly over the apport to touch it. Every time Kiss looks at the apport or touches it I click because what I want to achieve is that Kiss gets to understand that she has to work with it and not with another object. I have done this step four times since Kiss understands it. The next step is to get Kiss catch the apport with the mouth. What I have to do is to wait that she catches it because she wants it. I cannot say any word and I cannot do anything following the clicker guidelines. The dog has to think. Kiss has spent ten seconds touching the apport but finally she has caught it. However, the next time Kiss has cracked the apport in spite of catching it. Like before, I have to wait that Kiss catches the apport right. I have been repeating this step thirteen times because she has cracked the apport. The first problem I find with the clicker method is that Kiss cracks the apport a lot. To avoid this, I have not clicked when she had done it and if she has been cracking a lot of time I have removed the apport and I have thrown it another time. I think Kiss cracks it because she likes playing with the apport a lot and with the clicker training what we want is to work with the apport like a normal object just to bring it to me and not for playing. This problem has appeared because the clicker is a positive training method and in this case Kiss likes more cracking the apport than the hot dog, so obviously she does what she loves and the clicker decreases its efficiency. After Kiss knows that she has to catch the apport she has to learn that she has to bring it to me. To do this step, I have thrown the apport further. I am happy with Kiss because she has done it quite well. That is to say, Kiss has taken it but at half way returning to me she has lied it down. It is very important to click when the dog is coming and not when she drops the apport. The sixth time I did this step Kiss put the apport in my hands. It is difficult for the dog to put the apport in the hand and with the clicker at the first season the dog has put it two times, so I am progressing a lot. I think that with another season or two more seasons the exercise will be finished. I have done all this work in six minutes and with six minutes Kiss was so tired that she had the tongue out. Yet, she was psychologically tired not physically. 4.1.3 Second Session

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In this season I have the purpose of finishing the step of Kiss giving me the apport in my hand. In the first season Kiss had given me it two times, I think that in this season we will progress more. The first time I throw the apport I click just when Kiss does a half turn with the apport in the mouth. But when I have clicked, she has laid the apport in the floor. The second time I wait for Kiss to get close to me but she has come only a meter and she has laid down and started to crack the apport, so I have gone over there and I have taken the apport off to avoid Kiss played with it. Finally, on the same day Kiss has done the exercise well giving me the apport in the hands two times. However, other times later on she has laid down to crack another time. The problem I am seeing is that kiss loves more playing with the apport than the reward, the piece of food. After three times doing the same I realize that when I click every time Kiss drops the apport where she stays in. I spend another time doing six minutes training but Kiss is too tired and she has not the intensity like at the start. She is not motivated enough to continue. 4.1.4 Third Session This season takes place in a different place than the others. It is important to change the location because now Kiss does not pay the same attention to the training compared with the other times. She has distracted so much and I do not like how she is working.

22.

First

place

we

trained

in. 33. Second place we trained in. EEls tres pins

24. Third place we trained in. My yard

Wasteland

The first time I throw the apport she goes over it but one time she does not take the apport and she starts to smell and does not do the exercise correctly. When she seems to bring it to me, she drops it to the floor next to me instead of giving it to me in the hands. The second time I throw the apport, she picks it and starts to run with the apport in the mouth, playing with it and then starts to crack it and run another time. She does it three times more. The last time Kiss brings me the apport, she drops it on the floor, so in this season Kiss does not give me the apport in the hands any time. I am desperate because it seems that we are going back. I ask for advice to Enric Bruch, a teacher in the Reial Societat Canina de Catalunya and in his fields training Els tres pins located in Balsareny. Enric says to me that to solve this problem with the clicker I have to click correctly every time Kiss drops the apport in the floor once she brings it, as she will associate that she has to approximate more to me. After practicing the exercise several times now I want to do another one: this time I do not have to click and show my hands until Kiss catches the apport from the floor to put it in my hand.

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4.1.5 Fourth Session As the last season took place in a different place I thought that Kiss is conditioned with the habitual place where we train, so I have decided to change the place every time I train. This season takes place in my yard. My expectative with this season is to solve the problem of Kiss not giving me the apport in the hands. I have clicked when Kiss had the apport in the mouth and I have caught it until the apport has touched the floor. The first time I have achieved it and I have been practicing lots of time to ensure that Kiss has learned it. This season is the first time in which Kiss does not know what to do when I give the order. Two times Kiss stays still without doing anything only thinking. Ever it is good that dogs do it. When Kiss knows well how to give the apport in the hands I introduce the exercise in the sit position and end it too. At the beginning I have problems to hold Kiss still but in the end I have no problems. This season is the longest one until now, as we have worked over thirteen minutes but when I finished the dog was with a lot of energy. It was incredible! 4.1.6 Fifth Session This last season takes place in my garden. At first Kiss is reviewing it but at last she decides to be concentrated and work. In this season I do not work on anything in particular. I do only the complete exercise five times to make sure that Kiss has understood it well. At first she makes some mistakes, like she doesnt give me it in the hands or cracks the apport a little, but as soon as we have fixed these problems fast, she has done all the exercise good. I have finished the apport with the clicker training and Kiss has responded to all quite well and we have had a good time doing

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4.2 Conventional training with Iron

4.2.1 The steps to do the apport

1.Aus

2. Playing with the motivator

3.Bring it with the strap

4. Sit with the motivator

5. Aus with the motivator

6.Playing with the apport

7. Bring it with the strap

8. Sit with the apport

9. Aus with the apport

4.2.2 First Session To train the apport with the conventional method first I have to practice another exercise that I need during the apport. This exercise is called aus and it means leave/drop in German. This exercise is very simply. I have to play with my dog with a motivator and when the dog is so excited I have to say the order aus and incentive with the choke collar until he drops it. It is important to leave the dog look forward to the game every time we do this exercise. That is to say, the dog starts with a motivation and during the exercise this motivation goes up so we have to stop doing the exercise before the motivation goes down another time.

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MOTIVATION:

The motivating has increased since the first time we started. Start playing another time
Finish aus

finish aus

Start playing Iron learns it very well and fast. We practice ten times and he knows how to do it very well. I dont have any problem. The first time I do it, Iron takes thirteen seconds to drop the motivator but after the first time at the next ones Iron is much faster and very good. The exercise of the apport with the conventional training is done with game. The dog does this exercise playing and without forcing, the only moment in which we slightly force the dog is when we say the order aus. I have to play with Iron with a motivator. That is to say, I have to run after the dog, fight with him Iron loves playing and we have played a lot until he comes to me to fight with him, at first he plays with himself. In this first step I introduced the order aus too so that the dog learns that every time I get the motivator I am going to throw it again immediately and continuing playing. As Iron has been practicing aus before, he does it very well and this is why I introduce the order sitz next. To practice that, when Iron brings me the apport he has to sit down with the apport in the mouth. Sometimes this step can be rather difficult if the trainer does not move the motivator. By saying the order sitz, the dog will leave the motivator before it sits and this will be incorrect. So when Iron sits with the motivator in the mouth, I say the order aus to make him leave it in my hands. He does it very well. When I consider that Iron knows well all we have been practicing today: fight, sit and aus, I do all the three exercises: first I throw the apport and Iron goes over it and brings it to me. Then I fight a little to increase his motivation, I say sitz and finally I say aus and the dog gives the apport to me. I have done two times the three steps and they have worked out well today. With Iron I have trained seven minutes and he is tired too, but the difference is that he is physically tired not psychologically like Kiss was. 4.2.3 Second Session I have started playing with the dog for two minutes to increase his motivation, and then I introduce the sitz and the aus like I did in the first season. As he has done it well, I have introduced the sits at the beginning of the exercise so Iron has had to stay in sits until I have thrown the motivator. Then he has gone over it, he has come to me, I have fought a little and have said sitz. Finally the order aus and I have started another time the exercise. I have done this lots of times.

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This practice is much more slowly than with the clicker, as I have to repeat lots of time the same exercise. Iron is doing it well but we are more advanced with Kiss and the clicker. 4.2.4 Third Session I start this season in the sit position, with Iron more relaxed to achieve that he can do the exercise correctly in the beginning. I suppose that as I have not motivated him, Iron has not come to bring me the motivator. Therefore, when he has come instead of finishing the exercise I have played with him to motivate him more. When I thought he was motivated enough I said the order sitz and after aus. He takes his time to bring the motivator but he finally does. I start another time the exercise with the dog in the position of sitz and I throw the motivator. This time he brings me the apport but he stays in a distance of a meter so that I cannot touch it. As it is not the first time he does, it is becoming a problem. The solution is to tie the motivator and pull it over the meter he does not want to come to or to increase his desire of coming to us to play, which is what I will do in this season. As I have been practicing a lot with the motivator, I have solved the problem and Iron does all the exercise quite good. I think it is time to change now the motivator for the apport. So I do the same work with the apport and the results are that Iron starts playing with it alone and does not give me any attention, so I fight a little with him with the apport in my hands and I finish the season rather frustrated. 4.2.5 Fourth Session As I have seen that Kiss does not work in another place that it is not the first place we have practiced, I change the place with Iron too, to see if with him it will occur as well or not. In this season to work with the apport is so good. The only problem I have had is that with the apport Iron has not come the latest meter so I had to tie it. This solution has worked out very well, I have done it four times and Iron has done the exercise perfect. I am very proud of him. The last time we have practiced today was with the apport untied and Iron has done it well. We can see that Iron has worked as well as is the other place we started practicing, so Iron has not been conditioned by any place. 4.2.6 Fifth Session This last season took place in my garden. At first I motivated Iron, and then I prove the exercise with the apport lied to make sure that he done it well and next we did all the exercise: he did it very well. I have practice the apport seven times and all of them Iron did it good. I have finished the apport with the conventional method and it has worked very well and I have learned a lot and Iron too.

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5. TRAINING RESULTS BASED ON MY PRACTICE

In order to reach some conclusions for my research I have divided my dogs training sessions into three practical parts, which I summarize below. In the first part I have planned an exercise to practice a little with the clicker and have fun with my dog. The exercise worked out very well and I have learned how to think like a dog to teach an exercise in the easiest way. Now I can say that a dog can learn difficult exercises whenever we can divide them in easy parts that include simple exercises. In the second practical part I have proved the clicker training by doing an exercise with the apport, an exercise that we can do with any other method, too. Here we can see that the clicker is a good method to train but there are some exceptions with some commands (in my case at the end of the exercise with the apport the dog does not sit down and with others methods we can accomplish it) After practicing with the clicker I can conclude that this method depends a lot on the educator. This has to be a professional to do a perfect exercise because, as I have said before, it is very important to click at the exact moment to do the dog understand the exercise well. It is indispensible to be calm, concentrated, motivated to work and to learn and obviously willing to have a great time with the dogs. In the third practical part I have worked with my dog Iron using the conventional training to compare it with the clicker. I have done the same exercise with the apport and the dog has done the exercise well. Seeing all the work done with my dogs I can conclude that: At the beginning of my research project my expectations were that the clicker training would work better and faster than the conventional method. However, the obtaining results are that with the clicker method the dog learns quickly but we have some problems, for example Kiss was distracted in many places or it cracked the apport, because it is quite difficult to click at the exact moment we have to, whereas with the conventional training we have to repeat more the steps but we do not have so many problems. It took more or less the same period of time to do the exercise with the two methods and both of them are equally effective. The clicker method works well, but as it is based in the operant conditioning when we practice we have to be cautious because Kiss has been conditioned by a place to work and she did not work at the beginning in any other place, only at the conditioning one. Thus we have to change the location sometimes to ensure that the dog is not being conditioned. With the conventional training we do not have this problem, because the dog will obey us in any place because that is not a conditioning method.

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With the clicker method the dog uses the brain a lot, and we can see that long practicing creates psychological tiredness. That is to say, after seven or eight minutes of working the dog is tired and we have to stop. What is much better is to practice this method a little each day. However, in the conventional training we do not have this problem because the dog does what we say without thinking, as we simply oblige it to do the command we have said.

In the conventional training we are doing mostly obedience so the dog always does what we say to do and therefore it will work every time. The clicker method is not the same. In it the dog does the exercise because it wants the reward, but if the distraction is higher than the desire of the reward, the dog will not do the exercise, so we cannot say that the dog will do always what we want to do.

As I said before, with the clicker method I have not achieved to do the sitz position in the end of the exercise. Every time Kiss brings me the apport she leaves it down before I can say the command sitz. Despite not having completely finished the exercise with the clicker, as I wanted, I am proud of the work done in general. However, with the conventional training, Iron sat since the first session because I introduced it when I was playing with the motivator.

Comparing the two training techniques and viewing the results I have to say that these two forms of working are totally opposite, as they have different steps and approaches. However, I must conclude that the two methods I have put into practice have worked out well. I cannot say that there is a method better than the other because it is not true. My conclusion is that the essential is to study the type of dog, its character and what we want to achieve. We have to think a little and choose the best method according to each type of dog and even combine some methods, if convenient. The results with a method or another may depend on the dog you are training in part, but to prove the method of the clicker I have not chosen any dog in special. However, now that I have finished the practice part with my dogs I can say that if I were at the beginning of my project I would put into practice the clicker with Iron and the conventional method with Kiss instead. In this way I would have solved, for example, the problem I first had with Kiss, that of instead of bringing me the apport the dog started to play with it. It would have been an advantage because the apport with the conditional method is done with game and Iron is not so active so he could be more attentive to work with the clicker. With all, both methods have worked out well and this proves their validity. I have not seen that I have established a better relationship with my dogs with one or the other training, either. It might seem that the exercises done with the clicker are friendlier, but in my case I had the same close relationship with them two while training. I think that it depends on the love we give to our dogs and how we take care of them which makes a good relationship owner-dog.

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At the beginning I wanted to try the clicker method with an aggressive dog, but I decided to do the training with my two dogs. I must say that the clicker is not a valid method to work with all breeds of dogs and especially with genetically aggressive dogs, since their behavior cannot be changed with the clicker because their motivation to have to fight to other dogs is stronger than the motivation of the reward of the instrumental conditioning, that is to say, the clicker. There is some research on the clicker done with dogs that are aggressive because they have fear. In this case, the conduct of them can be fixed with the clicker, because these dogs do not want to fight for pleasure if not of fear and to work with the clicker can extinct this behavior.

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6. CONCLUSIONS
We all know that there is always a strong bond between the owner and the dog. Dogs can form new bonds with humans at any stage of their life. For instance, a dog, which has moved to a training centre to be trained for a specific purpose, once trained it will begin working with its owner. Such a dog has spent time with different humans, all of whom have established a bond with the animal, but the closest bond will be formed with the last human in the chain, its owner.

Therefore, a dog-owner must have a good understanding of the canine mind and a responsible behavior, especially in training. I think this is the basic foundation for a strong bond. An abusive owner may have a dog which is often quite obedient, but through fear and this is not what we would call a bond, it is merely a respect of position which all dogs possess.

Having said that, one of my goals during all the training sessions with my dogs, Kiss and Iron, has been to make my dogs be obedient through fun and positive rewards either with the clicker training technique or with the traditional one. I have tried real behaviors with my two dogs and seen how the clicker and the traditional training techniques work.

All the expectations with the clicker training were promising but I wanted to put them into practice and this is what I did with Kiss. I can state now at the end of my sessions that the clicker is a very powerful reinforcer of behaviors and as I prefer to work on a positive rather than a negative system I think the clicker is a good system to move on to obedience. The concept is simple, you only click if the dog does what you wanted it to do. If the desired behavior is not achieved, no click, no treat. If the dog does the desired behavior, click and treat. It is just that simple. I was very glad to be working on the clicker training technique because despite all the repetitive training tasks my dog thought we were playing, when in fact it was working. I have discovered that there are many commands I can use with the clicker. It can be used for many everyday activities, in fact. There have also been some failed commands during the sessions, of course, but with failed commands I had to rethink what I was asking the dog and if the command was too complex or the dog just did not seem to be interested in that particular thing I was working on. Then I tried and changed it. There are times when obviously the command is not going to work at a particular moment. It happened to me with Kiss, but changing to something else does not mean that I have failed, it just means for that moment it was not working. I have learned to move on to refine what I wanted to do and get closer to the final desired result. With the clicker you shape the behavior until you get the final result that you wanted.

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I have to admit that the clicker training has attracted me since the beginning because it deals with the relationship dog-owner from a totally different point of view. The clicker training is based on the achievements and not the mistakes. It is based on the solution, not the problem. The clicker method is centered on training the desired behavior and reinforcing it, instead of punishment. To most dog trainers, the clicker training is not a training method, it is quite a philosophy: to reinforce what is good and not to pay attention to what is badly done, to divide the tasks into little steps and reinforce each small achievement. I wanted to train my dog for obedience, but the result is that I have been having good time doing it and that I am happy with my dog behavior. My dog Kiss was motivated all the time with the clicker, awaiting to guess what I would make her do when I pressed the clicker device. She was in the mood of playing with me and the clicker. I have also trained the traditional training technique with my other dog, Iron. In fact, today, there are many trainers who still use traditional methods. They are still based on the same methods first developed more than 60 years ago, and have not been adapted to current knowledge of behavior problems in dogs. With all, I have seen that the trainer has also success with this type of training, but probably because the punishment methods suppress behavior. In fact, I have achieved everything I wanted to do with Iron with the traditional method, too. However, this method may have some risk: if a trainer continually uses corrections or repeatedly increases the level of correction in order to get the command (such as switching to aversive choke collars), causes injury to the dog, or causes the dog to scream in pain or fear, the dog is not learning and is not being trained. Summing it up, many of the professional trainers who originally learned through the use of traditional methods have switched to the use of positive reinforcement methods such as the clicker. If the same level of accomplishment can be achieved using positive methods, why not try positive methods first? I would recommend to train your dogs with the clicker training as I have learned a lot about the dogs and I have had a great time with them. Besides, this training method is especially effective to do abilities with dogs. At last, I want to say that the dog world is a big and complex one and that there are lots of opinions and theories regarding training methods for obedience. I think that the best is to be willing to learn and have good fun with the dog and choose, depending on the type of dog you want to train, the most appropriate method, in which both the trainer and the dog feel confident and happy and form a strong bond.

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7. INTERVIEWS
7.1 Interview to Enric Bruch
Enric Bruch (see picture 30) was initiated in the world of the dog in 1982. He is the author of the book Manual del gos de rescat per rastre amb el mtode Ercbuli This book is based on the positive training. He is the manager and the trainer of the group of research and salvation of the Red Cross. He is the teacher in the Reial Societat Canina de Catalunya and at his fields training Els tres pins located in Balsareny. What does it mean that the clicker is a positive training? A positive training is the training without any punishment, that is to say, we cannot say the word no in the clicker training and we cannot scold the dog. We have to reward every good behavior. The clicker is a stimulus to tap, which means that the dog has to do what we want and after every click we have to give the reward, the award can be game or food. Is the clicker the best method to educate a dog? It depends on the activity we want to do. To train a dog is one of the best methods but it is not unique. The clicker training is the best method to educate all therapies dogs and to do abilities. However, to train a dog for the everyday life, that is to say, that the dog have a good behavior at home and at every day walking depends on the external stimuli that the dog received. If the dog likes more the external stimuli, then the clicker stops working when the external motivation is above the reward motivation. What types of relationship we have with the dog when we are training with the clicker? We established a very narrow relationship and from the point of view of affective relationship is better than a relation that we can established with another conventional training. This relationship is over because the dog is more relaxed because it never thinks that we are going to scold so it is very quiet. How we can know the difficulty of the exercises? It is difficult to do a rating. At first when we want to do an exercise we will see the work we are going to have. Depending on the exercise we want to do it will have previous exercises; a base we can work with. There are obviously some exercises which initially you can see they will be difficult to face with. Sometimes there are dogs that for example to catch an object will be easy for them because they are likely to catch objects but there are other dogs that will have more difficulties because they would touch the object but they would not catch it at all. Therefore, saying that one exercise may be difficult for all the dogs is false because it is going to depend on the kind of dog. For example, to stay on two legs with a small and agile dog will be easier that doing it with a big and heavy dog.
30.Enric Bruch i Rabat

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What is the difference between the classic conditioning and the operant conditioning, the clicker? Classic conditioning is an answer that the dog cannot control. For example, Pavlov was a Russian psychologist who was awarded the Nobel prize in Physilology or Medicine in 1904. He was the first to describe the phenomenon now known as classical conditioning experiments with dogs which investigated that a dog cannot control salivation, when he is shown food the dog gives a salivation answer. In the operant conditioning the dog can control the answer because it can decide to do or not the exercise. In both types of conditioning, after the desired response of the dog we have to give a reward to the dog. Classic conditioning can solve frightened problems and all kind of things. When has the clicker started? Clicker started with the dolphin training, form here it has been evolved with different animals and people. Zoos, for example are using clicker for getting blood from lions and other animals. The lion puts its head near the bars in its cage and after every injection shot the zoo vets click and give the lion a reward. It is a gadget that works quite well. How do we have to do to realize an apport with the conventional training? Apport is an exercise which involves game and a little bit part of obligation, so if the dog does not like playing it is not advising to use it because it is not going to work. One starts playing with the dog with a motivator. You run after him, he escapes, he is in movement because you play with him At the moment the dog starts coming with you to fight with it start to work, you throw it and the dog comes to fight. The problem is that the last meter the dog never comes at all, then you have to tie the dog and with the rope you come in tight to the dog, then you fight and you let the dog run another time and the dog understands the game of fight and run. Then you introduce the order sitz and after the aus (exercise done before starting the apport). The last step is when the dog stays in sitz position next to the owner, then he brings the apport when the owner says and brings it in the hand. One time the dog learns it with the motivator we have to change it to the wooden apport. What is the pure clicker? The best stage to work with the pure clicker is when dogs are puppies because the pure clicker consist of clicking to every behavior the dog does on his own and once we have all the behaviorism rewarded we stop clicking in the bad behaviors, the ones we do not want to be done by the dog.

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7.2 Interview to Germn Prez

Germn Prez (see picture 31) is an educator entitled by Reial Societat Canina de Catalunya. He loves dogs and learning about them. He has two dogs, Sean and Duna, with opposites characters, so he knows different methods of training because he is practicing with them. With Duna, a Boxer female of 6 years old, he does lots of activities with the clicker. What is for you the clicker training?
31. Germn Prez Paz

The clicker training for me is an alternative to the classical training in which you can teach some abilities to the dog and some curiosities to entertain yourself and entertain the dog and at the same time improve and confirm some behaviors. What it is basic in a positive training is to be calm and not to get nervous. If the dog fails an exercise we can leave it for another day. What are your objectives working with a positive training? My objectives are to confirm behaviors that are of my interest and that the dog has very clear and to do it by means of the positive reward. I think it is much effective to do certain abilities that at the same time they are sometimes used to have a little bit more of control over your dog without punishment, only rewarding. Where and when did you know first about the clicker training? I first knew about it at the training field of Balsareny Els tres pins through Enric Bruch who over 2007 he started to talk about it and started practicing too. How much time do you dedicate to work with your dog Duna? Well, I always have to combine it with my everyday life. So it goes by stages, there are some stages in which I work a lot and there are some in which I work less or nothing but we could say that twice a week and in short periods of time. Could you explain how you organize the exercises to be easier to learn? First of all, I think about the exercise, an exercise of a level appropriate for the dog, which could be easy to understand. I always think about the exercises from lowest to highest difficulty and after that I try to tie the exercises between them considering that they are similar. For example I start with all the exercises with balls and I take them out slowly. To do a good organization of an exercise it is essential to think like a dog, to see what is difficult or easy.

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Do you think that the clicker is the best method to train a dog? I do not think that it is a unique method, as the clicker is a signal that links the action of doing the right exercise by the dog with the arrival of the reward. That is what motivates the dog, but if one day the reward is of a lower interest than going to play with another dog or anything else, of course this is when this method ceases to be effective on the dog. So I think that it is good to have a good basic obedience done by obligation and after that we always can add the training clicker. As you use the conventional training with your dog Sean, do you notice some difference in the relationship owner-dog when you are working with them or at home? Beyond everydays life working I do not feel any difference, the two dogs are awaiting for me, I see them happy, I feel that they love me, they want to be with me and they want to play, etc. I do not think that any dog has any trauma at all or they are unmotivated for anything. At the time of doing exercise I do not feel anything either because Duna works with food and Sean with game so they like their reward. I have encouraged the qualities of each dog with their interest. Concerning aggressive dogs, do you think that it is effective to deal with them with any training method? First of all, we always have to see and study why the dogs have aggressive behavior towards other dogs. First, we have to know the reason and from here we have to establish a work plan to improve this conduct or behavior. If at the beginning there is not a factor that is conditioning this behavior I think that any training can be valid studying the reaction that may have the dog, If we notice an improvement it means that we are on track and of course we can continue working in this way but if we do not improve we can try to work with another training. What I think is that what is important is the result and this will always depend on the type of the dog and the type of the reason the dog has for that behavior, but if we have a good result the training we have done is effective. What level do you want to achieve with each training? I have never thought about that before. What I want is to progress every day a little bit more and try, above all, to learn a lot about my dog and me, so I do not have any goal. What I think is interesting to do is that each owner thinks about which method or methods with his dog is the best, as I am not a supporter to one single method, What is important is not to hurt the dog physical or psychologically and to study always what type of dog you are training and what method.

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8. BIBLIOGRAPHY
Books
Valeria Rossi, 2006. El Pastor Aleman. Editorial De Vecchi, S. A. U. Barcelona Karen Pryor, 2002. Dont shoot the dog The mew art of teaching and training. Ringpress books. Gloucestershire Mary Ray and Justine Harding, 2006. Haz de tu perro una estrella con el clicker. Kns ediciones S.C. Santiago de Compostela Josep M.Arn and Manuel Gell, 2009. Psicologia. Editorial Teide SA. Barcelona

On-line documents
Mary Ray. Clicker training. [on line]. Abaible at: <http://www.clickertraining.com/> [Accessed: 15 July 2011] Ourblogtemplates, 2008. The clicker training dog. [blog]. Abaible at: blogspot.com/> [Accessed: 27 July 2011] <http://www.clickercompany.

Demand Media, inc., 1999 Dog clicker training. [on line]. Abaible at: <http://www.ehow.com/dogclicker-training/> [Accessed: 18 September 2011] B.F Skinner Foundation, 2005. A Brief Biography of B.F. Skinner. [on line]. Abaible at: <http://www. bfskinner.org/BFSkinner/AboutSkinner.html> [Accessed: 29 October 2011] Wikipedia, 2011. Clicker. [on line]. Abaible at: <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clicker> [Accessed: 4 Novemeber 2011] Anglia Ruskin University, 2011. Harvard system of referencing guide. [on line]. Abaible at: <http:// libweb.anglia.ac.uk/referencing/harvard.htm> [Accessed: 2 January 2012] Hound dog drule, 2012. Obedience training. [on line ]. Abaible at: <http://hounddogsdrule.com/k9classroom/obedience-training/> [Accessed: 6 January 2012]

9. VIDEOS
Amazing exercises achieved with the clicker, 2012. [video] Directed by Ainhoa Nocete. Barcelona Kiss trained with the clicker training, 2012. [video] Directed by Ainhoa Nocete. Barcelona Iron trained with the conventional training, 2012. [video] Directed by Ainhoa Nocete. Barcelona

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