When to stop using treats/clicker?

[jwardmagic]

I have trained my pup to sit, lie down, drop anything in his mouth, and look in my direction when calling his name (Noah) but I was wondering when it is time to stop using the treats? I am using a clicker as well. In what order should I stop using these? Any tips?

[Carrie]

As soon as your dog is understanding the cue word and giving a correct response every time, you don't need to click anymore. If you've been clicking for the behavior, but haven't been using a cue word for long, I'd keep using the clicker for responding to your cue word and then once he's obviously understanding the word reliably, stop clicking. That is only to mark the behavior to let him know that what he just did IS what you meant.

Keep treating every time for quite a while yet....until he's VERY reliable. Then you can start treating every 2nd time for a time or two, then every 3rd or 4th, then every 7th, then every 2nd time....really mix it up so he doesn't know when a treat is coming but figures it will soon. This will actually strengthen his gusto about trying. Gradually you can spread out the intervals some more, phasing them out, but still offer a treat enough that he doesn't lose interest. If the behavior starts to fall apart, he needs more reinforcement, so go back to more treats. All this doesn't happen quickly. You'll be working with him for months on a fairly tight schedule of reinforcers. What you can do too, is when he's consistant, if you don't treat him for quite a number of times, at some point he may slack or almost give up trying so hard...(losing interest) You must catch him before this happens and give him a big, yummy treat. Then he'll learn to work hard, try hard, do the best performance because he knows that at some point he WILL get a jack pot. So, he'll learn tolerance for going a longer time without a treat.

Then, what you can do too, is withhold the treats when you want to make a skill a little better, quicker or tidier and only click/treat for the better performances. You can shape up behavior this way. C/T for approximations of what you want and as the behavior improves, withhold and c/t for only the better ones.

It sounds like you're doing wonderfully so far. Let us know how things progress!

ps....actually, I recommend getting the book, Don't Shoot the Dog by Karen Pryor, Culture Clash by Jean Donaldson. Those are fantastic books which are very descriptive and informative. Go for it!

[tweetybirdhnc]

thank you so much for asking that!!! weve been training our dog with the clicker too....great results so far!! but ive wondered myself when to actually stop using it!!