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The Click! Sound is a Bridge

A Bridge is an Event Marker

In the 1940s, Marian Breland and Keller Breland developed “clicker training,” in which they used a cricket toy to make a short, distinctive sound, which they used to signal to an animal that the action the animal was doing at the time the human clicked was the exact action they were wanting the animal to do.

They reinforced - rewarded - the action they had just clicked for, by delivering a primary reinforcer to the animal.  A primary reinforcer is something an animal is born needing such as food.  Tiny pea sized pieces of food are commonly used as primary reinforcers - rewards. The click sound is given exactly as the action/behaviour is occurring, and the primary reinforcer is delivered immediately thereafter. The click sound, then, acts as a “bridge” between the desired action/behaviour, and the reward, or, reinforcer, that reinforces the action (makes it more likely to occur again another time).

Event Marker

Using a clicker, or, more accurately, the Click! sound itself, allows the trainer to mark exactly the desired action that the trainee animal is doing, exactly while the animal is doing it.

This type of training greatly removes confusion. Animals think and move very fast. A trainer who teaches an animal that the click sound means it did the action/behaviour that earns the primary reward, or, the “treat,” is “marking the event” that earns the treat.

Using this method, animals can be trained to very precise actions that humans want them to do, it is so effective and can be used not only for shaping simple behaviours, but also for shaping complex behaviours involving many steps.

The click sound, in this usage, is called a “bridge,” precisely because it “bridges” the time between the human-desired, human-clicked action, and the delivery of the primary reinforcer, the treat, to the animal.

Once the trainer has clicked, the primary reinforcer, the treat, needs to be delivered within a very short time; preferably, no longer than about half a second, to allow the animal to make the connection between action and reward, or, reinforcer for the action.

The whole point of using a clicker and rewards is to keep the animal from becoming unduly confused about what you want it to do!

Starting in the early 1990s, many years after the clicker was first used this way, more and more dog trainers began to use the clicker. Interest increased, and now, I’d venture to guess that most dog trainers today are at least aware of the possibility of training dogs using a clicker and treats. A kind of generic name dog trainers and some others use for this type of training is, “clicker training.”

Karen Pryor’s Site

A main populariser of “clicker training” is Karen Pryor, whose massive web site on clicker training has plenty of leads of its own.

You never, ever, have to punish your dog, it is never, ever, necessary. There is always something else you can do. As Turid Rugaas says, “You always have a choice.”

Using a clicker can help you learn how to avoid punishing your dog, but you do not need to use a clicker to learn that, either!

We human keepers of companion animals can always do as the Baileys and Turid Rugaas did and do. We can observe our dogs with meticulous care, and take our first information from the dogs themselves. Then we can work with them on their own terms.