repeat a few times, then once you have your dog on his back, withhold
the click but move your lure hand slightly. Your dog, anticipating the
dropped treat, should roll right over at which point you can click and
treat.
once your dog is reliably offering the behaviour every time, you can
start to add the command ‘rollover’.
As your dog learns the verbal cue, start to reduce the lure until he can perform the
behaviour on the verbal cue only.
Troubleshooting:
If your dog is not keen to roll right over, repeat the earlier stages until he is
confident. Make sure the surface he is laying on is comfortable and that he doesn’t suffer from
any underlying back pain.
Adding a ‘cue’
With clicker training, we only add a ‘cue’ or ‘command’ once the dog has learnt the behaviour
and is offering it reliably every time. This way he never fails to make the association between
the cue and the desired behaviour so is much more likely to be consistent in his responses in the
future.
Extending a behaviour
once you have taught your dog a behaviour, you may want to extend it, for instance – turn a
‘sit’ into a ‘sit-stay’ or instead of one rollover you may want two. With clicker training it is easy
to teach him to extend a previously learnt behaviour.
Sit-stay
Cue your dog to sit.
As he performs the action, withhold the click for a few seconds.
Click and treat.
repeat the behaviour gradually increasing the length of time before you click and treat.
once he can hold the position for about ten seconds, cue him to sit, take a step away,
return, click and treat.
repeat the behaviour, gradually increasing the length of time and the distance you can
wait before returning to click and treat.
Troubleshooting:
If your dog keeps getting up it means you are going too far or for too long.
Take your training back a step and extend gradually.
Double rollover
Cue your dog to ‘rollover’ as previously learnt.
As he finishes the manoeuvre, withhold the click and immediately cue again.
As he finishes the second ‘rollover’, click and treat.
repeat until he can perform the sequence fluently.
Troubleshooting:
If your dog is not keen to perform the second behaviour, lure as you did when
teaching the first roll.
Rules of clicker training
There are not many rules to clicker training – but these must be followed for the clicker to be
effective.
If you click, you must treat – even if you have clicked by accident or in the wrong place.
Do not use the clicker for anything other than to mark desired behaviour – it must not be
used to get the dog’s attention, neither is it a command.
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