Behaviour & training
Clicker training
Using a distinct sound to mark the exact instant an animal does the right thing, then paying it — the sound buys you the seconds it takes to get the treat out.
The click is not a reward and not a command. It is a marker: a sound the animal has learned always predicts food, used to point at one precise moment inside a stream of movement. That precision is the whole advantage, because "good boy" arriving two seconds late marks a different behaviour than the one you meant.
Charging it comes first — click, treat, click, treat, until the sound reliably turns the head. After that it can mark behaviours too fast or too far away to reward directly, which is why it travels well from dogs to cats, horses and zoo animals.
Related
More in Behaviour & training
Positive reinforcementAdding something the animal wants immediately after a behaviour, so the behaviour happens more often — the R+ of training, and a technical term rather than a synonym for kindness.Socialization windowThe early period when a puppy or kitten accepts new things readily, and after which the same things start to be treated as threats.Resource guardingDefending food, a toy, a spot or a person from someone approaching — normal animal behaviour that becomes a problem when it escalates in a living room.Redirected aggressionAn animal worked up by something it cannot reach turns on whoever is nearest — the classic cat-at-the-window incident.Counter-conditioningChanging what something predicts, so the animal's feeling about it changes — the nail clippers stop meaning restraint and start meaning chicken.DesensitisationExposing an animal to a trigger at an intensity low enough to stay calm, then raising it in steps small enough that calm never breaks.