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What Animals Can Be Clicker Trained?

Clicker training is a fantastic way to bond and form a relationship with your pet, and you can do it with many different animal species. When done correctly, you can use a clicker to teach your pet tricks and help keep them safe. In this article, we take a look at some of the animals that respond well to clicker training.

Dogs 

Dogs are known as man’s best friend and the most obvious animal for clicker training. Dogs are incredibly intelligent animals that learn very quickly. They will soon pick up the fact that the clicker is associated with a reward, and they’ll want to repeat the behaviour in order to get another reward. You can teach a dog many different things using clicker training. Some of the basics include how to sit, lie down and stay in a certain position. Once dogs are trained, you can give them more freedom to be off the lead, free roam in your home and enjoy the things that make them happy. 

Birds

Birds are another incredibly intelligent animal that people often keep as pets. One of the most intelligent birds is the grey parrot, which can learn many surprising tricks, phrases and even some sentences. Birds need regular engagement to keep them happy and active; clicker training is one way you can interact with your bird to enrich their lives. Things you can teach your bird using clicker training include stepping up and stepping down, coming when called, entering the cage or the carrier and fun tricks like putting a ball through a hoop. Whenever your bird displays a desired behaviour, you should use the clicker and reward them as soon as possible with a treat. It's also a good idea to use a cue so the bird can match the cue up with the action. 

Rabbits

Rabbits are another animal that you can train with a clicker. Some rabbits can be skittish, so it's important to introduce them to the sound of the clicker slowly and carefully so they don’t feel scared. This might take several training sessions to get them used to the noise and happy to participate in the training. Avoid a loud WW2 clicker Links to an external site. or anything similar, and choose a quiet rabbit friendly alternative instead. Rabbits can learn to fetch items, go through tunnels and jump over obstacles. They’re great at problem solving as this is part of their nature; in the wild, they need to solve problems to find food and keep themselves safe from predators. Clicker training is a great way to strengthen your bond with your rabbit, so you become the best of friends. 

Horses

There are some great benefits of clicker training with horses; like other animals, horses are intelligent and will repeat the behaviour if they receive a reward or another form of positive reinforcement. When riding on your horse, you might want to praise them for a good jump or other excellent behaviour. Giving them a treat whilst riding is impossible, and if you try, you may end up falling off. A clicker can be used in this instance to inform your horse that the action they’ve just done was right. You can then follow this up with a treat afterwards when you’re back on the ground. This only works once you’ve been training your horse with a clicker for a while and you’ve built up the association that the click noise is a positive reward. After this association has been made, the click can be enough to reinforce good behaviour, and it, therefore, helps you train your horse when you’re riding. 

Animals are incredibly important in many people’s lives, and training them can be a fun way to bond and spend valuable time together. There are far more animals than the ones listed above that can learn from clicker training. Once you know the basics of the method, you can try it with lots of different animals to see which respond well and understand the clicker method. Clicker training is great because you’re rewarding your pet rather than punishing them; this means they will enjoy the training as much as you enjoy spending time with them. 

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