Clicker training - Page 7

There has been a lot of discussion about just using a verbal marker as to the "click".  It's been proven through studies that the "click" does in fact work faster because of how it's interpreted by the brain.  An average of 40% faster actually.  The "click' goes directly to a very primitive part of the brain called the amygdala (sp?) that registers joy and fear responses...etc.  There also seem to be a few that might think that they will always have to use the clicker.  That is not true. After the behavior is learned the clicker will no longer be needed. 

I highly suggest a book by Karen Pryor called, "Reaching the Animal Mind".  It's quite interesting and discusses the studies mentioned above comparing the verbal marker and the "click" with a group of I think it was twenty different dogs.  I'm not making it up, go read the book. :-)

My current club uses the clicker a whole lot for teaching all kinds of things and I've used it plenty myself.  While it does work to teach the behaviors, I agree with some others that there will be some dogs that know exactly what you want and choose to do differently and this is when a correction is needed.  Our club has even had Leslie Nelson for a "clicker" seminar, which was quite interesting and I would recommend attending should you get the chance.

I will read the book. But even if it is true that the  reaction time conditioned by clicker is 40% faster  then conditioned by  words, then this  is insignificant since the response of the dog is about 0.1 or so of a second. So if you add a 40% to that then we have about 0.14 second instead. That would be 4 hundreds of a second faster response. In comparison human response is about 0.4 -0.7 second. What does 40% increase  mean? Nothing.  However, and  I am guessing now, you are comparing conditioned response to non-conditioned response. However, I believe that conditioned response can be conditioned by stimulating it by anything including clicker or by word.
 
And again it is not true that after the dog is conditioned that the clicker stimulus is not necessary. That is basic Pavlovian response and if you do not periodically refresh the stimulus then it's effect will diminish. 
Prager Hans
http://www.alpinek9.com
    

Travel time. E collar is even faster. Speed is not what concerns me. I do not like Mc Donald's.
Prager Hans

Show me the study where the response to the clicker is 40% faster then to other stimuli.
Who sponsored the study. (Clicker company?)
I really would like to know this.
Prager Hans

The only serious argument against the use of a vocal marker, that I've ever found, is the consistency of tone.
People have this tendency to get excited and add an entirely different inflection to the marker.

out of sheer curiousity what about just making a strong click noise with your mouth?  It's not tone based and it frees up your hands.  THe mouth clicks may not be as loud as the button but other than that..... can anyone see a potential issue?

real quick before i split.....words are cool...clickers are cool.....hot dogs are cool.tugs and balls are cool...e collars are cool...pinches are cool...martingales are cool....(gentle leaders..not cool)      If the clicker company goes out of business..I will produce my own.....oh wait...I have already done that.......peace and hair grease...out........................d

All the info about the study on markers is in the book that you've already "zipped through on the internet."  There is an entire chapter about it.