Clicker vs Treat-Only Dog Training: Which Works Better?

I still remember, years ago, the first time I encountered clicker training.

I had heard of it before, but I never really gave it much thought. I never had trouble training my fur babies with just a handful of treats and a library of commands in mind. What good would a clicker do?

Then one day at the dog park, I heard the unmistakable sounds of someone training their young pup, with the addition of a sharp clicking noise. Curious, I waited until the pair were done with their routine, then approached to ask about it. "What's up with the clicking?"

That's when she explained to me exactly how it works. It was fascinating, but since I wasn't actually training a new puppy at the time, I filed it away as information to think about later and went on my way.

The next time I had the chance to train a puppy, I thought back to that conversation, and I bought a clicker to give it a try.

Does it work? Certainly. Is it any better than treat-only training? Well, that depends. So, let's talk about it!

The Treat-Only Training Model

Treat-only training is simple in concept. You have a behavior you want to train your dog to do. You work on teaching them how to do it.

This might start by watching their behavior, and when they do the specific behavior (like sitting or lying down), you say your command and praise or reward them. After a bit of this, you can start to issue the command before they do the behavior, and reward them when they do it.

Other times, you use the treat as a lure. If you want your dog to lie down, you hold the treat in front of them and lower it to the ground so they basically have to lie down to follow it. When they do, you speak your command and reward them.

Luring is especially effective for things like recall training. It's a lot harder for some other kinds of training, though.

The general goal is to build a three-way association, linking together the verbal command, the behavior, and the reward. Eventually, you start to drop the reward, and you're left with a dog that has a strong association between command and action. In short, a well-trained pooch.

So How Does Clicker Training Actually Work?

Clicker training combines two elements of animal psychology and behavior.

The first is positive reinforcement, part of operant conditioning. A behavior that is rewarded is more likely to be repeated, so by identifying and rewarding your dog for doing something, they're more likely to do it more. Attaching a verbal cue to the behavior allows you to turn it from a random behavior to a trick or command.

The second is a fascinating bit of psychology discovered by Jaak Panksepp, a fairly famous psychologist. He discovered that a dog actually derives more pleasure from the anticipation of positive reinforcement than from the reinforcement itself. In particular, the thought of getting a treat for behaving nicely is more rewarding to them than the experience of eating the treat.

This is, in fact, why you can eventually stop rewarding behaviors with treats and they still work. Even the praise and pets are good enough.

Clicker training is a way to add a certain element of specificity to training.

If you've ever tried to train a puppy, you probably know just how tricky it can be when they're energetic, rambunctious, and borderline ADHD. Their fuzzy little brains don't have much of an attention span, at least not right away.

What this means is you end up having some… let's say flexibility in your timing. You see a behavior, you use your command and reward with a treat, but by the time you process and implement those steps, your pup might have moved on to something else.

I've seen this a lot, especially with things like sit and stay. You say sit, and they sit, you go to reward them, but they're already back up and roaming before you can. Or, you ask them to stay, praise them for doing so, but they start happily coming to you before you can move on.

Sometimes this can get pretty out of hand. A customer of mine once told me about their experience in training, where they ended up accidentally associating the wrong command with their recall just because the timing was off! They corrected it eventually, but it was very odd to say "sit" and have their dog come instead.

So, that's the problem. The solution is the clicker. The clicker is a sharp, precise, fast noise you can make that marks a specific moment and behavior. It works because you tie it into the reward system. A behavior = a click = a treat. The treat might come a little later, but the click doesn't, and the click is the important marker.

The click does two things. It marks the exact specific moment your dog does the behavior you're asking them to do. And, it triggers the anticipation of reward.

Is Treat-Only Training Worse, Then?

No, but also kind of yes, in a way?

Treat-only training has a few problems. One of them is the imprecision I've already mentioned, but that's not all.

Another common issue with treat-only training is that you can end up with a dog that only pays attention to you when you have a treat in your hand. They'll be wild and unruly when there's no reward for them ready to go.

Treats are also not necessarily the top motivator for your pup. If you've ever had a dog bolt because they saw a squirrel and nothing you could do would distract them, you know exactly what I mean. Some dogs have very high prey drives, and that overrides even a high-value treat.

You also have to consider the health repercussions of treat-only training. Treats are just that: a treat. But, if they're the basis of your dog's obedience, you end up giving over a lot of them, and that can lead to a dog that shuns normal food or ends up obese.

All of this is why treat-only training is actually surprisingly rare. Here, let me demonstrate with a customer story.

One customer of mine mentioned that they did treat-only training with their first dog. They used treats as the incentive to teach simple commands; you know, "sit", "stay", "come", and the like. To keep things novel, they changed up the treat from time to time, so their dog didn't get bored. They also mixed in praise, pets, and playtime as rewards.

They encountered the same imprecision problem, and their solution was snapping their fingers to mark the moment. It worked out perfectly, and their dog was easy to train once the initial hurdles of puppyhood were passed.

Now, did you notice it? I did.

1. Mixing in rewards other than treats makes it not, technically speaking, treat-only training.

2. Using a noise marker, whether it's snapping the fingers, clicking the tongue, or even a specific verbal marker, is effectively identical to a clicker.

This pseudo-clicker is essentially the same thing as using a clicker, but a little worse. Specifically, it's worse because it's more variable. A clicker is a tool that makes the same identical noise the same way every time. Making a noise, snapping your fingers, or otherwise doing it yourself will be different. It's not that big a difference, but those small inconsistencies can matter.

Does Science Have Anything to Say?

Actually, yes!

The key difference here is something called conditioning.

Treat-only training is considered "unconditioned" training. Meanwhile, clicker training is a "conditioned" training method, because you condition your dog to understand what the click means before you then go on to use it to train behaviors.

There have been a few papers and studies over the years that show, basically, that conditioned training like clicker training speeds up skill acquisition. In other words, your dog will learn faster when you're using clicker training than if you aren't. Once the training is completed, though, there's no real difference between groups.

There are a lot of caveats here, though. Surprisingly, there haven't been all that many real, reputable studies performed into these two training modalities, and there are a lot of possible variables that still need to be assessed.

For now, at least anecdotally, clicker is quicker but not necessarily better.

What Should You Use, Clicker or Treat-Only Training?

This is entirely up to you.

I can say that from my own experience, clicker training is a bit faster and more reliable, especially with more headstrong dogs. On the other hand, treat-only training can be more enticing, specifically for easily distracted puppies.

But, here's the thing: a lot of "treat-only" training isn't actually treat-only. People using those strategies end up using treat-only methods for some training, or as a remedial tool for cases where a dog doesn't want to fully participate (like when they won't return a ball in fetch), and use the clicker for other training. Or, they use trigger words or noises from other sources instead of clicker clicks.

Here's how I see it. First, a clicker is super cheap. You can get a two-pack for under $5. It's not like it's specialized equipment or anything; it's just a plastic button that makes a noise when pressed. You can keep a handful of them around the house so you never risk losing them, even.

The only real difference between clicker and non-clicker training is that you need to spend a few days "charging" the clicker. That means just clicking the button and giving your dog a treat when they do. That builds the association that click = treat, and then you're off to the races.

At the same time, people have been effectively training dogs for hundreds of years before clickers were invented. They aren't necessary; they're just nice to use. So, whether or not you choose to use them is up to you.

Clicker and Treat Training FAQ

There are a few other points I wanted to make here that didn't have a space above.

Are there downsides to clicker training?

There can be. Some dogs, especially anxious or fearful dogs, might startle at or shy away from the clicker noise. Clickers also only work when your dog can hear them, so noisy venues, busy outdoor areas, at a distance, and other scenarios can override them. It's also possible for an overstimulated or hyperfocused dog to ignore the click.

And, of course, you do have to carry around the clicker while you're training. It may be cheap and easy, but you can't forget your voice box at home, right?

Will I mess up my dog's training if I switch to or from a clicker?

Probably not. As long as you can choose a trigger word you can react with quickly, and can charge appropriately, the principles of conditioning still apply.

You might have to deal with a couple of days of setbacks, but that's nothing in the grand scheme of things.

Can clicker training still work if I have multiple dogs?

Yes, but you need to be on top of things. Either train them simultaneously or isolate them from one another during training. The problem comes from clicking once in a way that "rewards" two different behaviors.

You can also get around this by using more than one clicker with different tones, one for each dog. This ends up being trickier to do, but it's still possible.

Still, though, any training is training. In my view, the only way to mess up a dog's training is if you're being abusive about it or you're just not training them at all.

What about you? Do you have any questions you want to ask, or stories you want to share? I'm always open to chatting about our fur babies, so leave me a comment, find me on Instagram, or just say hi!