Clicker Training 3 Dogs?

[DaltonCampbell]

Hi, I have three different dogs I'm trying to train. My question is if I am clicker training, will having two of them in a kennel while I am working with one of them weaken the effect of clicker training? Or if I click to reward a spontaneous behavior by one of them, that the other one did not perform, will that not weaken the association of the clicker for the other 2?

I guess in general I am just looking for tips for training multiple dogs.

Edited May 25, 2020 by DaltonCampbell

[Adrienne]

Hello and welcome to the forums!

This is a good question and something us novice trainers several years ago when attending clicker training classes asked about before getting started. We were explained that it was perfectly fine for us to train next to each other with our dogs and that the clicking didn't seem to have any impact on its effectiveness and what the dogs were being clicked for. It appears dogs understand when the click is for them and can tune out the other clicks. So there we were, 8 people in this class  clicker training our dogs side-by-side, and the  dogs truly seemed to tune out the others' clicks and grasped the training we did. 

When training multiple dogs, the ones left behind in the kennel may benefit from being given something (stuffed Kong, durable chew) so to entertain themselves with considering that they can feel frustrated as they are waiting their turn. 

After you have trained each dog individually and they all have shown signs of grasping the concept of what is being asked you can start adding the distraction of another dogs. This can happen of course after you have faded the food lures, stopped using the clicker and your dog rapidly responds to your cue. Which dog should you add though? You may be far better off picking your most proficient dog, and then adding in your next proficient one and so forth. Once you are done mixing up the dogs in combos of two,  further raise criteria, and add a further dog until you have your dogs in a group.

Group training works wonderfully for important cues such as waiting before you open a door, responding to a smacking sound when the postal carrier approaches, asking your dogs to do a group sit/stay or down/stay and then releasing them and calling your dogs (watch them competing rushing towards you!) and for great holiday group pictures.

Hope this helps!

Happy Training,

Best,

Adrienne