How to Clicker Train a Dog to Turn its Head

How to Clicker Train a Dog to Turn its Head

• Step 1:
  Prime the clicker with about 10 small treats. This means teaching your dog that right after she hears the click, she gets a treat. They catch onto this extremely quickly.
• Step 2:
  Sit in front of the dog with a handful of treats in one hand and the clicker in the other. At first your dog will just stare at you, waiting for something to happen. Say and do nothing. Eventually your dog will turn her head, even just for a quick glance. Immediately click and treat this head turn. Thereafter, click and treat only for head turns in that one direction, even tiny ones.
• Step 3:
  Watch how quickly your dog gets this and usually, within 10-20 treats, you will notice that she is turning her head in that direction only. Start rewarding only when you see it is a deliberate move.
• Step 4:
  Raise your criteria and start clicking and treating only for a full head turn. What will happen is your dog will turn her head just a little expecting a treat but suddenly it's not working. She will then turn her head harder and further in that direction, trying to get a treat from you. Reward that immediately and from now on only reward that degree of head turn.
• Step 5:
  Work on duration, so your dog learns to hold the head turn for several seconds. Once you are getting exaggerated head turns, wait for the dog to hold it for a second. She will hold it waiting for the click if she doesn't get a click--treat immediately. At first reward for a split second, then wait for her to offer you a slightly longer head turn.
• Step 6:
  Name the behavior once she is giving you a bit of duration. This looks like a shake of the head so it can be a cute question to which the answer is "no", or you can ask her "Which was is north?" or "Are you a shy girl?" or "Who broke wind?" or anything else you can come up with!
• Step 7:
  After a while you can of course phase out the click and treat, although it's nice to reward this behavior at least sometimes so she is not always working for free.