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Much has been made on the internet and in books that clicker training is "scientific." Most of these claims follow the line from B.F. Skinner, through Keller Breland, to a number of people - mostly marine mammal trainers. While these connections do exist, they do not explain the creation of clicker training. This methodology is exactly that - a practical method of training that holds objective real-time behavioral control as its foundation and touch-stone. Dogs must be able to live and work with people in robust environments without the heavy reliance on negative punishment that exists in zoos, acquaria and traveling animal acts. While academia and the animal entertainment industry have accomplished many valid, wonderful things, clicker training is a method of the people, by the people and for the animals. This is where theory and speculation weigh less than practical experience and analysis of objective results. For the academic or student, understanding this branch of psychology (psychology with a little p) is an invaluable journey that can foster new awareness and understanding of the topic as a whole.
Note: The resources on this website do not favor any form of jargon - neither dog training language nor behavior analytic definitions. That does not mean that the information is less precise by its simplicity. To describe the dynamics of behavior, one must use dynamic language. It is far more funcitonal to use terms that everyone knows, so that all may compare their experience and share their knowledge.
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