As I understand it “Clicker Training “ is just a variant of reward based training, which has been extraordinarily successful in training animals to do various tasks. The clicker itself is just a training tool to mark a desired behavior. Having one in hand is not needed to get a good response in a trained dog.
You are exactly right, the clicker simply marks a behavior, usually an increment in the behavior being taught to the dog.Once completed the clicker is no longer needed.Also FWIW if your timing is good you can mark incremental behavior with your voice.I've seen clicker trainers with schitty timing, and it doesn't help the dog at all.I've also seen it work like magic once the dog understands the clicker marks a behavior the trainer wants, but you're timing has to be good.Personally, I just use my voice.
