Halloween Safety for Dogs and Cats

Trick-or-treating and wearing costumes is fun for children, but this holiday is not so much fun for dogs and cats. Although your pet may be very social, when a person in costume comes to the door, your pet may become scared or over-excited. Even pets that love children can react unexpectedly when there are so many children ringing your doorbell, yelling “Trick or treat!” and looking unfamiliar in strange costumes. Some animals will run away, some may bolt out the door, and others may become aggressive or start barking furiously. The clicker training you’ve worked on with your pet will help him stay calm. Use the clicker to make your pet sit, stay, come, quiet, or even to lead him to his safe place.

In the excitement to find their favorite treats in their bag, kids will drop candy or leave it lying around. And kids love to share their treats with their pets. But chocolate can be toxic for dogs and cats. Use clicker training to teach your dog or cat to “leave it” so you can stop him from eating candy if he starts to pick it up.

Keep your pets inside. It’s unfortunate but true that for some people, doing tricks to dogs and cats is “fun” on Halloween. This is one reason it’s so important to clicker train your pet to “stay” so that they don’t run out the door while you’re handing out candy. Even better, put your pet in their safe place, away from the door and the excitement.

The American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA) provides a list of Halloween safety tips. They remind pet owners to be careful of electric cords for lighted decorations – dogs love to chew – and lighted pumpkin candles that can easily singe your curious pet or be knocked over and start a fire. The ASPCA also suggests putting costumes on your pets may be very cute or funny, but can overly stress your pet. And, as always, “make sure your dog or cat has proper identification. If for any reason your pet escapes and becomes lost, a collar and tags and/or a microchip can be a lifesaver, increasing the chances that he or she will be returned to you.”

Clicker training your dog and cat is not just about basic behaviors and clever tricks. Clicker training builds trust and respect between you and your pet, and in special times, such as Halloween, you show them your love by protecting them from potential stress and safety issues. Have a safe and happy Halloween!

Clicker Training Your Pet Rabbit

Rabbits are wonderful house pets. Loving, quiet, and easy to take care of, rabbits also learn quickly. They can learn to do anything they’re physically capable of doing…all you need is a clicker and some patience. Clicker training a rabbit is in some ways like clicker training a dog. But there are differences between rabbits and dogs in how they view their environment and how they learn that will affect the early clicker training sessions.

Veteran rabbit trainers Joan Orr and Teresa Lewin are strong supporters of clicker training for rabbits. They suggest that rabbits need to feel comfortable and safe in their environment, so give them time to adjust. “Rabbits are a prey species and this makes them very different from predators such as dogs and cats.” If your rabbit is afraid of being outside of her cage, help her become familiar with clicker training while she’s in the cage.

Start by loading the clicker and getting your rabbit accustomed to the click and treat method of training. When you click, instead of putting a treat in your hand, put it on the ground in front of her. Rabbits prefer eating off the ground. They may refuse to eat food placed away from their regular eating area, and it will take some time – possibly a few training sessions – to accept food in the new area. Over time, you can train her to eat from your hand. Because rabbits are small, they eat less, so keep treats to a few tiny bites and keep training sessions very short. Treats can include rabbit pellets or tiny pieces of vegetables.

When the rabbit learns to associate a click with getting a treat, you can begin to train her in basic obedience skills and she can be litter box trained. She can learn to sit, come, stay, fetch, and hop into your lap. You can also break bad bunny habits such as biting and chewing on furniture with clicker training. Your rabbit can even learn to do special tricks like hopping over and around obstacles, standing on hind legs, and tossing or carrying a ball.



Andrea Bratt Frick and Jean Silva of B.U.N.S. in California have had great success with the clicker and their shelter rabbits. “We have been using the clicker to get all our bunnies to come to the front of their condos to appear friendly to help them become more adoptable. Also, we have taught them little tricks such as ‘give me ten’ so that the bunnies, who were fearful at first, would now interact with potential adoptees.” Rabbits have a natural fear of being picked up – this is how animals or birds capture rabbits for their meal – so you can help your rabbit become more comfortable with handling through clicker training.

Rabbits can be very affectionate and expressive. With time and patience, you will learn what makes your rabbit happy, and through clicker training you can build a bond of trust with your favorite bunny.

If you need a supply of clickers, The Clicker Company has you covered. Visit The Clicker Company website at www.clickercompany.com to purchase your supply of clickers for rabbit training.

Clicker Training Your Cats

Cats have developed a reputation of being self-sufficient and independent. You might assume that makes them difficult to train. But the reality is that using a positive reinforcement training method - clicker training – works very well with cats.

Patience is absolutely essential when clicker training your cat. If you’ve clicker trained a dog, you were probably very happy with how quickly your dog learned the behavior or trick. Most dogs are eager to please their owner and will work hard to learn new skills.

But with cats, it may take a little longer to get and keep their attention. Be sure to take all the time necessary to practice “loading” the clicker, i.e. making your cat familiar with the click-treat pattern. Keep cat clicker training sessions very short, no more than five minutes, and be sure to practice every day.

You can teach your cat to do basic obedience skills, use the litter box, and do a variety of tricks, such as shake and high five as demonstrated by CatChannel.com.



Cats have been successfully taught to run obstacle courses and agility courses. In the International Cat Agility Tournaments (ICAT) competition, “cats negotiate an agility course designed to display their speed, coordination, beauty of movement, physical condition, intelligence, training, and the quality and depth of their relationship with their owner who trains with them and guides them through the course.”

Of course, everyone knows that cats have mastered training their owners. TV star Morris the Cat’s owner tried to entertain Morris with a wind-up mouse on the floor, only to have Morris chide, “Great – play with it outside.” But all cat lovers secretly love being trained to cater to their cats. With clicker training, cats might just enjoy performing for their owners.

Can a 10-Year-Old Boy Learn to Train a New Puppy With a Clicker?

Q. Our 10-year-old son has been begging us for a puppy. We've decided he is responsible enough to take care of a puppy and want to give him one for his birthday. Ideally, we’d like him to be involved in training the puppy too. I've heard about clicker training and I like the idea of the positive reinforcement method. Is my son old enough to learn how to use a clicker? What should we do to help him learn how to use it? Where can we go to learn?

A. Your son is the perfect age to have a puppy, to learn the responsibility of taking care of the puppy, and to train the puppy with the clicker. Clicker training is a wonderful way for children to build a strong bond with their puppy.

The trick to successful clicker training is the timing of the click and treat. Before you get the puppy, purchase a clicker and have your son practice using the clicker with you. Once you and your son are comfortable with the methods for timing the click and treat, then you’re ready to get the puppy.

Training Tips:
(1) First, teach the puppy to respond to the click and treat – called “loading” the clicker. Click the clicker, give a treat. When the puppy recognizes that the clicker sounds means getting treats, then he is ready for basic obedience training: sit, come, lie down, stay, loose leash walking. The same click and treat technique can be used later on to teach your puppy tricks and games.
(2) Remember that clicker training should only be positive and fun – never scold the puppy for doing something wrong during clicker training.
(3) Use tasty treats in tiny bits so you don’t overfeed your puppy. You can give him a portion of his meal as treats, then give him the rest of the food at mealtime.
(4) Practice for 3-5 minutes once or twice a day until the puppy learns the behavior. Too much practice can become boring for both the puppy and your son. You’ll be surprised how much your puppy will learn in just a couple of weeks.

Your puppy will love clicker training, your son will be proud of his ability to train his puppy, and you’ll be happy to have a well behaved puppy in the house. Have fun!