Best Pets as Christmas Presents for Children

Puppies and kittens are the most popular pets for parents to get their children. Who doesn’t love the sweet affection of an adorable puppy or the playfulness of a frisky kitten? If you use the positive reinforcement of a clicker to paper and obedience train when you first bring it home, you and your pet will have a head start on a long and happy relationship.

Some children are allergic to dogs and cats, so consider other pets that your child may not be allergic to. The following are some of the most popular pets for children…all of which can be clicker trained with clickers:

Rabbits. Loving, quiet, and easy to take care of, bunnies are a favorite pet for older, calm children any time of year. Use clicker training to help your bunny feel safe when being lifted and held. You can also clicker train it to do tricks like hopping over jumps and running through tunnels.

Birds. Parakeets, canaries, cockatiels, lovebirds and small parrots make wonderful pets for children and thrive with constant affection. For best results, look for hand-tamed babies from a reputable breeder.

Guinea pigs. These little furry friends are gentle and good-natured, in many ways a perfect pet for children of all ages. Guinea pigs are a little skittish around people at first and need to be clicker trained to trust you when being held and carried.

Rats. Believe it or not, rats are fastidiously clean, intelligent, and love to be handled. Your child can clicker train a rat to come when called, kiss, beg, and many other tricks.

Children at least six years of age can be taught to clicker train their pets. Clicker training teaches kids to not tug or yell at pets, which could cause the pet to react dangerously. If you’re planning to give your child a pet for Christmas, find a pet that’s right for your child’s age and personality, and help your child become more confident in handling pets.

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!

Preparing Your Dog for the New Baby

You’re expecting your first baby – how wonderful! There are so many things to start thinking about and planning for, including preparing your dog for all the changes that will occur when you bring the baby home. The best time to start training your pet for this new lifestyle is today. Using the positive reinforcement clicker training method will reinforce the strong positive bond between you and your dog and make the transition much happier for you and your dog.

Obedience Training
This is the time to make sure your dog has been obedience trained to respond to your commands: sit, stay, come, down. Clicker training is one of the most successful methods for obedience training, and once you’ve mastered the simple clicker technique, you’ll be able to teach your dog to do these basic commands. Once you’ve fine-tuned these skills, you can clicker train your dog to walk with a leash.

Crate Training
Make sure your dog has a safe place to go, a place just for him when he needs to get away from all the baby activity or for you to put him when he needs to be out of the activity for a few hours. Clicker train your dog to go to the crate, where his bed, food, water, and toys are kept, and he’ll be much happier when you need him to stay there for a while.

Behavior Training
With all the attention shifted to the new baby and all the new smells and noises, your dog may feel threatened or overwhelmed. As early as possible, start clicker training to address issues such as barking, growling, and other aggressive behaviors; and chewing, jumping up on people or furniture, and other destructive behaviors.

Environment Training
All the noise and commotion may make your dog skittish, aggressive, or withdrawn. You can help him learn to stay calm by introducing him to similar environments. Clicker train your dog to lie down and be calm when children approach her. Take your dog to visit friends with young children and clicker train him to learn to stay calm with all the strange noises and smells. Introduce these for short periods and increase the time as he becomes more comfortable.

You’ll find a number of blog posts on this site with information about clicker training techniques and tips. Clicker train your dog early, reinforce the training often, and make him feel loved and important. You’ll be able to enjoy this exciting time of your life with your new baby and your happy, well behaved dog.

How a Clicker Trainer Changed My Dogs Life

While flying home from vacation recently, I engaged in conversation with a young woman sitting next to me, Jennifer. In the course of conversation, I learned Jennifer had a five year old basset hound, Waldo. She described Waldo as a sweet, lovable dog who enjoyed hour after hour of lounging in the yard, watching people walk by. But Waldo wasn’t always so easy with people.

As a puppy, Jennifer used clicker training to teach Waldo basic obedience skills. She was so excited about how quickly Waldo learned to obey simple commands and how easily she paper trained. But Waldo was so afraid of people that any time someone came to the house, or even walked past the house outside, Waldo ran and hid. “Taking Waldo for a walk was not fun. If someone came toward us, Waldo was on a leash and couldn’t run away, so he started barking and growling. It was so strange to see my sweet puppy become so scary.”

At her wit’s end, Jennifer called a dog trainer who assured her that fear of people is not uncommon and Waldo could be trained to relax around people. The trainer explained that teaching Waldo to associate something especially positive with people may help Waldo change his reactions. To do this, the trainer suggested using the clicker since Waldo was already familiar with and enjoyed this method.

Jennifer began clicker training Waldo to sit when he saw people, and she rewarded him with a click and his favorite treats. She was told to limit Waldo’s time around people initially, so she started training him in the house and yard with a friend for two weeks. When Waldo was ready to be around more people, she started taking him for walks, and eventually to the park. It took about three months of clicker training before Waldo would let people come up to him, but the training paid off.

A clicker trainer gives a dog positive reinforcement when he behaves correctly. This training method allowed Waldo to associate people with something special. “I can’t believe what a different dog Waldo is around people now. We couldn’t have fun at the park or even just going for walks. That clicker really changed Waldo’s life!”

Clicker Training Fun for Boy and His Cat

I recently heard about a young boy who clicker trained his cat to sit for treats. Chessie was just a kitten, and the boy thought it would be fun teach his cat a trick. He got some of her favorite treat, liver, and cut it into bite-sized morsels.

When the kitten was begging for food, the boy told the kitten to sit. Chessie wasn’t sure what the boy wanted, so she tried lots of movements. After the boy repeated “Sit” several times, Chessie finally sat with her bottom on the floor and her front paws up. Perfect. The boy clicked the clicker and gave Chessie a yummy morsel of liver.

Chessie wanted more! The boy commanded “Sit” again, and as Chessie sat up, he clicked the clicker and gave her another treat. The boy continued the clicker training, and as soon as Chessie heard “Sit,” she knew exactly what to do: she sat up and got a treat. The clicker training worked.

Over the next few years, Chessie remembered the clicker training. Sometimes she sat up in the middle of the living room in front of the boy, waiting to get her treat. No clicker needed. The boy knew exactly what she wanted and told her to wait a minute. He went to the cupboard and got her a treat. Chessie never forgot the clicker training she received as a kitten.

Want to learn how to clicker train your cat? Watch the following video of a veterinarian explaining “Clicker Training Your Cat.” She reminds that cats have a short attention span, so it’s best to end the clicker training session while it’s still fun.

A Clicker Trained Puppy Is a Happy Puppy

Puppies love to chew, bite, bark – things that come naturally to them. But these behaviors are not acceptable in your home. Like children, dogs need to know their boundaries. Start clicker training soon after you bring the puppy home to encourage your puppy to develop desirable behaviors and to curb negative ones.

To use the clicker successfully, you’ll need to teach your puppy to associate the clicker sound with a treat. The first step is to click once and give him a treat. No need to over-feed him – just give him one small piece of his regular food and adjust the amount you feed him at meal time.

By starting clicker training with your puppy as soon as you bring him home, your puppy will learn the clicker training technique and will want to perform the behaviors you desire. As he learns to recognize the sound of the clickers, you can start clicker training to house train, heel, sit, stand, stay, and come when called. Later, you’ll be able to teach him games and tricks. One of the keys to successful clicker training is learning when to click. You must click at the exact moment your puppy performs the desired behavior.

Your puppy wants your praise and approval. Help your puppy live happily in your home and give him the best start in life by starting the clicker training technique early.