Interests and use of clicker training in veterinary medicine - application to dogs (canis lupus familiaris)

• Main Author: Canitrot, Eléonore
• Other Authors: Ecole Nationale Vétérinaire de Toulouse (ENVT), Institut National Polytechnique (Toulouse) (Toulouse INP), Université de Toulouse (UT)-Université de Toulouse (UT), Université Toulouse III - Paul Sabatier (UT3), Université de Toulouse (UT), Nathalie Priymenko
• Format: Master Thesis
• Language: French
• Published: HAL CCSD 2020
• Subjects: Dog; Positive reinforcement; Canine education; Rehabilitation; Behavior; Physical rehabilitation; Physiotherapy; Médecine vétérinaire; Thèses et écrits académiques; Chien; Renforcement positif; Clicker training; Medical training; Entraînement médical; Education; Rééducation fonctionnelle; Physiothérapie; Comportement; [SDV.BA.MVSA]Life Sciences [q-bio]/Animal biology/Veterinary medicine and animal Health; Canis lupus
• Online Access: https://dumas.ccsd.cnrs.fr/dumas-04532287; https://dumas.ccsd.cnrs.fr/dumas-04532287/document; https://dumas.ccsd.cnrs.fr/dumas-04532287/file/Canitrot_27354.pdf

Clicker training is an animal training method based on behavioral psychology that relies on marking desirable behavior and rewarding it. It uses both classical and operant conditioning, in a way that allows the “click” to be used as a marker of “good behavior” (i.e. a secondary reinforcer), by its association with a primary reinforcer (usually food). This method was found to be effective and reliable to teach even complex behaviors. It is also founded on a positive reinforcement core, in contrast to punitive principles, which tend to make the trained animals cooperative in every aspect of their training, thus improving animal welfare. When used in the context of medical training, clicker training can be used to teach some husbandry behaviors in order to make veterinary care easier, to reduce the use of chemical and physical restraint, and finally to improve treatment observancy and therefore reducing the risk of therapeutic failure. Pushing the training forward by teaching the dog some consent behaviors, it becomes possible to give complete choice to the dog on the rythm of the training session. By producing those consent behaviors, the dog becomes able to tell the trainer whether he is ready for the training session to start, or if he wants it to stop. This possibility of choice is a major concern when considering animal welfare, and remains particularly interesting in terms of behavioral and physical rehabilitation (physiotherapy). Finally, clicker training can be wielded in a therapeutic approach. In behavioral medicine, it may be used to take care of fear-related behaviors and has been widely applied in the rehabilitation of reactive dogs. In physiotherapy and physical rehabilitation, the dogs can be taught to freely achieve specific movements depending on the muscles the therapist wants to mobilize, all the while avoiding any pain or discomfort that could be caused by passive and forced manipulations. The knowledge of positive reinforcement and clicker training answers a growing concern for animal welfare ...