Early History

• Psychology graduate students Marian Breland Bailey and Keller Breland started operant conditioning in applied settings in 1941. The Brelands became assistants to B.F. Skinner in his work with pigeons during World War II. The effort was a success but was never used by the Navy.
  
  

Training Application

• After the pigeon project, the Brelands developed a commercial enterprise known as Animal Behavior Enterprises. They used operant conditioning to train a variety of animals. The Navy hired the Brelands in the 1960s to teach skills to be used with dolphins. There they met Bob Bailey, the Navy's director of training. He became a pioneer in the use of dolphins for open-ocean work.
  
  

Dog Training

• In the mid-'90s Karen Pryor, a former dolphin trainer, wrote "Don't Shoot the Dog," a book that described the training method developed by the Brelands and raised awareness of it among the general public.
  
  

Significance

• Clicker training is a positive-reinforcement method that has replaced negative-reinforcement methods such as the choke collar. This has resulted in more humane dog training.
  
  

Function

• A clicker is used as the "bridge" to connect behavior and reward. The click occurs at the same time as the desired behavior, allowing the animal to know the exact behavior that earned it a reward. The animal learns to associate the click with reward and repeats the behavior.