No no, he definitely didn't, LOL. There was never any time for him to build the association of a clicker or a click to treats. He simply saw that I had something in my hand and thought it was something to eat - and he DID try to eat it multiple times LMAO. I'd show it to him hoping he'd be like "Oh, that's not a treat, okay." So he'd smell it, look at it, go NOM trying to eat it, realize it wasn't food, spit it back out... I'd pick it back up, same OMG OMG FOOD IN THE HAND OMG reaction... show it to him again, he'd chomp on it, realize nope, still not food, spit it back out... repeat. The clicker itself had nothing to do with it - the shape of my hand did. No different than how people can ACT like they are holding cookie treats in their hand and a dog goes "oh boy oh boy!!" Because the closed fist means that a cookie must be in there!
Auggie went through a very long stage where the mere thought of food being present meant he was over his threshold and training was incredibly difficult. It was really, really annoying. He has gotten a lot better on the whole, but on occasion he still slips over his threshold when food is involved, and it's STILL annoying when it happens, LOL. But at least now it's when there is actually food, not just at the sight of anything in the hand. I can actually carry a handful of whatever from one room to the next and not have my dog flip his (#*@ now, LMAO.
I have actually been working with getting him to be just a driven for a tug toy, but I am simultaneously worried that a) he will never be as nuts about his tug as he is for food and b) he will ultimately develop the "THRESHOLD IS WHERE???" issue with the tug and I'll be right back where we started, LOL. But that's what I get for having a working dog. He is forever a work in progress. =P
That's what I mean though, the issue was never clicker training or the clicker itself. It was Auggie. He already had an issue that made adding the tool into the mix frustrating, and in some ways it was no different than a dog who is sensitive to the sound. I had to approach it differently than sound desensitization, since I had to first get the dog able to work around food under threshold, then work with food in my HAND under threshold, and then making a fist, regardless if I was holding food, a clicker, a handful of trash, nothing at all, WHATEVER... was no longer going to trigger him. At that point I could get the clicker in my hand and we could actually start USING it without having him instantly go stupid. On the whole though, working on his threshold with food had nothing to do with the clicker. That was just a neat little benefit that once I finally got him to not lose it when I made a fist, I could use a clicker!
Oh yeah - I also use "uh-uh" when training and, I admit, I even use "no" sometimes. D= I also use verbal markers with the clicker since we mainly work without the clicker, so add me to the column that does the "YESSSSS!" along with the click, LOL.