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There is general consensus among animal psychologists and other professionals in the field of dog obedience training that positive reinforcement training is the best way to train your dog.  Positive reinforcement training is all about providing rewards for good dog behavior.  When rewards are consistent over a long period of time dog training will be accomplished.

 

When you think positive thoughts to train your dog, your dog will respond.  Dogs have a natural sense of what humans feel and think.  So, when you use abusive action, your dog will get confused and not know what to do.

 

The fact is that positive reinforcement works with dogs. Your dog wants to make you happy, meaning that positive reinforcement works better with dogs and is better remembered.

 

Dog obedience training with positive reinforcement training allows your dog to learn positive behavioral patterns at their own pace without being forced to exhibit these behaviors.  These are some ways to make the positive reinforcement training easier for you and your dog:

 

1. The rewards to give your dog.  Before you start training your dog, decide what kind of reward you want to give him.  You want your dog to be excited about what you give him.  If he is excited, he will do anything you say, as he gains understanding as to what you want, to get that reward.  You should only use this reward for training and not as his regular rewards at home.

 

2. Give rewards at the right time.  Timing is everything when you are training your dog.  Give a command, if he follows it, give him a reward immediately.  Delayed rewards will get confused training results.  You dog will not know what to do to get that reward.  You will lose control of your dog obedience training session.

 

Many people use a clicker for dog training. A clicker is a small metal device which makes a click-click sound. Click your clicker at the exact moment that your dog obeys a command, followed immediately by a treat. Your dog learns to associate the action, click and the treat.

 

You can do the same thing with your own voice; saying “Yes” in a happy voice will send the same message. Just remember to give the treat right away after this and say the same thing every time. This will cause your dog to associate the action, the marker and the reward. Consistency is the key.

 

When you train your dog obedience commands, decide if you want to use a clicker or a verbal command.  Use whatever you have decided you like to work with and maintain it throughout your dog training. 

 

Even if your dog is exceptionally smart, you need to keep in mind that your dog can only understand a few words. You can teach your old dog new tricks, but you have to be consistent with both markers and rewards in order to be successful in teaching your dog desirable behaviors.

 

With your patience, love, and care during your dog obedience training, you dog will start to see and understand what you are trying to teach him or her.  Don’t rush the training, since your dog has a mind of its own and knows what it want to do and does it instantly.  But with repetition, you will be rewarded with new behavior from your dog.

Most training revolves around giving the dog consequences for his behaviour, in the hope of influencing the behaviour the dog will exhibit in the future. Operant conditioning defines four types of consequences:

Positive reinforcement adds something to the situation to increase the chance of the behaviour being exhibited again (for example, giving a dog a treat when he sits.)

Negative reinforcement removes something from the situation to increase the chance of the behaviour being exhibited again (for example, releasing the tension on an uncomfortable training collar when the dog stops pulling on the leash).

Positive punishment adds something to the situation to decrease the chance of the behaviour being exhibited again (for example, growling at a misbehaving dog).

Negative punishment removes something from the situation to decrease the chance of the behaviour being exhibited again (for example, walking away from a dog who jumps up).

Most modern trainers say that they use “positive training methods”, which is a different meaning of the word “positive” from that in operant conditioning. “Positive training methods” generally means preferring the use of reward-based training to increase good behavior over that of physical punishment to decrease bad behavior. However, a good trainer understands all four methods, whether or not she can put operant-conditioning terminology to them, and applies them as appropriate for the dog, the breed, the handler, and the situation.

Rewards

Positive reinforcers can be anything that the dog finds rewarding – special food treats, the chance to play with a tug toy, social interaction with other dogs, or the owners attention. The more rewarding a dog finds a particular reinforcer, the more work he will be prepared to do in order to obtain the reinforcer.

Some trainers go through a process of teaching a puppy to strongly desire a particular toy, in order to make the toy a more powerful positive reinforcer for good behaviour. This process is called “building prey drive”, and is commonly used in the training of Narcotics Detection and Police Service dogs. The goal is to produce a dog who will work independently for long periods of time.

Some trainers believe that the toy acts as a positive reinforcer for the desired behavior, when in all likelihood the prey drive works on an entirely different level from standard training and conditioning techniques. This is seen most clearly in the fact that, according to the laws of operant conditioning, positive reinforcers lose their effectiveness if they’re given every single time a dog does what is desired of him; the more predictable the reinforcer, the less reliable the behavior. Yet detection dogs only work well when they are always rewarded with a toy, every single time they find drugs or explosives, etc. The reason for this disparity is that when a dog is trained through the prey drive, the training activates an instinctive, automatic sequence that has to be completed in order for the dog to feel satisfied. That sequence is: search, eye-stalk, chase, grab-bite, and kill bite. So when a dog searches and finds drugs or explosives, he feels he hasn’t finished his job unless he can bite something. This is the primary reason he’s always given the toy. It’s not really a positive reinforcer. If it were it would reduce the reliability of the behavior overall. It’s a means of completing the predatory sequence for the dog.

Punishments

“Positive punishment” is probably the consequence that is least used by modern dog trainers, as it must be used very carefully. A dog is generally only given this type of punishment if it is willfully disobeying the owner. Punishing a dog who does not understand what is being asked of him is not only unfair to the dog, but can make the dog a fearful or unwilling worker.

Punishments are administered only as appropriate for the dog’s personality, age, and experience. A sharp No works for many dogs, but some dogs even show signs of fear or anxiety with harsh verbal corrections. On the other hand, certain dogs with ‘harder’ temperaments may ignore a verbal reprimand, and may work best if the reprimand is coupled with a physical punishment such as a quick tug on a training collar. Trainers generally advise keeping hand contact with the dog to positive interactions; if hands are used to threaten or hurt, some dogs may begin to behave defensively when stroked or handled.

Avoiding punishment

Keeping a puppy on a leash in challenging situations or in his crate or pen when not closely supervised prevents the puppy from getting into situations that might otherwise invite an owner’s harsh reaction (such as chewing up a favorite pair of shoes).

Next: Dog Training part V- The command voice