Training Your Dog By Betty Laurin CPDT-KA, CDBC Professional Dog Training Dog training should be an enjoyable experience for both you and your dog. A trained dog is a joy to live with. A trained dog will "sit" when cued and a trained dog obviously has access to privileges that an untrained dog does not. Dogs and owners who are trained under the instruction of professional, qualified and "certified' dog trainers learn more than just leash skills. Dog owners should also be learning all about dog behavior, "why" their dogs are doing "what" they are doing and how to extinguish negative behavior/s without causing damage to your dog, emotionally or physically! A professional dog trainer will not rely on punishment to teach your dog to "learn" new behavior/s. Training consists of "teaching skills" to your dog, through a series of repetitions, you and your dog acquire balanced teamwork. Punishment, even mild punishment such as spraying your dog in the face with a spray bottle of water can have a negative impact on "learning" and in many cases, stop the dog from further learning altogether. Reinforcements! In order for your dog to learn that learning is rewarding, you must reinforce the good behavior until the dog has acquired the behavior and become fluent in that particular behavior. Once your dog is "fluent" in the new behavior and has generalized the behavior, you MUST transition your dog from a continual reinforcement schedule to a random reinforcement schedule. Continuing to keep a dog on a continual reinforcement schedule (a treat each and every time he does a correct behavior), will actually weaken the learned behavior! Once your dog has become fluent in the new behavior it is maintained! Consequences! No one can "learn" without consequences to their behaviors. There are consequences to all of our actions/behaviors. If we do something wrong, there may be a negative consequence associated with our behavior, likewise dogs learn quickly to avoid behavior/s that result in negative consequences. A negative consequences should NOT cause emotional or physical pain, suffering or injury to a person or animal. In order for a consequence to be aversive to a person or animal, it must be unpleasant but not injurious, emotionally or physically. Interestingly enough, some animals find some aversives to be reinforcing rather than aversive. An example of an aversive that becomes a reinforcement is squirting a Golden Retriever in the face with a spray bottle of water! Since Golden Retrievers LOVE water, the spray actually becomes reinforcing to the dog so the information that the dog is receiving at that time is, "continue to do the negative behavior and I will get more water!" The use of aversion/aversives in specific contexts will also reinforce "negative behaviors". Using aversion/aversives on fearful or aggressive dogs can actually escalate the fear and/or aggression in these animals. Needless to say, consequences for negative behavior/s should be carefully taken into consideration by the dog owner before incorporating any artificial aversives/aversions. Generally, I find that most individuals who feel it necessary to incorporate aversives or aversion into their training program encountered the following problems in their training program/s and in their daily lives with their dogs: 1. They have failed to properly reinforce the "wanted" behavior to fluency. 2. They have had less than adequate instruction from inexperienced trainers on "how" to properly train their dog. 3. They have remained on a continual reinforcement schedule too long. 4. They are not managing their dog/s properly in the home, allowing for negative behavior to become strongly conditioned. 5. They are not managing their dog's environment allowing for negative behavior to become strongly reinforced. Effectors of Behavior There are 4 effectors of behavior and I will make this as easy as possible for any dog owner to understand: 1. Positive Reinforcement: positive reinforcement simply states that if the dog does what you want, he gets a reinforcement/reward 2. Negative Reinforcement: If the dog does NOT do what you want, you REMOVE something bad. This is generally "pressure". Let's say that you are walking down the street with your dog and he notices a squirrel running past, he begins to pull on the leash and you stop and apply pressure to the leash, preventing him from moving forward. Once the dog stops pulling, you let the tension out of the leash and you then begin moving forward again. The "pressure" is removed (something bad) allowing the dog to move forward again (positive reinforcement). Another example of negative reinforcement would be teaching the dog to perform a "down/stay". You place your dog in a down and tell him to stay, the dog tries to get up, you apply pressure to the leash, preventing the dog from getting up, the dog relaxes in the down position, you release the pressure from the leash and collar. 3. Positive Punishment: Positive punishment is the ADDITION of something AVERSIVE. Anything that you ADD to stop the UNWANTED behavior is called positive punishment. Note: IF THE ADDITION OF A "PUNISHER" IS NOT DECREASING THE UNDESIRED BEHAVIOR, STOP USING THAT PUNISHER AND SEEK PROFESSIONAL GUIDANCE OTHERWISE YOU MAY CAUSE EMOTIONAL, LIFELONG DAMAGE TO YOUR DOG. ANY AVERSIVE USED IN AN INCONSISTENT MANNER CAN CAUSE PHYSICAL AND EMOTIONAL, LONG TERM DAMAGE. 4. Negative Punishment: Negative Punishment is the REMOVAL of something GOOD. Most experienced dog trainers use negative punishment to teach the dog that the consequence to his negative behavior will result in the removal of what the dog PERCEIVES a good thing. Although negative punishment is very effective, many dog owners find it more time consuming to use negative punishment and less time consuming to use positive punishment. Unfortunately dog owners who opt to use positive punishment generally have not used enough positive reinforcement to train the desired behavior/s to fluency. If the dog owner fails to teach their dog appropriate behaviors to fluency, they are at greater risk of using positive punishment inappropriately. And Last BUT Not Least, It's NOT All About FOOD!! In order to reinforce your dog's good behavior you can use food rewards initially but it is important to quickly fade the food from the program once the dog is fluent in the behavior/s that you have taught him. If the dog owner continually and consistently relies on food as a reward AFTER the behavior is LEARNED, the dog will ONLY offer the behavior/s in the presence of a food reward! This has become a huge problem for dog owners experimenting with positive reinforcement methodology. A good program for successful learning is one that includes many different reinforcers and motivators. ................. From my experience, I have found that in most cases, dog owners simply want three basic behaviors: 1. A cooperative, calm, compliant dog 2. A dog that comes reliably when called 3. A dog that walks on a leash without pulling 1-3 above can be easily accomplished through my motivational method of positive reinforcement training! Join the class! |
