Author archive: Terrie Hayward

Day SIXTEEN-21 Day Positive Training Kickstart Challenge

Would you prefer to have me reward you every time that you do something correctly or wait until you do something wrong & then punish you? This is basically the difference between positive reinforcement vs. other training ideas.

Learners who are encouraged when they do things right want to think up new ways to do the right things! They get creative in exploring & guessing just what things might earn them good behavior rewards.

The flip side of this coin is when learners are corrected for doing things wrong. Not only is this approach disheartening (imagine only getting attention when you make a mistake & then are punished for it), but it discourages all learners from trying & encourages apathy towards learning.

Instead of waiting around for errors, try to catch your dog/parrot/horse doing some behavior that you can reinforce! Help them “learn to earn” & build confidence & eager learners!

ACTION: Watch for a learner in your house (can be your dog, a child, a spouse, another animal) doing something that you like & then praise/reward/reinforce this behavior. Try to do this three times & watch the reaction of the learner!

Day FIFTEEN-21 Day Positive Training Kickstart Challenge

When it comes to training, the biggest issue is that punishment, discipline, & corrections can lead to aggression, apathy, generalized fear, & escape/avoidance behaviors. This isn’t a list of things that most folks want for their companion animals.

Aggression can be the result of aversive techniques as learners become frightened & frustrated.
Apathy may be the result of punishment as learners realize that “it’s just no use” & thus shut down…to all learning.
Generalized fear is a potential side effect of corrections as learners might always be frightened of “men” or “people wearing hats” based on interactions with the people imparting the corrections.
Finally, escape/avoidance may come about as a result of discipline techniques as the learner learns to fear & attempt to avoid the person with whom they regularly associate punishment.
Psychology Today reports that although positive reinforcement techniques have continued to become widespread, the use of confrontational methods unfortunately also continues to grow in part as a result of popular culture’s dissemination via television shows.

Hopefully as you are reading & learning your way through this challenge you will confirm your commitment to science based training & teaching which nets maximum results & is fun for the learner as well!

ACTION: Make the choice today to use a positive option when training &/or teaching! Decide to reinforce good choices rather than punish bad ones & see how much better both learner & coach feel 🙂

Day FOURTEEN-21 Day Positive Training Kickstart Challenge

Sometimes people are vaguely familiar with clickers & clicker training, but don’t exactly have it down right. There is a phenomenon called, “blazing clickers” which refers to folks who aren’t really sure what the clicker is for & randomly & madly click away. This can be detrimental to the valuable communication tool that is the clicker.

For a clearer explanation, the clicker is a “marker.” The sound indicates to the learner that the behavior directly proceeding the sound was one we liked. Thus, we “mark” it with a “click.” This then allows us to precisely communicate which behavior it was that earned that “click” & then buys us a few seconds to provide the reinforcer (something the learner considers reinforcing enough to work for).

Remember, the process with a clicker is to observe the behavior, mark the behavior (the very SECOND it occurs) & then to reinforce the behavior.

ACTION: Get a clicker! They are sold in pet stores, by PAW ($5.00, or free with training session), or online. Sit close to your dog & call their name. If they look at you-CLICK! the second they do & then reinforce (perhaps with a tiny, but tasty treat!). Repeat!