Day THREE-21 Day Positive Training Kickstart Challenge

Often times we spend the day without realizing that our dogs are exhibiting behaviors all the time that we like. For example, is your dog lying down quietly on the floor? Are they just hanging out sleeping? Did they come over to you & sit down nearby? These are three great examples of things that dogs do every day that are in fact, opportunities to reward & reinforce great behaviors.

More often than not, folks allow these situations to just pass by without a thought, & then when an unfortunate example (say the dog begins to bark at someone going past the house) occurs, people take that opportunity to scold the animal.

Instead of waiting for the bad, try LOOKING specifically for something you LIKE that your pup is doing & make a point of rewarding that behavior. A small bit of something they like to eat, a belly rub, or a pat on the head are examples of things that dogs often find reinforcing.

Catching your animal doing something right encourages them to try again. Each time that you reinforce behavior you are actually reinforcing future behavior as learning is a result of reinforced repetition!

ACTION: Watch for FIVE things today that your dog is doing that you could reward. Try to catch them in the act of doing something that you like (just resting quietly counts 🙂 ) & let them know that you like that behavior!

Terrie Hayward of PAW-Positive Animal Wellness  collaborating with Defensa de Animales Rincon (DAR), was welcomed at Mama Mel’s Childcare Services last Thursday for a presentation on dog safety.

The children learned to “Be A Tree” (Doggone Safe) as part of the fun & interactive presentation for children that teaches them how to read dog body language & be safe around dogs. They then practiced what they had learned (see photo) with a dog puppet.

Next, everyone learned a new interactive song via the Best Friends Animal Society about being safe with dogs out & about!

Contact PAW if you might like to discuss how to have a humane education program come to your school or group.

Day TWO-21 Day Positive Training Kickstart Challenge

There are basically two types of training. One suppresses behavior as the learner attempts to do just the bare minimum to avoid something aversive (like punishment or corrections).

The other type is when the learner attempts to go to great lengths to try new & exciting things in order to earn reinforcers.

This video provides a good example of Positive Reinforcement Training vs. training using punishment.

There are four problems with punishment based training. One, aggression. Because punishers are not pleasant, there often can be aggression towards the punisher. Two, apathy. The animal becomes apathetic-lacking interest, emotion, concern, or feeling about learning. Three, escape/avoidance. Here, the learner attempts to escape or avoid the punishment & often the person meting out the punishment. Finally, generalized fear. In this case, the animal comes to fear things that they may associate with the situation or behavior or person during which the punishment occurs.

Examples of punishment based training techniques include choke chains, prong collars, shock collars, hitting, kicking, & any coercive or correction based methods.

All of these outcomes can be avoided by utilizing a positive reinforcement based training method. Examples include clicker training, rewards based teaching, or TAG (Teaching with Acoustical Guidance) teach.