Positive Reinforcement Training For Happy Obedient Dogs

Positive reinforcement training is, very simply, rewarding your dog for learning and doing what you tell him to do. It means giving your dog (or other pet, really) a treat, praise or other reward for their behavior.

Proper timing is the most essential ingredient to successful positive reinforcement training. The reward must occur immediately – literally within seconds to ensure that your dog knows exactly what he is being praised for. While I would never say that dogs have short-term memory, they don't have a long attention span. If you let even 15 seconds go by your dog will not know EXACTLY why you are rewarding him. In fact if he has already gotten up and is jumping or something – he will think that you're rewarding him for that behavior – so be sure to be instantaneous with your reward and treat. Timing is everything!

Consistency is the second ingredient for successful positive reinforcement training. Command words and phrases must always be exactly the same. In fact, the training is shown to be even more successful if you can also use the same voice inflection when voicing your command words or phrases. For example:

You are teaching your dog to sit and have chosen the command 'sit'. You will ALWAYS use the command 'sit' and never 'sit down' or 'sit, Rover' – just 'sit'. Now, you command your dog to 'sit' with a firm voice and AS SOON AS HIS REAR END TOUCHES THE GROUND you praise him in an excited voice. “Good Boy! Good Boy!” and offer a special treat. The next time that your dog accomplishes this particular task you will want to use the same tone of voice when you praise him.

Experiment with your treat rewards until you find the one that your dog likes best. Make sure that the size of the treat is small enough to be quickly consumed and doesn't leave crumbs. If pieces of it break off your dog will be sniffing the ground looking for lost tid-bits instead of listening to you!

When your dog does not perform the act that you command him to do – ignore it. Do not scold him (negative reinforcement training) or say or do anything. Just continue, once again with the command you're working on.

After your dog has learned a command and performs it consistently, you can begin tapering off the reward. Reduce it to 75% of the time, then 50% etc. At the same time you can also begin tapering on your verbal praise. Instead of an exuberant, excited “Good boy” every time he sits, you can gradually tone it down a notch until it's a calm “good boy”. The goal is to get your dog to work towards receiving the verbal praise and not that tasty treat he's been getting. Of course, we ALL like treats now and then so be sure to give him once once in a while – just because you love him!

Some trainers also like to use hand signals is their training. It does help to reinforce for your dog the action you want them to perform. An example of a hand signal would be to place your hand out – palm down – and then as you say “down” (you want your dog to lie down), you slowly lower your hand and you voice the command. While they can be effective for training your dog, they are not a necessity for the average house dog. Training hunting dogs or animals in the water are more the type that require hand signals.

Negative reinforcement training can be helpful in certain circumstances, but it's not recommended by many reputable trainers. In this context here, I am NOT talking about physical punishment as there is never cause for that – ever! What I am talking is a loud, angry “No!”, when your puppy starts to piddle on the floor, or a loud sound like an air horn when they are doing something you don't want them to. It could work, but the pitfalls outweigh any good that may come from such behavior. For instance, suppose your dog is being careless with a crawling baby and you are using negative reinforcement to train your dog to leave the baby alone. It's quite possible that your dog will associate this negative reinforcement with the baby. The dog could then become distrustful and possibly even more aggressive towards the baby.

In addition, negative reinforcement requires the same precise timing as positive reinforcement training. If your too late in administering it, the punishment will seem totally unpredictable to your dog and he's likely to become fearful and distrustful – which could lead to even more behavior problems. You must catch him in the act and we all know just how difficult that can be!

Use caution when attempting negative reinforcement – in fact I wouldn't recommend it at all, unless you're a professional trainer.

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