A lot of people ask me how to train dogs or how do we have dogs that behave so well. A lot of it has to do with consistency. We all have the same basic expectations of the dogs and what we expect the dogs to do in terms of behavior and tasks across all of the trainers. A lot of it also has to do with the fact that we use reward based training. This means that we carry treats, tug ropes, and other things that are rewarding to our dogs and then when the dogs do something that we want, we reinforce that behavior with a reward.
Psychology and reinforcement schedules are kind of a sticky, hard subject to explain to people because punishment and reinforcement are inherently have different connotations. However, not all reinforcement is good and not all punishment is bad. All of the training/learning schedules are effective when it is done correctly and humanely. In the case of positive punishment and negative reinforcement, it is extremely hard to do because it has to be done every single time and EXACTLY when the problem behavior is done and the level to which it is applied has to be the right amount for the behavior given. Because of this I personally do not use these methods when training any dogs - I look for ways to create a bond and relationship with the dog and since I wouldn't want to be friends or listen to someone who is constantly telling me what NOT to do to please them instead of what TO do to please them, I wouldn't expect the same thing from my dog. Instead, I more often use positive reinforcement and negative punishment. In essence, this means that I ignore the behavior I don't want (for example, the dog jumping all over me) (this is the negative punishment) and reinfore/reward the behavior I do want (for example, sitting on the floor or even just having all four paws on the floor)(positive reinforcement). This way of training is way more effective when done consistently, but it still tends to stay with the dog longer. It also makes training of new behaviors easier because they are more willing to learn because learning is fun to them. If you think about it would you rather learn calculus if every time that you got a problem right you got a cookie or every time you messed up you got choked? Personally, I would rather take the cookie and if I got a cookie, I would be more willing to continue on in math. I got this thought from a lovely article that Linda had us read about how to get the behavior that we want from our dogs. I also got a lot of my ideas about creating a relationship with the dogs from the book that I am currently reading that I have really enjoyed so far. Suzanne Clothier has really opened my eyes to the idea that every dog is different because of the fact that the relationship is different between each dog and human, just like our relationships differ depending on the people we interact with.
0 Comments
Your comment will be posted after it is approved.
Leave a Reply. |
Archives
June 2020
|