Posts Tagged ‘styles of training’
Try Another Way of Training Your Dog
As in all areas of educating, there are different methods of doing things, and different beliefs about what is right and wrong. Religion is at the top of this list. The next thing that occurs is that parents can train their children in more than one way. To hit or not to hit, that is the question. How to train your dog might run a close third with questions like Pinch collar, or Choke Chain or none of the above?
There are 3 ways of reinforcing a dog’s behavior in order to get what you want.
1. Positive reinforcement is a reward that encourages a response. Your dog will likely repeat his good behavior if you reward him more than once for that postiive behavior.
2. Negative reinforcement means that something is taken away in order to encourage a response. A dog learns that it is better to not get shocked and will repeat the behavior that gets that result. After behaving there is no shock, hence he learns to behave to avoid the shock. When you left early for work one day and suddenly the traffic was diminished you valued what was missing for your action, hence you repeat the action of leaving early for that result. More and more times the traffic is less and less which makes you want to leave the house early. Traffic is taken away.
3. Punishment is an unpleasant thing that is added to the situation. This is different from “Negative Reinforcement”. When your dog acts aggressive to you or another dog you might hit him. Parents might get loud and in a child’s face when that child is not behaving well. Punishment only encourages fear which will give you the desired response.
Eventually they all work. Your dog will follow you when you yank on his leash. The dog will come when you give it a reward for coming. Also, dogs will chase after running people.
Rough or noisy behaviors coming from you can result in the response you wanted when the dog was misbehaving. Or, he knows that if he is good he will get from you that wonderful treat.
Does this mean what it sounds like? Would you rather your dog respond to you out of love or out of fear? You choose.
By
Dr. Marika Zoll
DrDogTalk.com