Sherri

Education

Association - the process of forming mental connections or bonds between sensations, ideas, or memories.

Consequence - something produced by a cause or necessarily following from a set of conditions.

Association Example:

Your dog runs through the kitchen while you are filling the dishwasher. Just as he comes through; a big pot falls from the counter, causing a loud and frightening sound. He goes scurrying out of the kitchen while slipping and sliding during the process. He most definitely got a good scare. Later that evening as you clean up the dinner dishes and put them in the dishwasher, you call your dog. He comes to the kitchen door but won’t come in. You try coaxing him into the kitchen but he’s not budging. His eyes dart around the kitchen in terror and he starts to shake. What the heck is happening?

You finish cleaning up the kitchen, close the dishwasher and turn it on. Again, you call your dog to come and eat his dinner. This time he stops for a split second but then comes in and eats...so what’s going on? Why is he now coming into the kitchen to eat?

An association has been created; dishwasher open, scary things fly off the counter. The message delivered to your dogs brain is that when the dishwasher is open, stay out.

Consequence Example:

Your dog jumps and barks at your front window over and over again. After all, there are people and dogs walking out in front of your house. He feels the need to protect your home so he’s on guard.

The would be home invaders appear at the outer rim of your property, which triggers the process. As they appear in the window he begins his assault and just a few seconds in, they disappear. Ahhh haaa, he did it. Your dog scared the trespassers away and has learned that if he does this each time there are intruders in front of your house, they will disappear, if he scares them enough. Job well done, right?

Well, not really but this is what our dogs often think. As far as they are concerned, they did their job and it worked.

Association and consequence can be very clear but they can actually cause big problems for you if you don’t know that they are coming into play. Accidental association and consequence can be the cause of behavior problems; which can be difficult to figure out without professional assistance.

But because our dogs learn through association and consequence; positive reinforcement can make training and behavior modificication very easy once you understand it all. :)

Teaching your dog

The easiest, fastest and most humane way to teach your dog is with positive reinforcement. Reward the behaviors you like, ignore the stuff you don’t like. Seems a little too easy right? Well, it works. If your dog exhibits a behavior you don’t like; try to imagine a behavior that would replace this unwanted behavior. Your dog cannot do two things at one time so if you reward the good stuff; your dog will offer the rewarded desirable behaviors, and the ignored ones will slowly be extinguished.

For example: Your dog loves to jump on you when you get home. Instead of pushing them off, yelling at them or even worse, kneeing them in the chest; try rewarding the split second that their feet hit the floor. The “four on the floor” rule is a great one to start with. Every dog who jumps, has their feet on the floor at some point. Drop treats when they have four feet on the floor. Continue to drop treats if they keep their feet on the floor. They can get excited but they only get treats when their feet are on the floor. Before you know it they will be standing there with four feet on the floor waiting for their reward. Ta Da!

Positive reinforcement works by rewarding behaviors that we want from our dog. Once they learn the behavior reliably and have been trained in many different situations and degrees of difficulty; then we can start to wean off of food rewards and replace that with verbal praise.

Training

The old method of training dogs was the use of aversive tools and methods. Prong, choke and slip collars were the tools used and yanking on the dog’s neck was the method. There are still many aversive, conventional yank and choke trainers around sadly; but, positive reinforcement is slowly taking over. When you punish a dog using a leash or collar correction; you only tell your dog to stop doing what they are doing. You are also inflicting pain onto your dog which is something I’m sure you do not want to do. They don’t learn what you want; they learn to avoid the punishment.

Positive reinforcement training works to educate your dog humanely. Not only is it a far more gentle method of training but it is actually fun. Training should be fun and if you or your dog aren’t having fun, quit. But just quit until you find out how to have fun while training. Teach your dog some tricks, that is a lot of fun for the humans and your dog doesn’t know the difference between a trick and regular obedience. The more you teach your dog the more you will be able to teach them. Your dog will actually be learning how to learn which is very an amazing process. Once you get a few behaviors under your belt, you’ll want to keep learning about PR training so that you can teach it all to your dog.

This is what builds a relationship and trust. So make sure it’s fun. No one should be getting yanked around in the process. When you are looking for a trainer, make sure that they are not using any aversive tools in their training. If they are and try to convince you that you have to use their equipment and method; turn around and leave for the sake of your dog. You now know that you do not have to use a choke, prong or slip lead to train your dog. And just so you kow, you can train your own dog. It is the best way to really understand each other and build a solid connection to move into the future with.