THE REFINED CANINE, LLC

Celebrating TEN Years  1997 - 2007

BASIC PRINCIPLES OF POSITIVE TRAINING

Positive Training relies on positive reinforcement to elicit desired behavior.  The dog must think.  The dog must learn.  The dog must make the right decision.  He must choose to offer the correct behavior in order to earn privileges, food or acceptance.  We must make it to his benefit to offer desirable behaviors, and not to his benefit to offer inappropriate behaviors.  Being a positive trainer is not the same as being a permissive trainer.  The dog does not get to do whatever he wants to.  He must demonstrate acceptable behavior in order to get his reward.  In time, the dog will want to perform the correct behaviors.

Good management is key to being a proactive trainer.  This means setting up for success, manipulating the environment so the dog cannot make errors.  This means using dog crates, baby gates, puppy-proofing your house, allowing for plenty of exercise, putting away garbage, keeping food off the counters, providing stimulating toys, using gentle leadership techniques, socializing and, of course training.  Proper management techniques will result in an adult dog that is well mannered, confident and trustworthy.

As trainers, there are several constants we must keep in mind.  We must be clear in giving our cues, which in most cases will be words.  When telling your dog what you want him to do, you must remember the words are not important to him; body posture and eye contact are what he’s paying attention to.  This is why he’ll learn a behavior long before he associates it with the appropriate word.  Timing is also very important.  The delivery of positive reinforcement must come as close to the desired behavior as possible for your dog to learn which behavior leads to reward.  You must move very SLOWLY to increase the time the dog must continue the behavior without reinforcement, moving too quickly will create confusion and is not fair training.  Finally, it is important to set goals; know ahead of time what behaviors specifically you want to reward and what not to reinforce.  Remember any mistake is yours, not his. Cement your foundation!

Put any behavior you want to teach into the following sequence:  1. Establish a goal, make a plan, set up for success.  2. Prevent or ignore unwanted behavior.  3. Get the behavior first.  4. Associate the word with the behavior.  5. Shift context early (place, direction, wean prompts).  6. Plan small steps to achieve the final behavior.  7. Raise criteria, raise reward.  8. Vary reinforcers and schedule of delivery.  9. Back up when necessary, cement foundation, work on the dog’s agenda.

The list of reinforcers is limitless.  The more reinforcers you have, the more opportunities you have to reward your dog.  Be creative, make your own list - figure out what motivates your dog and use it in training.  Some reinforcers include: food, water, social interaction (with people or other dogs), exercise, toys, praise, petting, games, attention, body posture, freedom…

ADVANTAGES OF POSITIVE TRAINING

1.        Positive training produces dogs who know what’s expected of them and who want to be right.

2.        It produces dogs who are happy and eager to learn.

3.        It produces willing dogs who are full of joy in their work.

4.        It creates confident dogs, with a friendly, outgoing attitude because they never associate their owners or the environment with fear.

5.        It creates fair trainers.  The dog learns to obey out of respect and trust, not fear. 

6.        Dog & Trainer truly become a team.

7.        Positive training techniques can be used for companion dogs through competition dogs.

8.        It is simple and fun to use.

9.        The dog becomes a member of the family, and all family members can train the dog.

10.     It creates a guilt-free mindset which carries over into family & work life too.

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