This picture of Fern though not great quality, captured her intense concentration whilst I was doing some positive reinforcement training with her.
She knew that success in doing what she was supposed to was going to result in a reward which, in this particular instance was going to be a tasty treat. She wasn’t going to miss out on that as far as she was concerned!
Just like us dogs respond well to positive reinforcement. Who doesn’t like being rewarded with something nice when we do the right thing!
In principal Positive Reinforcement Training of dogs is a fairly straightforward method that delivers results. Like all things there are however things you need to be aware of and be doing to get the best results.
What Commands Will You Use? –
Decide in advance what commands your dog is going to be trained to.
These need to be single word or at most two words such as ‘Leave It’ – don’t go using lots of words as your poor dog won’t have a clue what’s going on!
Command Consistency –
If you dog is part of a family i.e. not just yourself then make sure everyone knows what commands your dog is going to be trained for.
A really bright dog might cope with some different commands from different family members for the same thing but why make life difficult for your four legged friend!
General Consistency –
Never reward the wrong behaviour or response. If you do then your just creating problems for yourself and your dog!
Always reward the desired behaviour or response.
Be calm in yourself and keep your voice calm. Don’t get frustrated and angry when things aren’t going to plan as, your dog will sense this and get confused. Better to stop the training session and pick it up again later after you and your dog have let off steam.
Reward Timing –
It’s really important you don’t delay rewarding the desired response or behaviour. If you do then you could find your dog doesn’t build the association between command and reward.
Delaying the reward can also create problems where your dog associates the reward with a secondary event. For example if your training your dog to sit and your dog sits give them the reward before they do something else like stand back up again or lay down. If you don’t then they’ll associate the reward with the additional action not the commanded action.
The Shaping Technique –
The required result from a simple command can in some cases be quite a complex issue for a dog.
Say you want your dog to go from standing to lying on their back when given the command ‘Roll’ you’re going to have to get them there in stages because for your dog there are a number of stages in the process of going from standing to lying flat on the back. First they may need to sit then, lay down and finally roll on to their back.
‘Shaping’ would involve rewarding interim stages such as laying down, then laying on their side before finally getting to rolling on to their back.
What About The Rewards? –
If you want to keep your dog at its proper weight then the rewards you give can’t always be tasty treats!
When you first start ‘positive reinforcement training‘ then giving treats is fine but I would suggest only 75% of the time. The rest of the time use another reward such as a fuss or game or a play with a toy basically anything other than a tasty treat that your dog enjoys.
When giving the reward always be happy and vocal as well with what ever words of praise you use such as ‘good boy/girl’.
Dogs can be pretty cute and if you don’t mix things up a bit. They would soon suss out that if they only get the tasty treat the first couple of times they do good then next time you give the command they might not bother doing what’s required. Keep them guessing!
Hopefully this has given you the basic ideas around ‘positive reinforcement training’. Have a go and stick with it as, it is in my opinion, the best method of training your dog.
Don’t forget you can always get professional dog training help if you are struggling or not confident to go it alone.
