Thursday Tip: Ten Reasons Why You Should Always Use Reward Based Training and Behaviour Modification More and more dog owners decide to train their dogs using positive, motivational training methods, without resorting to intimidation or physical punishment such as smacking or using training tools that cause dogs a lot of pain. But there are still owners and dog training professionals who will want you to believe that forcing your dog to do something is the way to go. Here is why positive training and behaviour modification is the way to go….. 1. Reward based training uses a scientific approach based on what we currently know about the learning theory – that means that when you train your dog using food, praise or toy play as a reward, you will know that it works because the same has been recreated in thousands of laboratories and in field trials, in stringent scientific conditions, and we know that rewarding a behaviour makes an animal repeat it to get the reward again. In other words, positive training is based on facts. 2. By using food, toy play or whatever your dog fancies, you are making training fun. We all like having fun, and so do our dogs. If you ensure your training sessions are fun for your dog, he will be looking forward to them rather than dreading them. 3. To make your rewards worthwhile for your dog, you need to really get to know him and find out what makes him tick. Is it chasing a tennis ball, or maybe hot dog sausage is the winner? By really looking into what your dog likes or doesn’t like you will get to know him better, which will improve your bond and make you better partners and friends. 4. If you use rewards to train your dog rather than push and pull and yank techniques, your dog is going to like you – as simple as that. You are going to be associated with nice things rather than nasty things. If your dog likes you, he will be more willing to work for you, because he will know he doesn’t have to do it, nothing happens if he doesn’t (apart from not getting the reward) and you won’t get angry and scary if he doesn’t do what you want from him. 5. Reward based training creates dogs that are willing to try new behaviours and are not afraid to experiment in order to get their reward, while dogs trained with punishment often end up shut down and unwilling to cooperate for fear of being punished or reprimanded. 6. If you get your reward based training wrong, and for example reward too soon or too late, nothing happens – your dog won’t learn much and will get lots of free sausage, but that’s where your side effects of positive training gone wrong end. If you get your punishment wrong, your dog will receive random painful experiences that he won’t understand, he will learn absolutely nothing, but will also start associating you (or somebody/something present when the punishment was applied) with pain. This can lead to your relationship deteriorating or in some cases your dog becoming aggressive towards you/other people/other dogs etc. in an effort to defend himself. 7. Dogs eventually get used to treats and stop responding to them, some people say. And it’s true if you use the same reward over and over again, but all you have to do is vary your treats (there are virtually endless options of what you can use as a food reward) or introduce toy play (and there are plenty of toys out there to try). Dogs get used to punishment as well – so a prong collar might work initially but it will stop with time and you have to intensify your punishment in order to get a result. At some point, it is no longer punishment – it becomes abuse. 8. Using punishment to address behaviour problems is a very dangerous route as a lot of inappropriate behaviours stem from fear and anxiety, even if a dog is aggressing and threatening to bite (which might look like confident behaviour). A kind approach, using food to change the emotional response to the trigger that is making the dog uncomfortable, might take a long time to work, but will ensure long lasting effects and will reduce, and not increase, stress in an animal that is already experiencing some emotional trauma. On the other hand a confrontational approach towards a dog that is aggressing will most often than not lead to the dog escalating his aggression and the situation spilling out of control. Suppressing a behaviour by using fear and intimidation is NOT the same as actually addressing the problem itself. Remember that aggression creates aggression. 9. Reward based training is not the same as permissive training. Just because you don’t shout at your dog or smack him when he does something you don’t like, doesn’t mean that you have to let him do whatever he wants to do. If you don’t like your dog’s behaviour, think what you would like instead -and reward your dog for doing just that. So if you don’t like your dog to sleep on the sofa, teach him to get off and reward him for sleeping on his bed. 10. Dogs trained or rehabilitated using reward based methods are simply much happier than those that received punishment or are told off regularly. Reward based training makes it easier for dogs to understand what we want from them, and it makes us think a bit more about what and how our dogs think, too. Positive training and behaviour modification creates relationships, while punishment destroys them. So before reprimanding or yanking your dog’s lead next time, think twice. Is a relationship based on fear and intimidation really the one you want for you and you canine pal? Written by the team at Pets in Practise - where positivity works! - petsinpractise.co.uk
Posted on: Thu, 07 Aug 2014 15:53:53 +0000
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