3 Things to understand before beginning dog training
Before you begin to train a pup we here at BestDealsforPets.com think it's important to understand how your dog thinks, and why he does what he does!
Here are some basic things we have learned.
Three consequences of behavior
Every time your dog does anything at all the outcome can be placed in one of three categories
- Things get better for him
- Things get worse for him
- Nothing changes
Dogs repeat actions that are rewarded
If the immediate consequence was a pleasant one, that is sufficient to ‘reinforce’ the dog’s behavior so that it will be more likely to occur again in the future.
Sambina the beagle has learned to bark for her dinner in just the same way. She barks while dinner is being prepared, and immediately after barking, her dinner is placed on the floor for her.
Rewards can build bad habits as well as good ones
You can see how bad habits can easily be formed with this kind of reinforcement, even though it is not in any way deliberate on the part of the owner.
Reinforcement in behavioral terms is anything, deliberate or accidental, which increases the chances that the dog’s behavior will be repeated in the future.
Reinforcement is very powerful and we use it constantly in modern dog training. We deliberately reward behaviors we like. Reinforcement is your friend – provided that you control it.
When things get worse for your dog
If the leaf your dog sniffed was providing a temporary shelter for a wasp, and your dog receives a sting on his nose, things just got worse for him.
If you smacked him on the nose for sniffing the leaf, the effect is the same.
Punishment diminishes behavior
Sniffing the leaf was effectively ‘punished’. He may not sniff in that place again for some time, he may even stop sniffing leaves at all for a while.
The immediate consequence of his behavior was an unpleasant one and that is sufficient to diminish the chances of him repeating that particular behavior.
Punishment has unwanted side effects
Scientists call this punishment. And the modern trend is to use less and less punishment in dog training.
This is because there are serious problems associated with using punishment, and because most people nowadays prefer not to punish their friends.
Punishment in behavioral terms is anything, deliberate or accidental, which decreases the chances that the dog’s past behavior will be repeated in the future.
Punishment does not have to be something you purposefully do to a dog. It can be something that happens to him by accident.
Punishment is defined by its effect on the dog
And it doesn’t necessarily have to be something painful or cruel. It can be anything that the dog doesn’t like and will work to avoid.
Problems with punishment
Punishment can affect anything associated with the event, especially if it is traumatic enough.
It can even be associated with a person – and if you are the one dishing out punishment, it can affect the way your dog feels about you.
This is one of the reasons many serious trainers now avoid using it.
When nothing changes for your dog
Scientists have discovered that behavior that does not have any consequence, that changes nothing, has the same effect as punishment.
Dogs work for benefits!
In other words behavior that changes nothing, is less likely to be repeated in the future. This is a very useful piece of information for anyone wanting to train their dog.
How dogs learn – working for benefits
In wild animals, energy is precious. When food runs out, energy rapidly follows. Everything the animal does has an energy cost and only activities which benefit the animal should be repeated if the animal is to survive.
Let’s look at our consequences again
- Things get better = benefit
- Things get worse = no benefit
- Nothing changes = no benefit
As you can see, both of the last two outcomes lack benefit, and this is why animals don’t repeat behaviors that have not changed anything.
This mechanism of learning has been widely studied and demonstrated in many species of animal, including people, and of course dogs.
Repetition creates good habits in puppies
Repetition is essential. It’s how puppies learn, through frequent repeated application of reinforcements – by which we usually mean REWARDS!
Practice and be generous to your puppy
This is why we need to train regularly and repetitively in order to ‘fix’ new behaviors in our Pups!
Thank you so much for taking the time to read our information.
Find online pet training supplies at BestDealsforPets.com
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