Were you ever amazed by how good dog trainers easily solve the most
difficult problems we all have with dogs? Problems like excessive
barking, destructive chewing, using the whole house as their toilet, or
jumping on visitors are not hard to solve problems for good dog
trainers. They always seem to have some training method to overcome the
problem in a short time.
What the successful dog trainers understand and most general people dont, is a scientific understanding of how dogs and other animals learn.
Based on behavioral psychology, dating back to Dr. Skinners researches, they can understand and predict a dogs behavior, and they can apply effective strategies to train a dog for desired behavior.
The key to behavioral psychology is the concept of Operant Conditioning. For an easier to understand term, we could say training by consequences. That means, when a dog behavior has some consequence (your reaction to dogs behavior), it either reinforces, or discourages the behavior.
In behavioral psychology, the reaction is divided into 5 categories, 4 for every possible reaction, and one for no reaction.
#1: Positive Reinforcement: When the dogs behavior is the desired behavior, and we reward him with something the dog likes, thats positive reinforcement. Like when we ask the dog to sit, and he sits, and we tell him good boy and pet his head.
#2: Negative Reinforcement: The dog behaves good, and we remove something that disturbs him, that is called negative reinforcement. If you pull his collar while asking him to sit, and he sits, you release the collar. Dog is more likely to sit when asked next time.
#3: Positive Punishment: When dog does something bad, and you punish him, and he stops, that is positive punishment. For example, he enters the kitchen, looks for food in benches, and you shout, so he exits the kitchen. The dog is less likely to enter the kitchen for food in the future.
#4: Negative Punishment: When the dog does something wrong, and you take away something that he likes, that is called negative punishment. For example, the dog plays a little too harshly with another smaller dog in the park, and you pull his leash strongly and take him away from the other dog, you are removing his chance to play. Therefore he learns not to play too harshly next time.
#5. Extinction: When the dog something wrong, and you totally ignore it, and eventually, the dog stops doing it, thats called extinction. For example, if your dog is used to being allowed outside when he whines at the door, but you are now neglecting him now, and he whines and whines and then stops. Sometimes it gets worse before totally stopping, like whining really hard, before totally stopping the behavior. Thats called extinction burst and it is the last ditch effort for him to get the desired action from you.
Using different conditioning methods effectively, is the key to effectively train your dog.
Also notice you can get rid of many problems, by not training your dog, but by changing the environment.
For example, your dog goes through your rubbish bin, and you yell and he stops. Does that mean that he learned effectively not to go through your rubbish anymore? Not necessarily. He might go through your rubbish while you are away, for example. Maybe its better to change your rubbish bin to a more secure one that he cannot open, or putting the rubbish bin to a place he cannot access is a better solution. It might also be easier than training your dog.
What the successful dog trainers understand and most general people dont, is a scientific understanding of how dogs and other animals learn.
Based on behavioral psychology, dating back to Dr. Skinners researches, they can understand and predict a dogs behavior, and they can apply effective strategies to train a dog for desired behavior.
The key to behavioral psychology is the concept of Operant Conditioning. For an easier to understand term, we could say training by consequences. That means, when a dog behavior has some consequence (your reaction to dogs behavior), it either reinforces, or discourages the behavior.
In behavioral psychology, the reaction is divided into 5 categories, 4 for every possible reaction, and one for no reaction.
#1: Positive Reinforcement: When the dogs behavior is the desired behavior, and we reward him with something the dog likes, thats positive reinforcement. Like when we ask the dog to sit, and he sits, and we tell him good boy and pet his head.
#2: Negative Reinforcement: The dog behaves good, and we remove something that disturbs him, that is called negative reinforcement. If you pull his collar while asking him to sit, and he sits, you release the collar. Dog is more likely to sit when asked next time.
#3: Positive Punishment: When dog does something bad, and you punish him, and he stops, that is positive punishment. For example, he enters the kitchen, looks for food in benches, and you shout, so he exits the kitchen. The dog is less likely to enter the kitchen for food in the future.
#4: Negative Punishment: When the dog does something wrong, and you take away something that he likes, that is called negative punishment. For example, the dog plays a little too harshly with another smaller dog in the park, and you pull his leash strongly and take him away from the other dog, you are removing his chance to play. Therefore he learns not to play too harshly next time.
#5. Extinction: When the dog something wrong, and you totally ignore it, and eventually, the dog stops doing it, thats called extinction. For example, if your dog is used to being allowed outside when he whines at the door, but you are now neglecting him now, and he whines and whines and then stops. Sometimes it gets worse before totally stopping, like whining really hard, before totally stopping the behavior. Thats called extinction burst and it is the last ditch effort for him to get the desired action from you.
Using different conditioning methods effectively, is the key to effectively train your dog.
Also notice you can get rid of many problems, by not training your dog, but by changing the environment.
For example, your dog goes through your rubbish bin, and you yell and he stops. Does that mean that he learned effectively not to go through your rubbish anymore? Not necessarily. He might go through your rubbish while you are away, for example. Maybe its better to change your rubbish bin to a more secure one that he cannot open, or putting the rubbish bin to a place he cannot access is a better solution. It might also be easier than training your dog.