Dog Psychology And Training, The Basics
Obedience commands
Daina Beckman
It’s what the dog thinks that matters.
I could go into a lot of discussion and facts about the human mind and thinking but that is not the purpose of this article. Suffice it to say that as humans we make a lot of assumptions that are not based on realistic facts. It is our nature. We believe what we are told by unreliable sources all the time. How many times have you believed something you heard or read in an advertisement only to be disappointed?
Unfortunately we make the same mistakes with dog training. We listen to all kinds of unreliable unscientific information about dog training.
Dogs do not think like we do. In order to be successful AND have a really happy dog you need to understand things from the dogs point of view. We are very good at making excuses and justifications for the way and whys of how we do things. Your dog will not understand your justifications. Inconsistency in training will lead to your dog being confused. He will think you are crazy or an immature puppy, or unreliable and untrustworthy.
1. Use positive reinforcement. Punishment does not work. You have heard about praise and reward. But how do you use it to be effective. Consistency. Every single time your dog is being good praise him. People are way to stingy with praise. Half hearted occasional praise will not get the results you want. If you are telling your dog “no” more than you are praising him, you are confusing him.
Lets use driving as an example. Every day when you are going to work, the same police officer pulls you over and gives you a ticket. He does not tell you what the ticket is for, he just punishes you. In every situation you are trying to figure out the common factor. What is making him give you a ticked, what is it that he wants you TO DO? It would take a really long time for you to figure that out because you can not find the consistency.
If every day that same officer stopped you and said Thanks for driving the speed limit here is $10.00 or thanks for coming to a full stop at the stop sign here is $10.00, or thanks for using your turn signal here is $10.00; you would know for sure what you are supposed do. You would repeat those behaviors because you may get $10.00 and a pat on the back.
2. The praise & Treat must be on time. The praise you give for a behavior must be given while the dog is doing the behavior. Three seconds later is too late. Lets use the traffic example again. You have approached a red light and turned your signal on at the appropriate distance before the red light. You came to a full stop. Check traffic then turned right. Now you are driving very slow, 10 miles an hour surfing a string of garage sales. The police officer stops you and gives you $10.00 and says great job, really good driving. You would think he is rewarding you for going slow through a neighborhood with a bunch of garage sales. In fact he was rewarding you for turning you signal on ahead of time.
3. CONSITANCY, CONSISTANCY, CONSITANCY. We hear that all the time but the truth is we are really not very good at it because it is boring. Dogs love it. Rules are black and white with dogs. They either can with 100% freedom or they can’t. For example they can either get on the couch when ever they feel like or they are not allowed on the couch at all. When training puppies, they can either use their teeth on you as they see fit or they can’t use their teeth at all, not even a slight bump. This requires a lot of patients and determination on our part. Remember you can not change the way a canine mind is structured. If you allow a dog to use his teeth during play, even gently mouthing he will assume he can use his teeth on humans how ever he wants to. So in 2 years when he is pushed over the limit he will not view it as a crime or as a bad thing to bite. You taught him it was ok.
4. Control yourself and don’t react. Pack Leaders Lead and Subordinates React. When canines are born they are programmed to react to their mother. The mother does not react to them. When humans are born it is the mother who must react to the baby or the baby will not survive. Canines view pack member who are reacting to them as puppies or subordinates. You must control your excitement both positive and negative. If your dog pees on the floor happily call him to go out side and praise him for doing what you ask. If your dog jumps up on you and you get excited and touch him or yell at him, you have reacted. If your dog paws at you and you look at him or touch him you have reacted. You will never become a reliable, trustworthy pack leader if you continually react to your dog. He should be reacting to you. This will happen as you consistently ignore him, and then praise him for wanted behavior