Dog Puppy Behavior Training Help

Positive Reinforcement & Dog Training: Identify and Manage the Reinforcers!

Reinforcers include anything your dog currently desires. Food is a primary reinforcer. Attention, touch, toys, opportunities to interact, playtime, training sessions, opportunities to receive adrenaline and many other objects, events or actions can be reinforcers. The bottom line is: if the animal wants it and you can control it, it can be used as a reinforcer. Rewards can be added or subtracted....

Tips for Making Your Dog’s Behaviors Reliable

Here are some ideas on how to get your dog to perform anytime, every time! Loose Training – Practice the behaviors in many different areas, while adding distractions Discriminative Stimulus – only reward for learned behavior when signal or cue is given Intermittent Schedule of Reinforcement – use intermittent schedules Generalized Conditioned Reinforcers – vary the rewards Food Treats...

Methods to “Get” your Dog to Perform a Behavior

Before you can use positive reinforcement to reward your dog (Food treat, Attention, Touch), you’ll need to get the dog to perform some version of the behavior. There are many methods to get behavior. Here are some dog-friendly methods. Capture – good for simple behaviors that are naturally offered, like sit. Just wait until it is occurring and then reinforce the behavior. Capturing requires...

Schedules of Reinforcement

Schedules of reinforcement are consequence sequences or rates for teaching and maintaining behaviors. Different schedules are used at different stages of teaching and maintaining behaviors. There are three schedules of reinforcement. Extinction Continuous Intermittent Extinction – when a previously available reinforcer is withheld or no longer available Some trainers suggest extinction to...

Part 1: Teach your Dog to Walk on Human, Motorized Treadmill

With the popularity of Caesar Milan’s TV show, The Dog Whisperer, occasionally a client will ask me to teach their dogs to walk on a treadmill. Caesar promotes treadmill workouts as a good way to exercise dogs, and they are! You can buy a non motorized, or motorized treadmill, made for dogs. Or you could use your human motorized treadmill. Many of us already have a motorized treadmill, but our treadmills...

You Should Not Stop a Dog from Jumping Up on Counter

Forget about stopping naughty behaviors.:) Instead, spend a little time with your dog and teach him a behavior that is incompatible with jumping up on counters such as to Go-To-Place. If you focus on stopping behaviors, you are destined to make a full-time hobby out of training. For example- If you focus on stopping a dog from jumping on the counter and succeed, you really haven’t taught the dog...

Dog Training & The ABCs of Instrumental Conditioning

There are three distinct pieces to a voluntary behavior, called the ABCs. The “B” represents the behavior. “A” is for Antecedent, which is anything present in the environment before a specific behavior. The A precedes the behavior. “C” is for Consequence, which is the immediate result of the behavior. Here’s an example of the ABCs of a voluntary behavior....

Help! My Dog Races Through Open Doors!

Why wouldn’t a dog bolt through an open door? Because you teach him not to, that’s why! Does your dog race through open doors and gates? Most people either pick up their dogs or hold the dog’s collar to prevent door bolting behaviors. Both of these actions “pay” the dog for trying to run through the door. The ultimate pay is the chase and adventure of escape. Every time your dog...

Want to Teach Your 10 Week Old Puppy to Sit? Forget About it. :) It’s Too late. . .

Did you want to teach your 10 week old puppy to sit? Forget about it. It’s too late. That turbo charged puppy already knows how to perform every basic obedience command! Your dog knows how to sit and lie down. He can stay.  Your pup knows how to walk towards you. Your puppy knows how to run to you. Your puppy dog can walk the same speed as you. That fellow knows how to dig, or “not dig”....

Untrained Dog Misbehaving? Attach a Leash. You are a Zookeeper.

If you have a new puppy or dog, you need to manage the environment so your puppy does not practice rude behaviors. Use baby gates, crates, leashes, tethers to control your pup’s access to territory. Many people overlook the most basic tool for controlling a dog inside the house, the leash. It’s a neat device that has a coupler on one end that attaches to your dog’s collar. Several...

Puppy or Dog Obedience Training First Steps – Condition a Marker, Capture Sit, Teach “Look”

Want to start an obedience program for your puppy or dog? You can start as soon as you bring your dog into your family. The first two commands all dogs should learn are “Look”, and “Sit”. Before you begin teaching, it’s helpful to learn a bit about rewards and reward systems. Please visit the START HERE category of posts before you begin. Conditioning a Reward Marker The...

Does Your White Lab Get Too Excited To Obey When People Visit? Practice With Distractions!

Many of my clients report that their dogs jump up on visitors and pretty much ignore them whenever the dogs are excited. The people often say their dog is stubborn. This is an indication that the people have not practiced basic obedience commands with distractions. Practicing with distractions is called proofing. You should proof your dog with all commands in various locations, with various distractions....