“How can I get my dog to stop…” is perhaps the most common way for people to open questions about their dog when speaking to a dog trainer. While the desire to eliminate unwanted behaviors is understandable, many variables go into setting dogs (or a roommate’s girlfriend) up for training success. For starters, the desire to proactively teach/create must be there – not just a desire to stop the dog from X.
With that, an understanding of the differences between a reward and a punishment is key. Quite simply:
- Rewards encourage or create behaviors
- Punishments discourage or stop behaviors
A reward can be as simple as verbal praise and a punishment can be as diminutive as the word “no.” It should be noted that there truly isn’t any need to hide from the concept of punishment – punishments can be very humane and don’t require force. That said, while both rewards and punishments are important tools for building a strong relationship based on clarity and fairness, the vast majority of training activities with your dog should come from a reward-based system that encourages the right behaviors.
This is, of course, in sharp contrast to old-school dog training methodologies that consistently discourage (punish) unwanted behaviors. Despite being out-dated by decades, the early training methods of Koehler, Woodhouse, and others persist to this day as the mental model for what dog training should be for many dog owners. Fortunately, trainers who have followed the evolution of dog training can (and do) regularly promote the science behind the advancements made with rewards.
The bottom line is that rewards work to create the behaviors (and expectations) most people want with their dog and evidence of their effectiveness in training all mammal species is everywhere. Perhaps the best proof of this effectiveness can be seen in the responses people have to gaming phenomenon such as Pokémon Go. Such games are not only fun, they do an incredible job of utilizing various types of rewards and reward schedules to keep the game interesting, or what some would even call addictive. (In dog training, this is when we say, “the dog is very engaged with its handler.”) By using a mixture of fixed and variable rewards and reward schedules, game makers use the same tools as dog trainers to create desired behaviors.
Creating behaviors in three easy steps:
- Find the reward type (motivator) – likely food, but could also be a toy or just praise
- Create rewarding moments – timing and placement are everything to tie the reward to the desired behavior… be ready for it
- Keep the rewards interesting – with variable rewards of differing values, given in varying intervals and ratios, anticipation is enhanced and boredom is avoided
So what do you want your dog to do?