Dog Behavior Training - What You Need To Know About Dog Training
Training your dog can often be a necessity, and choosing the type of training that fits yours and your dogs needs is absolutely the best way to decide which type of dog training you want to use.
However what are those types of training, and which one best fits you? Well, there are three basic ways to train a dog, positive reinforcement, negative reinforcement, and mixed, which includes both positive and negative methods. These are based from basic psychology and called operant conditioning which is based on ideas from B.F. Skinner who was a prominent figure in Behaviorist psychology. These methods have been used for many years on all sorts of subjects including human beings. However which one you want to use for >training your dog will be up to you.
To start out lets look at the oldest, negative reinforcement or traditional training. Initially this method was adopted and founded during World War One by Colonel Konrad , but become popular when William Koehler made it famous with the publication of the “The Koehler Method of Dog Training” in 1962. But what is negative reinforcement? Well as the name suggests, it uses punishment of a undesired behavior to reinforce the desired behavior. To give a example of this lets talk about teaching a dog to heal using negative reinforcement. For example lets say your dog is having a hard time learning to heal, and he’s straying away from you. With the Koehler method the trainer would stop and turn in the opposite direction the dog is going. Thus making it uncomfortable for the dog, who will turn around seeing only the trainers back, he will return to the trainer’s side. As you can see this method uses punishment as a way for the dog to learn and pretty soon the dog won’t stray away from its owner when on a walk. However this does not mean using punishment for little or no reason, and hitting your dog is out of the question. Of all the this is the most abused method, and many people don’t understand it fully. It’s most effectively used by an experienced trainer. However this is a tried and true method and has worked for thousands of people. I would suggest buying the book and doing more research into it.
Next, we come to positive reinforcement which still is operant conditioning, but didn’t become popular for dog training until the 1990’s. And as the name suggests positive reinforcement is the exact opposite of negative reinforcement. Which means it uses rewards or treats for a desired behavior to reinforce that behavior. An easy example of this would be rewarding the dog with treats when be followed a basic command such as sit, stay, come, or lie down. This method is a very good way to strengthen the bond between owner and dog as well as teaching him new tricks. However there is one thing people need to understand about this method. Positive reinforcement is more useful if you give praise to the dog with the treat. You need the dog to associate praise with reward so using less and less treats with more praise will eventually leave the dog no longer needing treats. Thus being obedient without needing a treat every time. This is also known as classical conditioning which can be used at the same time as operant conditioning especially with positive reinforcement. This method is also the best method for very shy and timid dogs who will thrive on this method. If interested I would suggest reading books on positive reinforcement, such as “The Power of Positive Dog Training” by Pat Miller.
Finally we come to mixed training which uses both positive and negative reinforcement. This is a mixture of both types and can be applied for different situations.This method uses play and praise instead of treats giving greater assurance that the dog will preform without treats. And the use of negative reinforcement as well as positive giving greater reliability from the dog in dangerous situations and also enhancing the relationship between dog and owner. If interested in this method are check out books like “Culture Clash” by Jean Donaldson.
The author is Robert Setters
http://caninetrainingcourses.blogspot.com/
Still not sure which method is best for your dog? Why not check out what other dog lovers use and their sharing expreience.
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