As I watched Brody, I couldn’t believe how well trained he was for such a young puppy. Then I remembered a dog show I attended where a trainer spoke of positive reinforcement training for puppies. The trainer shared how important it is to be consistent when training a puppy. She emphasized the importance of consistency and that part of training is that the dog be needs to be able to predict the consequences for their behaviors, so it’s imperative that the owner establish consistent rewards for desired actions. A dog should never be rewarded for a behavior that isn’t desired and remember, that giving attention does serve as a reward. I remember thinking that I was going to have to be more conscious about what I was doing so that I didn’t encourage behavior I considered negative.
As I was listening to her explain how she taught her dog to do some mind-blowing tricks, I was struck by the patience that is required to work with a dog. She said that you can shape a dog’s behavior in just a few days and it is the owner’s responsibility to pay attention to their dog’s behaviors and then encourage the ones they would like to continue. For example, if I want my dog to shake, I have to praise and reward him for just moving his paw. That will encourage him to lift his paw and that will encourage him to put his paw in my hand and ultimately to “shake”. I’ll be watching Brody again as he performs his magical little tricks, he is just irresistible.
What is the next trick you are going to teach your dog?
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