Most peoples experiences of dog training emanate from programmes on TV, but there are very conflicting methods of training your dog. Cesar Milan (the Dog Whisperer) punishes bad behaviour whereas Victoria Stilwell (It's Me or the Dog) rewards good behaviour.
Pick up a book and the training methods inside will most likely use positive or negative reinforcement and many books won`t actually state that they use that particular technique. But which is best?
Here’s a quick bit of background on each dog training method
Positive reinforcement is about rewarding your dog when he or she does something right. The reward depends on your dog, one of my dogs is food obsessed so I would use a little treat, whereas my other dog is all about affection so a big fuss would be his choice of reward. In my experience positive reinforcement can sometimes take a while to achieve as you inevitably have to wait for the dog to perform the good action. To aid in this you can set the dog up for the good behaviour (whilst still allowing for a little bad so the dog can distinguish between the two). For example if you are teaching your dog not to pull on a lead when they see another dog, gain their attention as you walk past so your dog is focussed on you and not the other dog.
When the dog isn`t doing what you want them to do, do not punish them but instead reset the situation and start again. This stops the dog from performing the bad behaviour and after a while may frustrate the dog to the point of submission.
The dog learns that good behaviour brings a reward and eventually you can repeat the action and the dog will perform every time. Positive reinforcement can really show how smart (or not haha) your dog can be. Some dogs can pick things up in around 10 minutes whereas others may take over an hour for each action. Not all actions will take the same amount of time either, I trained Molly my German Shepherd/Collie cross to sit and stay which took around 15 minutes, but teaching her not to pull on her lead took 3 hours. I didn`t even make it to the end of my road as each time she pulled we would stop and walk the other way. She knew which way the field was so knew where she wanted to go. Eventually she walked alongside me to the fields, but my neighbours must have thought I was a real nutter walking my dog up and down the same stretch of pavement.
After a while the good behaviour becomes the norm so you can gradually ween the dogs off the reward, although you will need to reaffirm the training periodically just to make sure bad habits don`t creep back in.
This form of dog training focuses on the opposite, instead of rewarding good behaviour, the handler punishes (corrects as many negative reinforcement trainers describe it) bad behaviour. Taking my example from above, instead of rewarding your dog for not pulling towards another dog, the trainer would tug the lead back toward them, or jab the dogs hind leg as a form of correction. The dog associates this behaviour with something bad happening to them and eventually stops the behaviour.
Negative reinforcement needs to be administered very carefully, their is a difference between negative reinforcement and dog abuse. I saw a guy on the fields just the other week (which was most likely my subconscious reason for this post) who was using negative reinforcement to train his dog to stay. When the dog walked to him he picked the dog (black Labrador) by the scruff of his neck and threw him backwards. Needless to say, this is not right. Negative reinforcement of this manner is abuse and several studies has shown this to have a long term negative impact on the dog mentally.
This post thus far may have alluded to my thoughts on the matter, I would prefer my dogs to perform an action because they are happy to do so, instead of being in fear of what will happen to them. I have used positive reinforcement on my dogs and they are very happy stable dogs.
BUT, I am not saying the negative reinforcement should be avoided, in-fact it will be very difficult to train without using some negative reinforcement even in a small way. When I taught Molly to walk on lead, each time she pulled I stopped and turned around. That is a negative action for her because she wanted to walk straight on towards the fields. Negative reinforcement is essential in stubborn dogs, but how you go about administering the negative reinforcement is crucial. To get your point across you don`t need to resort to physical abuse like the idiot ‘training’ his Labrador, a quick ‘AH’ in a stern voice may be enough.
Some dogs are pobviously more stubborn than others and your method of training will need to be different depending on the circumstances i.e. with aggressive dogs that may cause harm to other dogs or people.
Also remember that neither training methods happen overnight, TV programmes are heavily edited. Cesar Milan or Victoria Stilwell may appear to train dogs in 30 minutes but in reality each program takes several weeks. Recent episodes of It’s Me or the Dog actually now state that Victoria returns two weeks later…
Training should be fun for you and your dog and will create a bond between you. Your dog will love the one on one time especially if treats or lots of fuss is involved. And remember to be consistent in your training, dogs will quickly catch on to what is good and bad and will want to please you so always aim for good behaviour. If you have a dog that barks when someone comes to the door, if you see someone approaching from outside calm your dog beforehand and gain their focus for when the visitor knocks.
How do you train your own dogs or are you about to embark on a training program of your own? Let us know how you get on using the comments below.
[…] it right or missed things, I'm sure others will chime in! Here's a link to help get an idea: Dog training techniques Positive vs negative reinforcement __________________ You wants ta […]
I like the other UK trainer get usually paid by the hour and clients want results I train security dogs and I also do training for the public and their pet dogs however when it comes to teaching people how to train, handle and live with their dogs I feel we can only teach positive reinforcement.
If that does not work then it is usually one of the following
The dog has a behaviour issue which needs to addressed first , The handler is to blame for poor communication or the reward is not big enough.
The dog MUST have a WANT for positive reinforcement to work I therefore spend a lot time teaching people drive building which also teaches them to bond better with their dog and have fun.
Negative reinforcement of course still has a place in do training but should be reserved for special situations with extreme dogs and always administrated by an experienced trainer who knows full well the pros and cons of such methods. In my opinion we should NEVER be teaching negative training methods for instance like check chain corrections to inexperienced members of the public. If you were to do this you would have not control over how they interpreted that knowledge or applied it and as we all know there is a fine line between corrections and abuse.
I’m a dog trainer and appreciate that whilst I don`t like doing it sometimes negative reinforcement is the only way to get through to some dogs. Always start off with rewarding positives but, especially when you are being paid by the hour it is too difficult or time consuming to praise a positive. The correction should be just enough to make the dog think again but not harsh enough to be classed as abusing the dog.
I understand what you mean when you say you are looking for quick results when your clients pay on a time basis. For me training a dog is equally about the owner as the dog, as a suggestion could you use your time teaching the owner how to train the dog and really getting the techniques down, that way when you are gone they can put the time into the positive reinforcement
During your hour with them you should get a few good responses in to show the owner the correct way of doing things.
What does everyone else think?