Positive Reinforcement Dog Training

Successful Training For Your Dog:
Positive Reinforcement

Positive reinforcement dog training is widely accepted among many dog training experts as the most effective and humane dog training methods.

Positive reinforcement is really just a fancy phrase for basically rewarding good behaviors that you would like to see repeated, and ignoring bad behavior that you don’t like.

This training technique is in direct contrast to a lot of the outdated methods for dog training, some of which were really awful using physical pain and intimidation.

Use Meaningful Rewards

Good Timing

When your dog successfully obeys a command, you must mark the behavior that you're going to reward. Doing so will help her understand exactly what behavior it was that earned her the reward(treat).

Some people actually use a clicker for this. A clicker is just a small plastic device that makes a distinct "click" noise when pressed. The clicker is pressed at the exact moment that your dog obeys the command. For example, when asking your dog to sit, you would click the clicker right when your dog’s butt hits the floor.

However, using a clicker is not a must. You can also use a praise word to mark desired behavior. Just saying "Good!" in a happy & excited tone of voice can work perfectly.

Make sure that you give your dog the treat after the marker. Also remember to use the same marker all the time. If you say “Good!” or use the clicker only sometimes, it won’t be significant to your dog. She needs to learn that the marker means that she’s done something right, which means she gets a yummy treat.

Be Consistent

You need to be consistent with your training commands. For example, when training your dog to not jump up on you, you shouldn't say “get down”, “get off”, and “stop jumping”. This would just confuse her. You need to pick one phrase and stick with it. So if you are going to use "No Jump", you need to use this command every time.

Reward Your Dog Meaningfully

All dogs have their favorite treats and preferred ways of affection. Some dogs will doanything for a dried liver snippet while other dogs just aren’t as treat motivated and would rather to be rewarded with a toy, or just some type of affection from you.

Correct Your Dog Meaningfully

With positive reinforcement training, all you have to do is ignore bad behavior that you don't want your dog to do. Getting no attention (because you're purposely ignoring her) is enough to make just about any dog pretty unhappy. This is why it is such a powerful correctional tool.

The bigger the fuss you make over your dog when she does get a command right, the clearer the connection will be between a particular behavior and a command.

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