You Get What You Give - April 11

by Pat Hennessy

Your companion animal’s behavior is directly proportional to the time and training that you put into the relationship. What you give is what you get. When you give training you get desired behavior, if you don’t give training you get whatever the animal wants to do and that behavior (wanted or unwanted) gets reinforced. The longer it gets reinforced, the more ingrained it becomes and the more difficult it is to modify.

Determine Your Goals
If there is an area where your dog needs improvement, you first need to determine your goals. You can’t train away from what you don’t want, but you can train toward what you do want. You need to choose an alternate behavior and teach a “cue” (aka command) to get that behavior. Preferably you want to choose an opposing behavior, one that would allow the dog to do something appropriate while not being able to do something inappropriate. For example, if your dog jumps on guests when they come over then you might teach your dog to “sit” or “down” when people arrive. If the dog is sitting then he can’t be jumping. It is more difficult to get from the sitting or lying down position into a jump than from the standing position.  

Training Incentives
Your dog will reinforce an unwanted behavior until she is motivated to change it. Training incentives come in two forms — positive or negative. It is important to use positive reinforcement when training, because it not only motivates your dog it asks her to think, creating a learning experience for stronger reinforcement vs. her just reacting to avoid punishment.
Positive reinforcement also builds a healthy relationship — one that is based on trust vs. fear. When harmful or fearful punishment is used you may get your desired behavior at the time, but that behavior may be inconsistent and the fear may cause other unwanted behaviors (some of which may pop up unexpectedly). For example, if you punish your dog for growling then you may suppress the growl but if your dog is in a situation where he feels threatened he will not give the growl (warning), and may go straight into the bite.

Positive Rewards
When using positive training you reward the behavior you want and provide feedback if you get an undesired behavior. The non-reward feedback should not be painful or fearful just a “marker” (a word such as “uh-oh” or a gesture such as turning your head away), to indicate that it was incorrect and let her try again. When she gets it right she will be rewarded. Training with positive reinforcement is fun. It is all a matter of repetition, reward, and consistency. We have all seen programs on TV where they make a disclaimer “Don’t try this at home,” and you should heed that advice. In the case of positive dog training, the phrase should be “Do try this at home, over and over again, until your dog gets it!”

Training Takes Time
In our current culture we have busy lives and hectic schedules; however, you won’t modify your dog’s behavior unless you put some training into it. It doesn’t have to be a chore though, as you can build training into many activities. Your dog will love positive training because it involves reward (which could be food, praise, or play). You can turn play into a training session (fetch, come, drop it). You can use feeding time as a training session (sit, stay, release). In general when you see your dog doing something that is good, reward him! Never pass up an opportunity for praise.

Even those of us who train dogs may not have “perfect dogs.” Training does take time so we may pick and choose what is important for us to train. Something that bothers you might not bother me. A behavior is not a problem if you don’t mind it, as long as it doesn’t disrupt your household or create a dangerous situation. There are many things you may be comfortable living with, such as barking when the doorbell rings. But if you have a dog that tears up everything when you leave, soils in the house, or guards the food dish, those would be behaviors you would want to fix.
You can avoid many of your dog’s issues by providing him the training (skills) and leadership (communication) he needs. Of course, all of that takes time, but in the end it will be worth it. You can spend $800 joining a gym to lose weight or tone muscles, but you won’t meet your goals unless you go and put in the time and effort. The same goes for training your dog. There is no such thing as a bad dog, only an uninformed or reluctant owner. You wouldn’t let your child play in the street or swear at his teacher and you don’t want your dog to get into danger or act obnoxious either. The more cues that you teach your dog, the bigger his vocabulary and the more options you have in any given situation.
Now that you know who is in control, you can choose to be the trainer or be satisfied to be the trainee. Grab a handful of liver treats and see how many words your dog can learn. Make it fun. Practice in different places and scenarios – mix it up. The more he learns the better off both of you are, and you never know when that one little word might save his life or win a prize.

Pat Hennessy is the founder of N2paws, LLC, an organization that provides a holistic approach to companion animal care through behavior education, energy work, and positive training methods. Pat is a Level 2 TTouch® practitioner, CPDT and member of the IAABC, IAATH and AWA. You may contact N2Paws via email This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it , phone 816-522-7005, or visit the website www.n2paws.com.