How modern dog training works

Dogs learn pretty much the same way as humans. We go to work and get rewarded with money at the end of the month. In many cases we get a nice bonus when we perform well or above average. We love getting recognition from our bosses when we have done well, and feel very disappointed if we do not get recognition for performing well. People who get a very good salary will work very hard for that large paycheck, but the opposite is also true. People who are not earning large salaries struggle to survive, tend not to be very loyal to a company and are loath to do their best at whatever it is they do. In modern day, reward-based dog training, we use this principle as well. Behaviour that we want from our dogs get highly rewarded with food and praise. We reward above-average behaviour more than average behaviour. If a dog displays a wrong behaviour, he just does not get his reward until he gives the wanted behaviour. So what can go wrong? Why is your dog not listening to you?

It is very easy to go wrong. Take, for instance, a dog that likes to bark at the postman. You call the dog and he comes running to you, and then he gets the "bad dog" face. So what did you do wrong? Well, pretty much everything. He behaved in a way that you do not like. You called him and he obeyed by running back to you. He gave you a wanted behaviour, but instead of praise for running back he gets an angry human face and possibly even a hiding with a newspaper. So what will happen next time? He will not listen to you when called, because running back to you means punishment.

So what would have happened if you had handled the situation differently? If you had praised the dog for stopping his barking and running back to you, next time it happens he would most probably respond quicker, as running back to you now means getting rewarded. You would eventually have a happy dog that wants to be with you as opposed to a dog that would rather avoid you because he associates you with punishment.

The bottom line is that we must take care not to punish dogs for wanted behaviours. Dogs are more likely to repeat a wanted behaviour when rewarded, but they will also give wanted behaviour less frequently when punished. So, be careful what you punish your dog for and how you do it.

For more about operant conditioning in dogs, send an e-mail to george@ rehabdogworks.com.