Weekend Argus (Saturday Edition)
Bonding, rules keeps owner happy
ONE OF the ways you can bond with your new puppy is by spending time training and even teaching it tricks.
This develops trust. A well-trained dog is a pleasure to own. Many dogs with behavioural problems are the result of a lack of, or incorrect, training and discipline.
Dogs will always do what works for them. A dog’s short-term memory is not good. so when you get home after a long day at work to find that Fluffy has destroyed your R500 pair of shoes and you go to give her a hiding, she won’t understand why.
Punishment often does not work as timing, intensity, consistency and context from the owner’s side is not kept.
Another reason is not enough information is given to the dog of what it should be doing and it is confused and fearful. The best way to train is using positive reinforcement; praise them for the good things.
Dogs learn from immediate consequences. In other words, hitting Fluffy later on has no effect on what was done at an earlier time.
The intensity needed to effectively punish a dog differs from dog to dog and from situation to situation.
There are the compliant (soft) to the assertive (tough) dogs and then there is the middle range.
The “soft” dogs are easily mentally damaged whereas the “tough” dogs do not give in so easily. If the punishment is too intense, the dog will either become scared of the owner or aggressive.
If a dog is scared it will not learn effectively. The dog will try to change its behaviour out of fear for the owner. Fear is a primary cause of animal aggression.
If the punishment was too intense, the animal sees the situation as initiation of conflict rather than a consequence to its actions.
The key to successful punishment is that for it to work, you would only need to punish once or twice, not repeatedly. If the punishment is not followed through within one second of the unwanted behaviour, then it will not be effective.
Even if the dog was “caught in the act” and punished, it may not associate the punishment with the wrong action it was doing, but rather with the person giving the punishment.
What they learn is that they should not do that action in front of that person.
An example is when a puppy urinates in the house and is smacked for doing so. It learns to hide away under the table or behind the couch when needing to urinate. It does not learn where an appropriate area to urinate is. The puppy just learns not to do the behaviour in front of the owner.
As you can see, there are many pitfalls when punishing a dog. If you train your dog to follow some simple commands such as sit, stay, down you can use these to replace a bad behaviour with a good one.
One of the most important things to remember is that one should give the dog attention only when it is well-behaved.
In a situation where a dog exhibits undesired behaviour, the owner can ask it to do one of the trained behaviours and reward it if it listens.
The owner should not scream, hit or pat their dog when a bad behaviour is taking place. They should fold their arms, look away and remain still.
For example, Fluffy jumps on the owner. The owner should fold their arms and turn their back to Fluffy and while remaining still ask Fluffy to sit. If Fluffy sits the owner can give her attention.
In the beginning the owner should reward the dog for good behaviour at all times, including times where the dog is not doing an undesirable behaviour.
If undesired behaviour continues even with the new cues and rewards in place, the owner can distract the dog using interrupters such as a tin with beads, coins or stones in it. Even a spray bottle with water can be used. Citronella oil can be added.
These can be used to distract the dog from what it is doing. It gives the owner a chance to ask or allow the dog to do something the owner wants it to do.
Then give them attention or a treat when they are well behaved or listen to a command.
Using positive reinforcement, rewarding good behaviour and ignoring the bad will prevent you from having to remember the rules for disciplining. Being with your dog will be a calmer, quieter and more fun experience.