I tend not to get caught up in the world of dog training any more. I was a dog trainer for many years and now I'm way more interested in dog wellness and welfare. That said, I do know that dog guardians need results sometimes.
The thing I want to make clear here is that before any training starts, you need to know that your dog is healthy and their needs are met. Basic needs mean they get love, safety, good food, appropriate exercise and the opportunity to behave as dogs do. Only then, when we know that an inappropriate behaviour is either learned and can be unlearned, or the appropriate behaviour has never actually been learned, we consider training.
When a dog's needs are met, training isn't a difficult task, especially when we work on our own skills with intention.
Dog Training - A Simple Matter of Reinforcement
We can teach our dogs without scaring them or betraying their trust. Positive dog training is actually quite simple, it uses the proven method of setting up good choices, recognising them and making them stronger through suitable reinforcers.
Ethical dog training is all about guiding them through a series of choices, each one offering a clear path to success. All we need to do is attach a positive outcome to the good and useful choices, while adjusting the environment to make the less favourable options harder to access. Using science based positive dog training methods is about empowering your dog to make better choices.
Reinforcing Behaviour Through Interaction
Let’s take an example. Imagine your dog jumps up for attention. More than likely, he’s learned that this behaviour brings your focus to him. From his point of view, even a sigh, a “no,” or a gentle push is still interaction. Any engagement with you is better than none at all, because you’re the centre of his world. So, even if you’re saying “no” and pushing him away, he sees your eye contact and the physical touch as a reward. Now compare that with what happens when he stays on the ground and is completely ignored. It becomes clear why the choice to jump up is so tempting and reinforced over time.
Here’s the good news: we can adjust those choices and outcomes. By carefully tweaking what gets rewarded and what doesn’t, we can change the jumping behaviour by creating the opportunity to do something more useful and rewarding that instead.
Filling The Behaviour Void
A replacement choice is a much better option than just asking your dog to stop doing something. So ignoring the behaviour we don't want is half the job. The other half is to fill the space where he would have jumped up, with something else - for example a sit or a nose nudge.
Choices and Mental Pathways
Dogs’ brains, much like ours, are wired with choice routes. These mental pathways form and strengthen through repetition and reinforcement. To make this easier to visualise, let’s think of it as a meadow analogy.
Picture a wide meadow surrounded by a high wall. The grass is tall, probably up to your dog’s knees. On one side of the wall, there are three gates, each leading to a different destination. You stand behind one gate, calling your dog. At another gate, a friendly dog waits, wagging his tail. The third gate leads to another meadow. Your dog now has a decision to make, and his choice depends largely on how motivated he is to come to you.
He looks across the field, sees you, and chooses to run towards you, flattening the grass along his path. Once he reaches you, he’s rewarded with a game or a treat (remember to check what he really likes - that will be most rewarding to him).
Now, imagine this scenario repeats several times. By the tenth run, the grass is quite flat, and the easiest route to take is the one that leads straight to you. The pathway is now well established, and your dog has learned to make the right choice-because you’ve made the motivation and reward strong enough.
But let’s rewind to that first run. What if you weren’t as exciting as the friendly dog behind the second gate?
Even though you’re calling, your dog chooses the other gate. You try again, but without changing your approach. Naturally, your dog keeps choosing the other dog. Each time, the grass leading to that gate becomes more and more flattened, and eventually, the easiest route takes him away from you and toward the other dog.
Rewriting the Pathways
This analogy demonstrates how neural pathways form as your dog learns. The dog at the park, the one whose guardian calls him repeatedly but never gets a response, has flattened the wrong path. His brain has been wired to choose distractions, rather than the person calling him.
To change this, we need to make the right choice the easiest one for our dogs. By boosting motivation and adjusting the consequences, we can help them establish the correct paths.
Over time, with consistency and the right rewards, these positive routes become second nature. This is the essence of how dogs learn, and why thoughtful and skilled dog training is so effective these positive routes become the natural, automatic choices they make.
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