Why You Need to Focus on Reinforcing Your Dog’s Good Behaviors

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Behaviors fulfill a purpose. Behaviors have consequences. A behavior that pays off will be worth repeating.

A couple of days ago I came across an advice column for parents in the Washington Post:

How to handle a 6-year-old who won’t take no for an answer

I was really excited by the explanations given there. If you have read any of my previous blog articles you will have noticed how I harp on inadvertently reinforced nuisance behaviors and the idea that attention is a great payoff for dogs. So, when a couple of sentences into the article I saw this sentence:

What is your child getting out of this back and forth? Every behavior serves a purpose. It is a useful exercise to sit back and say, “How does arguing serve my son?” The answer isn’t, “He likes to be annoying.”

I was rather amused!

I usually explain to clients that they should notice and pay attention to their dogs/puppies when they are “being good” or when they are “doing nothing”. This is usually met with a blank stare. If it’s all OK why reinforce it? My answer is that rewarded behaviors increase in frequency and if you ignore “good behavior” without reinforcing it, it will not really pay off for the dog. After all, doing nothing can be really boring. And then the dog decides to do something that will get him much needed attention, even if the quality of that attention might not be lovey dovey in nature.

Here’s some more from the article:

Another reason your son may be debating with you is that this is how he connects with you. Because connection and belonging are fundamental human needs (and even more so in children), a child can easily become accustomed to arguing as a form of connection. It sounds odd, but when there is strong eye contact and a raised voice, this feels normal. Even good! Even though you are annoyed, all of your attention is focused on him, and that is powerful stuff for a 6-year-old.

Bingo! Your dog is thinking: If that is the only way I can get my human’s attention, I will do this again! It works! You have just encouraged the dog to misbehave…

So, what should you do? Well, it depends on the problem. If you are over parenting and bossing your child around too much, take a look at where you can make more room for choices and enthusiastic yeses. In fact, I would recommend creating scenarios during which to say yes more. Six-year-olds are remarkably useful, smart and love real work.

In other words: Teach the dog behaviors that will get them approval from you! Instead of yelling at them for barking at you: show them that settling on the floor will get you to share table scraps with them. Instead of jumping up on you in delight when you come home, teach them to leap onto a chair, or get a toy to play tug or whatever seems fun enough for them but doesn’t rip your clothes.

If you feel that your son is mostly connecting with you through arguing, make a list of positive, fun ways you can connect with him. Anything will work: sports, card games, roughhousing, reading together, watching a movie, going on a hike, you name it. The point is that you laugh, be silly, smile and enjoy your son. Will this stop the arguing? No, but my hope is that it will lessen it.

If you find that most of your interactions with your dog are yelling “no” “stop that” “hey” or repeating his name in a disapproving tone of voice or any version of that kind of nebulous reprimand it’s time for playing, walking and training.

Need help applying positive reinforcement techniques for desired behavior?  Book a behavior consultation!

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Elisabeth Weiss is a highly certified, experienced dog trainer in Manhattan, NYC. To learn more about dog training services, contact us by phone at (917) 783-1473 or our contact form.

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Dog training Tips: Substitutes for “STOP IT!”

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When I first teach “leave it” I start with a piece of food that I throw on the floor and reward any movement away from the desired object. I can then practice with different desirable objects in different environments but usually it is very clear to me what the object is, since I am controlling the “it”.

Then it all of a sudden hit me; Since I mostly don’t have control over what I want my pup to “leave” the actual cue to the dog should mean this: whatever you are looking at (the dog across the street, the weird limping person on the sidewalk, the shiny piece of orange peel sticking out underneath a trash bag) no matter what “Look at me and you get a reward” or “Give me your full attention”.

This can work when you are on a walk with your dog and the environment is such that the dog can actually hear you.

The best cues I find are “circumstantial”. I put down a platform and the dog knows they are going to stand on that platform no matter what. It’s totally clear.

I put my hand on the doorknob to open the door and the dog knows this means “sit” until they hear the word “OK!!!”

With my puppy Snorri I have also made putting on my winter jacket a cue for “ sit” and instead of rewarding his begging for food I say “ you know what to do” and he will settle on the floor. It’s a wonderful way to get replacement behaviors that lead to a harmonious and fun time instead of the boring “stop it!” or ”now, now: we don’t do this, do we?”

That just misleads the dog and contributes ultimately to reinforcing that behavior.

The goal of so called positive reinforcement teaching is to replace nuisance behaviors with highly rewarded replacement behaviors.

This article by Kay Laurence (Can we teach “stop doing that”?) describes very well what this means in practical terms. Keep in mind that any gesture, any object or location (such as a designated spot or platform that you pick) can become a cue for a specific behavior.

So that the somewhat elusive cue “leave it” should mean something specific behaviorally to the dog and offer the dog the solution to earn the reward. Kay Laurence tells us that she does use different “go to’s” for different situations. That is so smart.

Need help applying these techniques?  Book a behavior consultation!

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Elisabeth Weiss is a highly certified, experienced dog trainer in Manhattan, NYC. To learn more about dog training services, contact us by phone at (917) 783-1473 or our contact form.

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Puppy Training & Managing Fear Periods

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We try and keep our dogs safe and do everything to stave away scary and unfortunate events. You can’t and should not raise your puppy in a bubble. However there are times when you might want to be extra cautious. Those times are when your puppy is going through natural fear periods.

I am particularly interested in the subject at the moment since my current puppy Snorri is clearly going through a fear period now.

The unfortunate events that happen can be anything from your dog getting growled at or attacked by another dog, some weirdo approaching your dog in a way that scares him or a piece of debris falls or tips over and makes a loud bang. These kinds of things will happen and really are practically unavoidable and luckily in most cases your pup can overcome the experience with a bit of counter conditioning. However, if your dog is in the vulnerable stage of a fear period there is an increased possibility that they experience something called “a single event learning experience”

Fear periods generally happen at two separate intervals as your puppy grows; one predictably at around 8-10 weeks of age, and a second more variably in late adolescence (6 – 24 months). A fear period is essentially a time when your pup is extremely sensitive to bad experiences. A single frightening or painful experience can have a lasting impact on your dog’s behavior.

This article describes fear periods and single event learning along with examples of what can happen:

http://www.drjensdogblog.com/the-dark-side-of-socialization-fear-periods-and-single-event-learning/

If you find that your puppy is all of a sudden afraid of things he was not at all bothered about before, please pay attention to that. Fear is not a rational response. Fear needs to be supported.  Try to help your dog remain in a state of mind where he can still think and accept his favorite treats.  Under no circumstances should you “flood” your dog, meaning that you force him through the scary event. That’s like throwing someone out of a plane to help him overcome his fear of heights.

Lastly, please be aware of the fact that sometimes the trigger event can leave permanent scars even with the best efforts and the most skillful training techniques.

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Elisabeth Weiss is a highly certified, experienced dog trainer in Manhattan, NYC. To learn more about dog training services, contact us by phone at (917) 783-1473 or our contact form.

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Dog Training Practice (with distractions) Makes Perfect!

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“But he did it at home!” Is this something you have found yourself saying?

Have you ever wondered why your dog will happily sit for you when you ask, or come to you inside the house but as soon as you are in a different environment you get a “blank stare” or a “deaf ear”?

When that happens, you should realize that as soon as circumstances change everything you ask your dog to do becomes more challenging for them.  When you leave your practice room there are so many other stimuli the dog has to ignore to focus on what you are asking.

It’s kind of like learning a new language in the privacy of your home.  You know all the phrases and questions by heart, all the sentences in order. But as soon as you actually need to ask a question or respond to something on the long-planned trip, all of a sudden, the vocabulary flies out of your brain and you are reduced to a stuttering and gesticulating person who cannot think of a single word in the appropriate language when desperately trying to ask where the bathroom is.

The fact is that humans need practice in “real” circumstances and so do dogs.

So once your dog can perform a behavior reliably without any distractions you will need to up the ante by adding distractions, changing venues, adding distance or throwing toys. The more scenarios you can think of the better. Only then can you proudly say: “My dog knows what “sit” really means.”

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Elisabeth Weiss is a highly certified, experienced dog trainer in Manhattan, NYC. To learn more about dog training services, contact us by phone at (917) 783-1473 or our contact form.

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Dog Training Tip: Why Are Corrections Futile? No Reward History In The Desired Behavior!

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There is a young dog in my neighborhood, a very friendly terrier.

He enjoys jumping on people. His owner however does not like it at all.

The owner has become hesitant about greeting other people and dogs in the street just because of this problem. The owner’s ability to enjoy his super cute and really excellent dog is marred and overshadowed by this one behavior.

I have been observing this situation for almost 3 years now.

So, this is what happens…

There is an encounter. The dog is on the ground and behaving ok. After a few moments the dog will jump up. The owner will correct him. No jumping! Tug on leash. Dog’s feet are on the ground. Owner ceases to pay attention to dog. At the next tiny movement: dog jumps up, owner: ah you must have treats in your pocket? NO JUMPING! Tug on the leash…pulling dog off. Dog is on ground again. Owner continues conversation and ignores dog while he is actually behaving ok.

You see the point?

If the owner understood that he should reverse his strategy and pay attention to the dog when he is not jumping and praise/feed him then he would not have this problem anymore.

This is why positive reinforcement is so much more powerful than corrections can be.

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Elisabeth Weiss is a highly certified, experienced dog trainer in Manhattan, NYC. To learn more about dog training services, contact us by phone at (917) 783-1473 or our contact form.

The post Dog Training Tip: Why Are Corrections Futile? No Reward History In The Desired Behavior! appeared first on NYC Dog Trainer.

Read More at https://www.dogrelationsnewyorkcity.com/dog-training-tip-why-are-corrections-futile-no-reward-history-in-the-desired-behavior/

Dog Training Myths: My Dog Is Just So Highly Strung

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“He really needs to run and run and run to blow off steam!”

“We need to exercise him all the time because he is so restless.”

Does that sound familiar? OK: so let’s think about this…

Being restless and hyperactive is not exactly comfortable for the dog or the owner.

If you highly reinforce that extremely self reinforcing behavior you are actually creating a dependence on it. Just like a person with running/ exercise addiction.

It also reminds me of my old violin teacher who stated that so many people seem to want to practice stuff that they are already good at.  However it’s not going to make you a better violinist if all you can do is bounce your bow at lightning speed but you cannot play a sweet melody!

This is true for behaviors also.

If you want your dog to calm down you have to reward him for being calm and practice that instead of running him more and more until he practically collapses with fatigue. I promise that when this dog wakes up all the dog wants to do is be even more excited and blow off steam.

The good news is that dogs are not only very smart they can also quickly adjust and learn that if they get rewarded for calm behavior to show off that behavior to earn kudos. Mental activity and rewarded calm behaviors are far more useful to help your dog be happy and calm.

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Elisabeth Weiss is a highly certified, experienced dog trainer in Manhattan, NYC. To learn more about dog training services, contact us by phone at (917) 783-1473 or our contact form.

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Dog Relations New York Training Studio

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We now have a studio! The home-like atmosphere of the studio allows us to teach dogs and puppies manners that will transfer easily when they are back home. Sessions at the studio can be tailored to your needs.

New services by Dog Relations NYC:

Park and Train & SpaDoggy

Would you like to “park” your dog for a couple of hours and use the time for us to teach some valuable skills?  For example:

• Settling down instead of begging at the table
• Walking better on leash
• Redirect barking and jumping when people enter your apartment
• Accept grooming readily
• Love the crate
• Reinforce Housetraining

We can teach your dog some cool tricks and also add fine grooming services so your dog will come back beautifully groomed and bathed.

Happy Healthy Pup

Is your dog on the chubby side? We can help! We provide a fun body conditioning program of strengthening and balancing exercises that will stimulate your dog’s metabolism and increase body awareness. Your dog will develop increased body awareness that will play a significant role in injury prevention and improve overall gait and posture. With the mental stimulation we provide your dog will feel less hungry, be happier and return to you in better physical shape.

Dog and Puppy Staycation

Are you going on a business trip? Or going on vacation and cannot take your dog along? We can take care of your dog and you can be assured that noy only will your dog be loved and cared for, he will return to you knowing a few more tricks and with greatly improved overall behavior as we will teach automatic polite manners.

Our promise: Your dog’s safety, well-being and happiness comes first. Your dog will receive the most thoughtful and compassionate care.

We offer: Utmost cleanliness, privacy, safety, continuous supervision and consistent reinforcement. We use only the highest quality, organic treats and foods. We can also administer medications and injections if needed.

We are fully bonded and insured. Please inquire for rates and availability for all the above services.

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Elisabeth Weiss is a highly certified, experienced dog trainer in Manhattan, NYC. To learn more about dog training services, contact us by phone at (917) 783-1473 or our contact form.

The post Dog Relations New York Training Studio appeared first on NYC Dog Trainer.

Read More at http://www.dogrelationsnewyorkcity.com/dog-relations-new-york-training-studio-nyc-dog-trainer/