How do dogs learn?  How does dog training work?  In every household dog parents have different rules for their dogs: rules about furniture, access to rooms, how to play with children and other pets, how to greet guests and where to go to the bathroom. How can Rover learn these rules? Rover learns by the consequences of his behavior. Every time his behavior is followed by something he likes, the behavior increases in the future. It’s like putting a penny in the bank account for that behavior. Every time his behavior does not get him something he wants, the behavior decreases in the future. Rover does what works for him to get what he wants. So what does Rover want? Most dogs want food, attention, play, toys, chews, a place to eliminate, a comfortable place to rest and walks to check his e-mail messages out there. The bigger the bank account is for a behavior, the more often Rover will perform the behavior to get what he wants. Basic obedience training is about teaching Rover behaviors that most of us like, such as sit, down, come, stay, etc. and then building really big bank accounts for those behaviors. That way, whenever Rover wants something from us, he is most likely to ask for it by one of those "good" behaviors. Common scenario: say that Rover wants attention and you are busy in the kitchen. He might walk over and sit in front of you to see if that will work. You are busy, so you ignore him. Rover thinks "sitting doesn’t work, what else can I try. Let’s see if biting the ankles works." When he bites your ankles, you push him away and say "no Rover." Rover thinks "biting the ankles works great! Not only did my human look at me and talk to me, but my human even wrestled with me. That’s exactly what I wanted." All your pennies were put in the ankle biting bank account and none in the sitting bank account. When Rover wants attention again, which behavior do you think he’s going to try first? Management When you get a new dog or puppy, ideally you start by preventing the new Rover from building any bank accounts for behaviors you don’t like. That is called management. You can do this by confining Rover to a dog proof area where he can’t get himself into trouble, such as a crate or a laundry room behind a puppy gate. Some more examples of management: * Before you sit down to eat, you first give Rover a stuffed Kong so that he is busy and won’t bug you at the table. * When a friend comes over, you first put Rover on leash and hold him back so he can’t jump up and get rewarded for it by your friend’s attention. We are really good about this with young children. Suppose you had a 1 year old toddler. Would you go take a shower and let the little tike just wander around the house unsupervised?  Of course not. You would confine the toddler to his crib or hand him to someone else to supervise, otherwise social services would be knocking on your door in no time. Usually our biggest mistake with Rover is that we give him too much freedom too soon. By doing that we set him up for failure. Then when he fails, we are mad at him. Not very fair is it? Training Once you have your management set up, you can start Rover’s training by only giving Rover the things he wants for behaviors you like and then also putting some of those behaviors on cue, as in obedience training. The bigger Rover’s "good" bank accounts become, the more freedom you can give Rover and the less management he is going to need. Some examples: * Once Rover has learned to go to his place, you would simply send him there before you sit down to eat. * When a friend comes over, you tell Rover to sit and stay so that Rover won’t jump on your friend. * Once Rover has learned to only go the bathroom outside and which things are ok to chew on and which are not, he doesn’t have to be confined anymore. What to do about behavior you don’t like We like to divide Rover’s behavior into two categories: 1. attention getting behavior 2. everything else If you don’t like a behavior in the first category, you can either completely ignore the behavior or walk away. Ignoring the behavior is called extinction and the behavior will first increase in intensity before it goes away. That is called an extinction burst. Be sure not to give any attention to Rover at this point, otherwise you’re training the behavior to get much worse in a hurry. For behavior in the second category you want to give Rover instant feedback. For instance, if Rover goes to sniff something you don’t want him to touch, you can say "no, no" and get Rover’s attention away from the item. As soon as he moves away, you say "good boy." That is very clear feedback, a very clear Red Light, Green Light message. Timing Rover can only understand consequences and feedback that follow his behavior within 1 second. That is not because he doesn’t remember what he has done, but because he doesn’t speak any English. If you were in a foreign country, you would need immediate feedback too in order to understand what people wanted. For instance, suppose that you are staying with a Dutch friend. You walk up to the book case and take out a book, then you walk to a comfy chair and sit down. Just then your friend angrily says "kom daar niet aan!" You most likely will jump out of the chair, thinking your friend doesn’t want you to sit there. However your friend said "don’t touch that book" but his feedback was 2 seconds too late and so you misunderstood. Different kinds of consequences There are two ways we can motivate Rover to behave the way we want him to: * We can give him what he wants when he does what we want and withhold or withdraw those things when he doesn’t. * We can do things to physically hurt him, scare him or intimidate him into doing what we want and visa versa. At Affection & Praise Family Dog Training, Inc. we only use the first way, because the second way can cause aggression, avoidance and numerous behavior problems. This article is a summary only of the protocol for behavior training. For more information or training, please call (303) 255-3713. Disclaimer: Please note that the information herein is provided as a free service. It does not create any form of legal or professional relationship and Affection & Praise Family Dog Training, Inc. does not accept any liability or responsibility for any action taken or avoided on the basis of information provided. It is dangerous to rely on generalized information or guidance. You should always seek independent professional advice in order that it can be tailored to your own individual circumstances.