© 2008 Shelley Jennings

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We train using positive reinforcement as we believe this is the most effective way to train our dogs. Punishment can have devastating side effects and can harm our relationships with our dogs.

How Dogs Learn

Dogs do what works for them! They are not moral, they have no concept of 'right' or 'wrong', just 'rewarding to me' versus 'unrewarding to me'. They learn through the consequences of their actions.

If a behaviour is rewarding, it is likely to be repeated. If it is not reinforced, it will likely stop.

So basically the easy way to get our dogs to do what we want is to make what we want more rewarding to them than anything else they might want to do. For example, if you want your dog to come to you when you call him across the fields, you have to make coming to you more rewarding than running around or sniffing, otherwise why would your dog come to you when he’s having more fun sniffing?! He’s not being ‘stubborn’ or ‘disobedient’ – he’s a dog and these are human traits - he’s just doing what is more rewarding for him. Lets face it, the vast majority of us wouldn’t go to work if we weren’t being paid! So you need to ‘pay’ your dog for doing what you want, or he will find his ‘paycheque’ elsewhere!

In our classes we use positive reinforcement to reward the behaviours we like, and we simply ignore the behaviours we don't like, and for the things we can't ignore we re-direct the dogs into a behaviour that we can reward.

For more information on Learning Theory click here

For information on how to change unwanted behaviours click here

Further Reading: 'Excel-erated Learning' by Dr. Pamela Reid

Why Punishment Doesn't Work

The reason people use punishment is that they believe that if a behaviour is followed by an unpleasant enough consequence, the behaviour will not happen again. However, there are several problems with this idea. The first is that it doesn't stop the 'bad' behaviour happening in the first place; the behaviour has already happened, time can't be rewound, the horse has already bolted. It is too late to change what has already taken place. The second problem is a timing issue - for punishment to be effective, it must happen the instant the unwanted behaviour occurs, and most of us are too slow to get this right. You can't punish a dog for something it did earlier as dogs do not have the self-awareness to put together something unpleasant happening to them now with something 'naughty' they might have done earlier. Any punishment delivered late is abuse, pure and simple. The third problem with punishment is that we cannot predict what unwanted side-effects it may have; we may think we are punishing the dog for barking at another dog when actually what we are punishing him for is being afraid, and now that we've scared him even further, he's now terrified. Punishment can ruin our relationships with our dogs, can cause them to become 'shut down' cowering wrecks, or can cause them to become aggressive if they feel we have threatened their life. We simply can't know what the fall-out will be.

But the biggest problem with punishment is that it doesn't teach the dog what the correct alternative behaviour is. If applied correctly with expert timing and precision it may teach the dog not to do something, but it certainly doesn't teach him what we would like him to do instead. The best way to teach your dog to do the things you want is to reward him for doing them.

For more information why punishment doesn't work click here and here

For information on a scientific study into punishment click here

Why Our Dogs Aren't Trying to Dominate Us...

The 'Dominance Theory' is based on the idea that our dogs are really wolves, and that as wolves live in hierarchical packs with an 'Alpha' in charge, our dogs must be trying to dominate us to become alpha in our households. The theory implies that we should all be watching our backs as our dogs are secretly trying to take us over.

There are several major flaws with this theory. The first is that it is based on the assumption that wolf packs have rigid hierarchies and follow a strict set of 'pack rules', but these 'pack rules' are based on observations made by people studying captive wolf packs whose members have been artificially put together, and who behave in a completely different manner to wild wolves. In naturally wild packs the 'Alpha status seeking' behaviour is rarely seen and is of less importance than the studies of captive packs have implied. Therefore the major assumption behind the theory may be flawed. Another assumption underlying this theory is that as our dogs are descended from wolves they will exhibit the same behaviour and should be treated as wolves, but our domesticated dogs are far removed from their forebears and their instincts have been greatly modified so that comparing them to wolves is not necessarily justified. There is also an assumption that our dogs are forming ‘packs’ with us and that they wish to be ‘Alpha’ of this pack. But a dog is a dog, and through imprinting during the critical period it knows it is a dog, and so cannot form a pack with us as we are two separate species who think and behave differently. Therefore there is no reason for our dogs to be trying to raise their status in our ‘packs’.

We do not need to be wasting our energy worrying about our dogs trying to take over the household. Instead we should be concentrating our energies in ensuring that we are benevolent leaders, ruling fairly and calmly through controlling resources; we should be asking our dogs to do a little for us to earn what they want, not battling against some false idea of 'dominance'.

Does your dog growl at you when you approach his food bowl or try to move him off the sofa? It's not 'dominance', it's a Resource Guarding problem that you have. For more information on Resource Guarding click here

For more information on the Myth of the Dominance Theory click here

For more information on the 'Nothing in Life Is Free' program click here

Further Reading: 'Dominance: Fact or Fiction' by Barry Eaton

Why the TV isn't always right!...

Several TV shows in recent years have popularised a certain 'style' of dog training - please be aware that not everything on the tv is necessarily 'right', and that certain of these methods should never be used by people at home for risk of fall-out.

For some answers to the most common arguments on this topic click here

For an opinion from the American Veterinary Society for Animal Behaviour click here

For an opinion from k9obedience click here