What is reinforcement? Too many people don’t truly understand what it is nor how to use it properly. Is it “a thing?” Technically reinforcement is a process. It means: behavior increased. That’s it. So something that is reinforced means it increased behavior. We generally like to say “reinforcer” as the
Happy Monday! Ever notice how dogs work odd hours? They sit at 10pm, or fetch the paper at 6am. And when you have a dog who works for rewards (any kind: food, petting, a favorite toy, etc) they don’t mind working for us randomly at any hour of the day. Now, can you imagine your [...]
Announcing the “Our Loss Your Gain” event starting NOW! We are so bleedin’ happy to have our registration software working again, we’re offering a $50 DISCOUNT on private training & group classes. We have never offered savings like this before, and this deal is only good until the end of the year so register today! [...]
The 2010 annual Walk For Paws to benefit Animal Advocates went very well yesterday. The weather was superb, and we had a blast. The highlight was the obstacle course. Using agility equipment, confidence “hurdles” (like what you might see in TTouch), and everyday things like a dog door or a hola hoop, we worked with [...]
What I see is a lot of people think obedience training fixes aggression problems. And usually what happens is they start to kill obedience cues by pairing them with the situation that triggers reactivity.
Dogs are born with the ability to stand, sit, down, roll over, lift their paw, and many other behaviors that we take credit for teaching them. However, we say it all the time. “I taught my dog to sit.” No… not so much. The dog came knowing how to do this physical motion. We just put it on cue. It’s not like the dog had no idea how to sit, so we showed him the motion. Or the dog slapped his forehead in some euphoric moment of awakening barking “Eureka! I didn’t know I could do that!” No… not really. The dog already knew he was perfectly capable of sitting. What we teach is that it can pay to sit on cue.
Lately I’ve seen a lot of cases where a client was trying to extinguish a behavior but instead created a wicked duration with intensity. For some reason I always think of a small child tugging on his mom’s shirt saying, “Mom. Mom. Mom. Mom! Mom! Mom! Mom!” until the mom turns around and says, “WHAT?!?!!” Which has now taught the kid this works.
Sometimes we trainers are asked to train some very silly things. And sometimes not everything is realistically solved by training. And in fact, there is some stuff not worth training. And there is nothing wrong with management.
I just got this from a trainer friend of mine Pen Brown (a great trainer in the DC area). I’m not sure who created it originally, but I’d love to give them credit and shake their hand! Hello: This is the Magic Wand Dog Training Center, we are unable to come to the phone but [...]
So my Bernese Mountain Dog is always hot. Day or night, he thinks global warming does exist. I honesty think the happiest weather he’s seen was this past winter’s blizzard. What I noticed was he learns the coldest place in the house, friend’s house, hotel, etc. without any instructions from anyone. He figures this out on his own because he is motivated by his desire for the cold. (And I call this spot his “happy place.”)
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