Training Your Dog With Praise and Reward

We all look for the most effective ways to train our dogs. We want them to learn and to enjoy learning. The more a dog enjoys learning, the better he learns. One of the best ways of training your dog is through praise and reward.

Praise and reward are key elements in positive reinforcement training. With positive reinforcement training when your dog does something that you want him to do, you use it to reinforce that action and get him to do it again, on command.

Praise and reward can be used many kinds of training. For example, if you want to teach your dog a basic obedience command such as Sit you can wait for a moment when he sits on his own, then praise him and reward him for sitting. He may not understand, but if you do this several times he will begin to attach the action of sitting to the praise you're giving him. Then you simply have to add the command "Sit" and your dog has learned using this method.

Positive reinforcement isn't used just for training dogs. Positive reinforcement using praise and reward has been used to train dolphins, chickens, whales and many other animals. The same principles of praise and reward are used to teach children and are used in some schools.

These types of systems emphasize the positive and largely ignore negative responses. Again, if you are teaching your dog to sit, you will ignore the behaviors that your dog offers that are not sitting. If your dog lies down or stands or barks you won't offer praise or give rewards. You will simply ignore those behaviors until your dog does the thing that earns the praise and reward -- until he sits. By this early process of elimination your dog finds the behavior you're seeking, you put a name on it ("Sit") and he learns what Sit means when you ask for it.

You can teach your dog very complex behaviors using praise and reward but you may need to teach them in small steps. Dogs can learn many tricks through praise and reward as long as you teach them in small stages.

Dogs generally like learning by praise and reward since it's a very positive approach to training. There are few, if any, corrections and no punishment. The dog is simply being praised for the correct things that he does. Praise and reward also emphasizes a very happy, cheery attitude on the part of the trainer which also helps dogs learn.

There are many good books available about training with positive reinforcement. This is a very popular training method right now. Whether you decide to try this method at home or attend classes taught by a qualified trainer, this can help you successfully train your dog.

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