Training Your Dog With Praise and Correction

Although training your dog with praise and reward is very popular right now, there is still an important place for training with praise and correction.

One of the most important ways that we use praise and correction in dog training is with house training. When you are house training your new puppy he has no idea that there is anything wrong with using the bathroom in the house. House training depends on teaching him two things: 1) the appropriate places for pottying; and 2) the inappropriate places for pottying. This means that you will praise and reward your puppy when you take him outside and he relieves himself. But, if (and when) your puppy has accidents in the house, you will correct him, IF you catch him in the act. That last provision is very important. Correction only works if it happens when a dog is doing something he shouldn't. It doesn't do any good at all to correct a dog an hour after he's had an accident I the house. That's history. But, if you see your puppy in the process of having an accident in the house, then, yes, it is appropriate to correct him. That doesn't mean punishing him or scaring him. It means telling him, "No," and taking him outside. That's an appropriate correction for a puppy.

Other times when it's appropriate to correct a puppy or dog would be when you catch them chewing on something such as your shoes or digging in the yard. But, a word of warning. You should always be close at hand when you find your dog doing something that needs to be corrected so you can carry out the correction. If your dog is digging and you yell, "NO!" from the house your dog may ignore you. In that case you haven't done anything but shown your dog that he doesn't have to obey you. If you are going to correct your dog make sure that you are close enough so your dog has to take your seriously.

Many times a simple, forceful "No" is a good correction. Don't forget to give your dog plenty of praise when he stops doing the undesirable behavior. It's usually a very good idea to teach your dog a better alternative behavior or at least offer him some better choices. In the case of chewing on your shoes, make sure than he has plenty of his own things to chew on -- and put your shoes up.

Dogs are not born knowing all the rules that we humans will think up for them. They do have to learn what we expect. Training with praise and reward works very well for teaching many things but there are times when you have to teach a dog that some things are not good. There are undesirable behaviors that should be corrected. But remember that correction never has to be harsh or cruel. Correction has probably gotten an unjustly deserved reputation of being harsh when it comes to training dogs but there are times when it's necessary to use correction for the dog's own good.

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