Posted in Behavior & Training

In horse training (Swift, 1985) we have basic features that are used in an attempt to make the horse happy and motivated. This is the same focus that we should use when train dog. First - Your Eyes – Sit in a chair with your dog on a leash. Relax your eyes. Gaze out looking at an object, while moving your peripheral vision, taking in a la… read more

Posted in Behavior & Training

Many times, I feel we try too hard when we attempt to work with a dog. We want to enter the operant stages of learning and see immediate results. Why? Because it reinforces us! Does the dog really care if it sits? Perhaps. However, more importantly, how does the dog feel about you, his new dance partner? Before he takes the first step, he ne… read more

Posted in Behavior & Training

When we train with positive reinforcement, we obtain behaviors using many different techniques such as luring, prompting and fading, catching, targeting and shaping by successive approximation. All of these have benefits and obstacles. Let us take something as “simple” as teaching a ‘Sit.’ Simple? Perhaps not. · Luring – Dog h… read more

Posted in Behavior & Training

Dogs that are deprived (not starved!!!) of food typically work harder for food and find it more valuable as a reinforcer. Toys are more exciting to dogs when they are not left around the house for them to play with. Deprivation need not be all or nothing. If you train with hotdogs one week and cheese the next, then change againt to something els… read more

Posted in Behavior & Training

The topic of today's lecture was "It's Okay to Say No!" Have we thrown out the baby with the bath water? Murray Sidman wrote one of my favorite books of all times - "Coercion and Its Fallout." He so eloquently says it all. However, have we gone so far as to avoid controlling dogs' behaviors in fear of one judging us as not being a "positive tra… read more