What is Positive Training?
Sarah, Hef and Portia – a team having fun together
“Put simply, it is rewarding the behaviours you want rather than punishing the ones you do not want. It is encouraging the dog to get it right as opposed to punishing him every time he gets it wrong. It is helping him to understand what is required of him, and then reinforcing that behaviour so that he is happy to repeat it. It is not punishing him for getting it wrong and making him worried about doing it wrong again”
(Husein 2006, Homework Book, School for Dogs, pg 4).
In the early years of last century, B.F. Skinner discovered the concept of operant conditioning (the realisation that behaviour has consequences and those consequences will determine whether the behaviour will continue or cease) and various groups have been using this concept extremely effectively. Olympic gymnasts and professional dancers have been taught using TAGTeach (Teaching with Acoustical Guidance) which is clicker training for people. Children with disabilities thrive with TAG training. Marine mammals have been trained for shows and for husbandry purposes. Zoos use operant based training to take blood from their animals for testing, to clean their teeth and to undertake all sorts of procedures that would previously have required the animal to be anaesthetised. Rather than punish poor behaviour, the rewarding of good behaviour has been proven time and again to be extremely successful.
“I work on the theory that if you can train a killer whale to launch itself out of a swimming pool, roll on its side and urinate into a small plastic cup, given only a whistle and a bucket of fish, without a choke chain, then you don’t need those confrontational techniques with dogs.”
Nicholas Dodman
We have a dog come into our home to be a companion, a friend for the kids or perhaps a smiling face in a lonely environment. Any number of reasons is given for having a canine companion. Nobody ever says that they buy a dog to nag, to punish and to make miserable. Positive, reward-based training will allow you to build a bond of trust and respect with your dog. A bond not built on fear but on a team effort; a team trying to understand each other. Two species, living in the same world, working together for happiness.
