Training dogs with food results in a well behaved, fun dog, who uses her smarts to think herself through a lifetime of possibilities. Reward-based trained dogs offer behaviors for the possibility of a reward while dogs trained with pain-based methods, respond to commands out of fear of a painful reprimand.
Dogs trained with pain do not offer behaviors. But a dog trained with food results in a dog who thinks and who then uses her skill of learning to fearlessly explore possibilities. The dog trained with food will use the behaviors she’s learned to communicate with the pet owner. This lends itself to amusing, lovable antics, which keeps the human part of the relationship smiling. And we all need to smile more! The dog trained with food is always ready to do more because there’s a possibility that something good might happen as a result.
I train most of my housetraining clients’ dogs to use a doggy doorbell to communicate to their owners that they need to go outside to eliminate. The first behavior to learn is the mechanical behavior of ringing the bell. Some dogs use their noses and some use their paws. This is the dog’s choice, and it’s fascinating to watch their preferences as the behavior grows. Dogs who start out using their noses oftentimes spontaneously switch to using a paw. This happens on their own. They know the yellow button needs to be pushed and they swap out the method to do so. The owner of the Cocker Spaniel in this video told me her pup did just that days after she returned home.
After the dog learns the mechanics of doorbell ringing, whenever we go outside, the dog is asked to ring the doorbell. Eventually, the notion of elimation outside is combined with the doorbell ringing to get outside, and two and two is put together, so to speak, to go out “for” a potty break. 🙂
Most dogs use this newly learned doorbell-ringing behavior to get a food reward now and then, but we work with our clients to teach them how to reinforce elimination ringing vs. ringing for a cookie, which could go on all night! That’s the beauty of a dog’s brain. An action leads to a result. “I like cookies, so if I ring the bell, I get a cookie. Therefore, I’ll ring the bell 40 times!” Outsmarting Dogs is committed to playing the chess game with our learned companions, and we have a solution to each brilliant move a dog makes along the way. Because dogs are brilliant at figuring out the loopholes that work in their favor!
Find out how much fun it is to train with food and games and our cast of characters. Become a client of Outsmarting Dogs! We never use pain to train. We outsmart dogs instead!
Helen Verte Schwarzmann
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Certified in Training and Counseling
Certified Pet Dog Trainer-Knowledge Assessed
Certified Trick Dog Instructor
AKC Canine Good Citizen/CGC and STAR Puppy Trainer and Evaluator
Your Board-and-Train Dog Trainer for Fort Myers, Lee county, Naples, Collier county, and southwest Florida
