How To Train Your Dog Like A Dolphin

How To Train Your Dog Like A Dolphin

I learnt how to train a dog 18 years ago to do obedience. This involved, saying a word, like sit, then pushing down on the dogs behind and pulling up on a lead where the dog wore a choker chain to force the dog to sit. This continued every time until the dog sat. Then we would say the word, sit and hope the dog would and if it didn't we would correct the dog with a snap on the chain and push it's behind down.

Imagine if you were trying to be taught something, and a word was said and all you got was a push on the bottom and choke around the neck are when the word was said. What impression would you have of that word?

This is often how we try to train our dogs to do obedience. This is known as compulsion training. Now don't get me wrong, over time and repetition, you will be able to make your dog’s perform obedience using these techniques, but it will come at a cost.

The dogs will associate the commands as an uncomfortable experience and not something to look forward to. You can see the dogs that have been trained using compulsion. Their body language is usually such that their ears are back on their head; there tail is still, or tucked under its legs. It walks in a very unsure way. It sniffs the ground, constantly looks away from its owner, all calming signals that dogs exhibit when they feel stress.

Now don't get me wrong. I had trained my dogs this way all the time, until I discovered the methodologies around operant conditioning. I studied how dolphin trainers train their dolphins and became fascinated with their techniques. I began using clicker training and positive reinforcement training on my dogs.

Then something amazing happened. It became absolutely fun. I enjoyed the training, they enjoyed the training and their performance skyrocketed. The way to start is start using clickers to train your dog. If you have used compulsion training before, just go right back to the start.

Firstly, with clicker training, you aren't actually saying any commands until you are getting the behaviours you want. You begin with simply clicking and treating. This conditions the dog to what the click means. It means, when you hear the click, you instantly get a treat. I use something really really tasty, like cheese, or small bits of ham or bacon. Make the treats very small, you don't want to fill the dog up, you want it to be a taste sensation.

Do the click and treat for a period of 20 times and stop. Do this say 2 times until the dog is focused on you and the clicker. Then start moving your hand over the eyeline of the dog, shaping it into a sit position. As soon as the dog's bottom hits the ground, click and treat. Don't say any commands, they come last.

Try luring the dog into a down position. If it doesn't hit the ground all the way first up, that's ok. The thing with clicker training is you can reward just a part of the behaviour and raise the bar over time. So in a down, if the dog moves it's head down, or lowers it's upper torso, reward it with a click and treat, then gradually reward only better downs.

This is the trick with reward training. Don't try and force the behaviour, shape it, like the trainers do at seaworld with the dolphins. Look for an indication of the behaviour you want, then shape it to what you want.

This goes against the grain of conventional training where you push, pull and force the dog into the position you want.

In one of my other articles, I talk about how to lose the food altogether and the dog will perform the behaviour, because the dog actually enjoys doing it, not just for the food.