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How to Apply the Principles of Reward and Reinforcement in Dog Training

29 11:44:03

How to Apply the Principles of Reward and Reinforcement in Dog Training






     Dog training is very important if you desire to have a dog that is well behaved at all times. Unless you buy a grown dog that has already being trained, you will need to get your dog trained if your do not want to become frustrated with your pet. Even if your dog has already been trained, you might need to teach it some totally new or different things that are peculiar to your household.

You can have an expert train your dog for an affordable fee. The fact is that there are many good dog trainers out their and they would do a wonderful job with your dog. However, you may choose to train your dog by yourself, and this will surely create a stronger bond between you and your pet.

No matter the training strategy that you use, it all boils down to reward and reinforcement. Rewarding your dog means that let it knows when he does something right so that it can continue in that behavior. There are different kinds of reward that you can give a dog; it could be a treat, or just unleashing it to run around for a brief moment in the yard.

The best rewards strategy is that when your dog learns a trick or obeys your command during training you should reward it immediately. Rewarding it immediately will make it associate the reward with its actions. If you wait until later to reward it, you dog cannot link up the reward with its actions during training earlier in the day, and you cannot explain to it either.

When it continues to do what you want during training, rewarding it is known as reinforcing its behavior. Reinforcement will enable it to be more consistent in his behavior because it will strive to do more of what you expect so that it can get the rewards. The fact remains that the repetition of the action that you want will ensure that it is conditioned to behave in that consistent manner all of the time.

One thing that you need to know about rewards and reinforcement is that you need to be in control all of the time. You cannot afford to give your dog treats after every successful attempt or you will run out of treats or end up with a fat dog. More so, giving treats after every attempt may program you dog to think that he is entitled to a treat after any attempt and it may cause problems when the training is over.

Another thing about reinforcement is that you need to be flexible in your approach. If you want your dog to fetch and you reward it after it had fetched five times, you will be surprised that the first four fetches will be halfhearted attempts. Thus, your reinforcement strategy should be very varied such that your dog gives its best all of the time during sessions.

The best part is that it will even continue to behave in that consistent manner even when you have stopped giving it the rewards. This is because you would have already created a strong neural pathway in your dog and it will find it hard to behave otherwise. In short, in your dog training sessions you will have wired your dog to behave in the manner that you want.

Enrolling your puppy into a puppy training school is important for developing a healthy and nurturing relationship between you and your dog. Having your pet potty trained by our dog training Burnaby experts can easily save you money and headaches, and general training will keep young children and smaller pets safe as well.

It is always a good idea to invest in puppy training for your puppy. A reputable place is not hard to find. Bark Busters in Home Dog Training Toronto, ON(416) 988-3169 ()+1 866-418-4584 ()http://www.barkbusters.ca