A Guide to Dog Training

CLASSICAL:
Ivan Pavlov conducted many experiments with dogs in the early 1900's. He wanted to condition, or train, an automatic response by creating an association between a stimulus that normally wouldn't have an effect on an animal with one that would. By presenting food to a group of dogs as to create a salivary response, Pavlov began ringing a bell before presenting the food. At first the dogs did not salivate until the food was present, but eventually, they began salivating when they heard the ringing of the bell.

Classical conditioning is very important when training animals because it can be hard to give the subject something that it normally likes or dislikes exactly when the behavior was preformed as to create an important consequence for the behavior. Teaching the animal to respond to a secondary stimulus, one that must be taught to be liked or disliked, such as a bell or clicker, helps to insure the behavior will occur again. The secondary stimulus is also called a bridge because it bridges the time between the behavior and the reward.

OPERANT:
B. F. Skinner formed a theory about an animal's association between two stimuli, the behavior and the consequence, known as the response stimulus. He did this by creating a cage, the Skinner box, with a pedal or bar on one wall that, when pressed, causes a mechanism to release a food pellet or treat into the cage. Skinner spent fifty years studying rats, pigeons, children, and even adults, as to prove his theory correct.

Skinner's experiments resulted in Operant Conditioning where he concluded that a response can be altered by two consequences: positive or negative.

Operant Conditioning is the process of the subject "operating" the environment, but the stimulus must be immdiate, or clearly linked with the behavior allowing the animal to know what he has done is right. There are four consequences in operant conditioning: positive reinforcement, negative reinforcement, positive punishment, and negative punishment.

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Reinforcement Training can best be described by either adding or subtracting something in order to increase the probability that the desired behavior will occur again.

Positive reinforcers are added in order to increase the behavior. Treats, petting, etc, are all considered positive reinforcers. You may use these without noticing it, in some cases. For example, you open the pantry door, the dog comes running, you give him a treat. This will reinforce running to the pantry door when it's opened. Or, when the puppy jumps on you, you pet him. That reinforces jumping.

Negative reinforcers take something away to increase a behavior. The horse wants to go straight, but you want her to turn left. If the horse attempts to continue straight, you pull on the reigns to create discomfort, the pain is taken away when the horse turns left.

Reinforcement training can be one of the best ways to teach your dog basic obedience commands like Walking on a leas, Leave it, and Give, as well as, Sit, Down, Stay, Wait, and Come.

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Punishment is by far the least chosen method of training. Whereas, years ago, punishment was the only training method for most animals to include horses, circus animals, and household pets, today animal behaviorist and trainers have come to the conclusion that using Punishment as a Training Method has more long-term problems than benefits.

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Being familiar with the dog agility equipment is the first step to learning how to train agility with your dog. You must know and understand all the obstacles that are involved in an agility course, to include the various jumps and hurdles, A-Frame, dog walk, weave, tunnels, etc.

Training agility becomes the next step in agility dog training. Once you are familiar with the agility obstacles, it's a great time to start training with your dog. Make sure that he is flawless with his basic obedience skills. You may, also, want to have the dog familiar with clicker training, as it is the easier way to train dog agility.

So, now that your dog knows each individual obstacle, you will want to begin putting them together. Start by putting together a few obstacles at a time, until you feel that your dog can run an entire agility course.

You can find dog trainers who specialize in agility, if you decide to take your training to a competition level. Otherwise, you can just keep it at a fun level for now.

Agility training is great exercise for you and your dog. It helps your dog burn the cooped up energy from sitting at home all week while you work, and you get to burn the extra calories.

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You want to make sure you have the smallest sized reinforcer you can get. The smaller the reinforcer, the more training you can get in one session because the dog will not get full or bored as quickly.

You want to make sure that you reinforce the behavior, positively or negatively, on a timely manor. Otherwise, the dog will not know why he's receiving the consequence. If you treat the dog when he stands, after telling him to sit, then you're reinforcing standing versus sitting.

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Think you've got all your Dog Training Tools ready to go? That's great. That means you've got your leash, collar, and treats. What else have you missed? Have you thought about what you going to wear or where you'll put the treats?

Well, you should always wear loose and comfortable clothing that FITS, as you will be doing a lot of moving around and you don't want to fall out of your clothes while doing so. Also, it's important that you wear a tennis shoe type shoe, basically make sure that it has a closed toe and a back.

You want to have a treat bag that you can clip onto your pants or belt. Having treat bags makes reaching for a treat much easier; it also, helps to reinforce the correct behavior because you are able to get the treat to the dog right on time. It's really not a good idea to put treats in your pocket, unless you want to fish for crumbs before or after you wash them. That's up to you. Most pet stores do sale treat bags for decent prices.

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Just like humans, dogs have fears, too. They may be afraid of thunder, cars, loud noises, anything. And, sometimes, it may be hard to work with a dog that has Fears and Phobias, but it's not impossible.

In some cases, you will need to uncover the reasoning behind the fear. Did you adopt a juvenile or adult dog? If so, he could be the result of poor breeding, poorly socialized, or mistreated. Well, in reality, these three reasonings (poor breeding, poor socialization, and mistreatment) are the main reasons that can cause a fear or phobia in a dog. I mean there are other reasons, but these are the most common.

So, in knowing this, how do you help you dog overcome his fear? One, you can stop coddling him; the sweet baby talk, "Aw it's ok. You're going to be alright," is just egging him on, telling him that there is something to be afraid of. Two, you can either desensitize him or flood him; desensitization is the most gentle way to overcome a fear. Flooding should be preformed under the hands of an experienced trainer.

Work on confidence building with the dog.

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Now, you may be thinking, 'Why would I want to untrain my dog? I just spent all this time and energy training him.' But what about the bad behaviors that the dog still has? How can you use
Problem Solving to correct you dog's bad behaviors

Sometimes your dog just gets into a nasty habit of one thing or another, whether it be constant barking, Digging, chewing, stealing, or whatever it may be. And, I'm sure like most pet parents, you'd like to know how to stop the behavior... Well, but using one or more of eight different Untraining techniques, your dogs unwanted behavior can easily be stopped.

The eight techniques are the total of four negative and four positive methods, ranging from the most severe method of "Shoot the Dog" to the most gentle method of "Change the Motivation."

In any case or method, you need to find the best method that fits you, your family, and your dog.

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If you're a frustrated pet owner, that wants to have a healthier, happier dog, you may be interested in this book.

You will learn how to teach your dog the basic obedience that he needs.

You will learn how to teach your dog to:

Stop soiling the carpets and floors.

Chewing up your favorite sneakers.

Nipping at guests.

Jumping on people.

And MORE!

This book will show you how to teach your dog to obey every command, near immediately. But, don't worry that it's going to be a detriment to the relationship with your dog, because this book shows you training secrets that your dog will love because he loves you!

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