The Basics Of Positive Training Methods

October 30, 2008 by Richard Cross

Positive dog training means rewarding your dog for something he or she does right rather than punishing for something he does wrong. By using positive dog training methods, you are positively reinforcing all the good behaviour so your dog learns what pleases you and what doesn’t.

The detractors of positive dog training argue that how can you use it when your dog does something wrong? However it really can work even in this case. You simply issue a command to stop what your dog is doing (i.e. down if the dog is jumping up) and reward it when it happens.

The reason positive dog training is so effective is that the dog quickly learns which actions means he gets treats. It’s human nature to want to punish a dog after it does something wrong, but in reality this only causes confusion as the dog won’t know what it has done wrong. If you come home to find a mess in the house because of the dog then punishing him won’t do any good. He simply can’t relate the punishment to the earlier action.

That leads to an important point – always give the treat or reward immediately after the correct action to make sure your dog associates the treat with that behaviour.

Remember when dogs to misbehave it is usually to get your attention. If this happens, just ignore the dog until it stops and then turn your attention back to it. It won’t take long for the dog to realise what you want.