What are the best rewards:

That all depends on your dog, for most its food, toys or affection/praise.

When you choose a reward make sure it a something your dog likes and is willing to work for. If a dog is not food motivated a regular biscuit or kibble will not suffice, trying using real food, or a toy, or affection/praise.

Using High Level Rewards:

Using high level rewards to target certain commands, for example “come”. I always use a treat that is of high value to my dog, so they are excited and always willing to come for the treat. If your dog is having difficulty with a command, the use of high level rewards can help the dog to learn quicker and sometimes a more solid command.

Rewards and Rate of Reinforcement:

An environment will often provide its own training rewards for dogs, like interesting smells, other animals, or the opportunity to greet a person. The rewards you offer are always in competition with “rewards” out in the real world. We need to build our dogs ability to work around distractions, and the increase the rate of reinforcement (how often you give rewards) to make you and the training session more exciting than the environment.

A common example is teaching your dog to “heel.” Sights, sounds, smells, and even garbage on the sidewalk can all reinforce walking at the end of the leash instead of at your side. You need to be sure you’re rewarding your dog often and with a high level reward to compete with these distractions.

Timing the Distribution of Rewards

How quickly your dog gets their reward can also have an impact on training. Rewards must come within 3 seconds of the action of the dog. If you take too long to deliver the treat, your dog can become confused about what exactly they are being rewarded for.

1. A typical mistake during house training is to offer the dog a treat when they come back in the house after doing their business, or calling a dog to you, then asking it to “sit”. This is confusing, how does the dog know the treat is for going to the bathroom outside, rather than coming in the back door, or that it is for coming or for sitting?

Make sure you deliver your rewards as quickly as possible after your dog has performed the behavior you want to reinforce. Be very clear ask the dog to do one thing at a time. As the dog learns you can then add more, but at first keep it simple. You need to be sure to reinforce the behavior that you want and not some other behavior.

Rewards and Reinforcing the wrong Behavior

It’s very easy to accidentally reward your dog at the wrong time and therefore reinforce the wrong behavior. For example:

1. Sweetly telling your dog “it’s okay” and/or petting him while he’s afraid
2. Pulling your dog close to you, petting him or telling him in a comforting tone, “it’s okay”, while he’s growling at strangers
3. Petting or sometimes even pushing away a dog who jumps up on you

In all of these cases, although not trying to reward the bad behavior, but that’s what’s happening! Understand, that your praise, affection, food and toys will be perceived as rewards by your dog, and therefore it’s important to be aware of when you give these rewards. Be careful how you talk to your dog, especially when its afraid, often we mean to try to soothe the dog, or make it feel comforted, when we are really telling the dog it is okay to behave in a manner we don’t want. If a dog is continually behaving in a manner you don’t like, look at it from the dogs viewpoint and see if you are rewarding the behavior. Sometimes the reward may not come from you, but the dog perceives the reward or that they have controlled a situation. For example:

1. The mailman or delivery man comes to your house and leaves a package outside, while this is happening your dog is barking, and then the delivery person leaves. The dog has now learned if it barks it can keep strangers away, as the dog doesn’t know that the delivery person was going to leave with or without them barking.

Always look at the situation for how your dog might perceive it!

Rewards are the best way of letting your dog know they are doing what you are asking, they will always repeat the behaviors they are rewarded for. Understand what is perceived as a reward by your dog, use rewards they like and watch the timing of the reward.

As a trainer we always have to look at what is the root cause for problems that clients have with their pets. An example is when a dog is asked to sit and doesn’t sit. The first question is:

– does the dog know how to perform this action ?

If there is any doubt the dog must first be taught the mean of the command “sit”.

The next step is to look at the relationship between the dog and the owner, if the relationship is not right or the owner is not clearly communicating to the animal this will need to be addressed and corrected.

Third is looking at the temperament, examples might be if the dog has anxiety issues or dominance issues these would need to be addressed by a behaviorist or experienced trainer depending on the temperament issues.

I also consider could it be a medical issue. I have seen dogs that will not perform certain commands as it causes them pain or discomfort. For instance a dog with hip issues, may feel discomfort when sitting therefore avoid performing the command.

Often I get calls and people will explain in detail the issues they are having with their animal but unless I see the dog and owner I cannot offer sound advice to fix the problem. Only by viewing the dog can I analyze the situation and develop a viable solution.

Currently I am working with Rogan to get her to respond to my command “platz” (down) quicker. Often she would hesitate but after just a week she is responding without any hesitation. I have also been working with both Rogan and Gracie developing their working in drive. I am very happy with the responses I am getting. For the first time Gracie dealt with her anxieties and gave me drive outside in a new environment. Other dogs and people were around and yet she was able to focus and go into drive. It was fun for both of us. When you get success in training and know that your dog “gets it” you and the dog are rewarded!

Ironically a client called me to tell me about how their dogs seem to understand how to properly walk after our last lesson. Prior to working with this client they could not walk their dogs especially together, as it had become very unpleasant experience. They still have work to do, but they can actually take their dogs out for walks and enjoy it. As a trainer I am very excited for them and pleased that I was able to help them overcome the issues and find enjoyment spending quality time with their dogs.

In working my own dogs, I was recently surprised at how Rogan would respond to me, with just eye movement. When I started working on better response for her downs and she was slow, but just a movement of my eyes would get her to respond quicker. I find it amazing how dogs are able to read even the slightest body language.

Each dog I work with whether my own or a clients, having success is always the goal. Developing the clients understanding and their own handling skills brings out better responses from their dogs and helps them to reach or exceed their training goals.

Success in communication and training brings such joy to the dog and the owner, building a stronger bond. Meeting our goals and often exceeding our expectations is the best reward!

Dogs are wonderful, they are loyal companions that bring us great comfort. My own dogs make me laugh and enrich my life in many ways. As humans we tend to label what we know and understand by attaching human emotions to our dogs. I hear it all the time, an owner will say to me “my dog is jealous” because that’s how the human would feel, not the dog. What humans call jealousy is one of two things in dogs, either competition or straightening out the pack order. The dominate dog will push the more submissive dog out of the way to get attention and this is pack order not jealousy. Dogs also do not feel hate, spite or guilt, this is placing human emotions to explain their behavior. Dogs simply do not have complex thinking or feel emotion in this way. Dogs will display unwanted behaviors because they are bored, lacking in exercise, or just having fun. While making a mess of the garbage may not seem like fun to a human it can be a great source of fun and food for a dog. It’s all about resources dogs constantly look for opportunities to take/guard and/or possess resources. Dogs don’t hate either. A dog will react to other dogs if the sense an imbalance, over dominance, or they may sense unstable emotions from the human around the other dog. Dogs will also react because they have temperament issues such as fear or anxiety.

Dogs have an innate ability to read body language that as humans we don’t. Trainers and behaviorists spend countless hours learning and developing their own skills to read body language so they can communicate with dogs and understand the meaning of the of the body language displayed by the animal.

Dogs do posses emotion but they are not as complex as humans. Dogs sense our emotions, but do not read the negative energy in the true meaning of emotion. A dog will read negative energy (emotions) as a weakness and react accordingly. Dogs rely on their instincts, they will be happy when their instincts are fulfilled and sad when their needs (instincts) are not being met, or if they are ill. Dog’s respond to the moment they don’t sit and worry about the past nor have complex thinking for the future. A dog will not sit at home when the owner is away planning revenge that the owner has left them their alone, but a dog will take the opportunity to get into mischief and have some fun. Dogs are opportunists and just reacting in the moment.

Often I hear people say I love my dogs more than humans, and this is because our dogs don’t think or feel as humans do. Dogs don’t hold grudges or get caught up in emotions like we do and it is for that reason they are so lovable. As humans we should love and honour our dogs because they are dogs and enjoy them for all they bring into our lives!