How To Use Positive Reinforcement Training for Your Dog

Positive reinforcement is one of the best and most effective ways to train your dog. Did you ever get praise for doing an excellent job at work and did it make you want to do a good job again? Well, that’s positive reinforcement.

While humans have many ways of getting positive reinforcement. Dogs have three main ways to receive positive reinforcement. They’re; food/treats, toys, and praise. Every dog is different.

Which reward they respond to the most will depend on several factors. Including; breed, upbringing, personality, age, and environment. For example, if a dog is insecure, it will usually respond more to praise. Meanwhile, a high-energy, playful dog might respond better to their favorite chew toy.

The 3 Fundamentals of Positive Reinforcement Training

1. Timing is key

Timing is one of the most important factors for positive reinforcement. You must reward your dog within the first 2 seconds of the desired behavior. Or else your dog won’t associate the treat with the right action.

For example, if you have your dog lie down but reward them when sitting back up. They will think the reward is for sitting instead of lying down.

2. Keep it short and sweet

Dogs don’t understand long sentences. Long commands like “Please, sit for me now and you’ll get a treat” will only earn you an adorable head tilt and a look of confusion from your dog.

Instead, dogs listen to short, snappy commands a lot more and they’re also great readers of body language.

The four most common (and important commands to start with) are: sit, down, heel, and come. Once your pet has these important commands learned, you can start to add more.

3. Every day is a training day

Consistently training your dog is key to ensuring that they learn the desired behavior and understand your commands.

It’s also crucial that you always reward good behavior and never reward bad behavior.

It’s also important that everyone in the family is on the same page when training your dog. Otherwise, you might confuse your dog.

When should I use Positive Reinforcement?

You should be selective when you’re using positive reinforcement. Keep it mainly for teaching your dog cues and reinforcing good behavior.

• Give your dog a treat when they lie down and be quiet.
• Before petting them (so they don’t jump up).
• Before letting them outside (so they don’t knock the door down).

Just be careful that you. don’t accidentally reward them for bad behavior.

Motivating Factors

Positive reinforcement can come in many different forms. Usually, it’s food treats, praise, petting, a favorite toy or a game. Normally, dogs are highly motivated by food/treats.

Each time you give your dog a treat, you should also use a vocal cue like “good” or “yes” to reinforce the good behavior.

Time for Treats

When your dog is learning a new behavior, you should reward them every time they perform that behavior. Once they’ve learned the behavior, you can start to give your dog a treat intermittently and unexpectedly. So, your dog can’t predict when it’s going to receive a reward.

Do you have any more tips for positive reinforcement? Drop them in the comments below :).