The Secret to Training Your Dog!
Would you go to work if one day, your employer said that you were no longer being paid? Would you take a cut in pay if it meant keeping your job? The answer to that question depends on the reward you are receiving.
If you are doing your job just because you are being paid, then once that pay stops, so would your work.
If on the other hand, you loved what you were doing and for whom you were doing it, you may be willing to take a pay cut in return for the organization staying in business.
This line of thinking also is related to using treats when training your dog.
Using treats to train your dog elicits different reactions from different people.
One group says that there is nothing wrong with using treats while others say that by relying on treats, you are teaching the dog to work only for the reward and not for you.
The key is using treats initially as a reward and then weaning the dog off of the treats and get them performing for a verbal reward.
The truth is that your dog is working for you.
Complying with the standard commands of sit, stay and down are not in the normal actions of the dog.
For your dog to comply with you, you have to make it worthwhile to him/her.
The key is that you eventually wean the dog off the treats and instead make it pleasant for them to listen to you.
Let's start with at the beginning of the process.
This is called "charging" the reward response.
The first step is to give the dog a treat and at the same time saying the phrase that you want to be connected to a reward.
For example, while giving your dog a treat, say "good boy/girl".
The dog is connecting the pleasure of the treat with that of your reward response.
After awhile, continue saying the reward response while decreasing the number of times that you are providing a treat until the dog gets excited just when you give the reward response.
At this point, the reward response will be enough to positively reinforce any behavior.
Putting it in perspective to the work example that was used before, the treat is the equivalent of a cash payment for a days work.
When the dog is working for your reward response, he/she is now working for you because he/she wants to.
If you are doing your job just because you are being paid, then once that pay stops, so would your work.
If on the other hand, you loved what you were doing and for whom you were doing it, you may be willing to take a pay cut in return for the organization staying in business.
This line of thinking also is related to using treats when training your dog.
Using treats to train your dog elicits different reactions from different people.
One group says that there is nothing wrong with using treats while others say that by relying on treats, you are teaching the dog to work only for the reward and not for you.
The key is using treats initially as a reward and then weaning the dog off of the treats and get them performing for a verbal reward.
The truth is that your dog is working for you.
Complying with the standard commands of sit, stay and down are not in the normal actions of the dog.
For your dog to comply with you, you have to make it worthwhile to him/her.
The key is that you eventually wean the dog off the treats and instead make it pleasant for them to listen to you.
Let's start with at the beginning of the process.
This is called "charging" the reward response.
The first step is to give the dog a treat and at the same time saying the phrase that you want to be connected to a reward.
For example, while giving your dog a treat, say "good boy/girl".
The dog is connecting the pleasure of the treat with that of your reward response.
After awhile, continue saying the reward response while decreasing the number of times that you are providing a treat until the dog gets excited just when you give the reward response.
At this point, the reward response will be enough to positively reinforce any behavior.
Putting it in perspective to the work example that was used before, the treat is the equivalent of a cash payment for a days work.
When the dog is working for your reward response, he/she is now working for you because he/she wants to.
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