Behavior that gets rewarded gets repeated. It’s that simple. Okay, it’s that simple but not always that easy.
If I want my dog to be well behaved, I can often catch them in the act of being “good” and reinforce them for it. If I do this, the laws of learning tell us I’ll get more of those behaviors. Because I know this, I try hard to notice when my dogs are being calm, quiet and polite. These are three of the things I look for in well behaved dogs. It’s harder than it sounds, though. Because these behaviors don’t annoy me, my attention isn’t always drawn to them, making these behaviors easy to miss. I have to be actively paying attention to what my dogs are doing to catch them in the act so I can be sure to reinforce them when they are making good choices.
Pro Tip: Now that I’ve caught my dogs in the act of being “good”, how do I reinforce them in a way that they will continue their “good” behavior you might ask? Carefully. I try to find ways that will help my dogs know I like their behavior but will not get them all excited. In a perfect world, I would like to reinforce them in a way they like but will also help them to continue being calm, quiet and polite. I might make eye contact, smile, whisper “good girl” or “good boy” or “good dogs”, etc. I might silently slip them a treat or a toy or pet them in a way that they like, but can continue being calm while I do it.
On the other hand, when my dogs are being annoying or naughty, their behavior draws my attention to them. This may cause me to accidently reinforce their behavior by doing things like making eye contact, saying their name, or “no”, or “bad dog”, etc. If I do one or more of these things, I am giving my dogs attention. If getting my attention was something they liked receiving in that moment, the next time they would like my attention, they may repeat the “naughty” behavior to get it.
The goal is to have my dogs choose behaviors that I like. If I’m doing this well, these behaviors will be ones I have reinforced them for doing. If my dog predict their “good” behavior will cause me to do things for them that they like, they will repeat these “good” behaviors more often in the future, and may even start doing them for longer periods of time. This means my dogs are spending more times during the day doing things I like, and they literally have less time in their day to do things I don’t like. This is a very simple and powerful way to get a lot more of what I like and a lot less of what I don’t like.
Dogs are learning all the time. Be careful what you are teaching them.
© Laura Hills 2023 www.thedogsspot.com
