RECIPE FOR DOG TRAINING & BEHAVIOUR MODIFICATION

When working with the owner of a dog for training and behaviour, the recipe I follow is simple, it has four “ingredients”:

Ingredients

Rewards – These are used to motivate and mark wanted behaviours (and they must be something the dog really enjoys) so he is encouraged and learns what gets good results, and wants to do it again and again.

Check – Check that unwanted behaviours are not being reinforced. Many problem behaviours arise because they have been inadvertently encouraged or permitted to happen. If a problem is to be stopped, the reinforcer needs to be identified and stop (there is no point training a dog to stay in his bed at family mealtimes rather than begging at the table, if someone is occasionally feeding him at the table) which leads to the next ‘ingredient’ -

Manage – whilst teaching the dog what we want him to learn, it helps to put in some management strategies, so he can’t do something we don’t want him to do eg. if we don’t want him to go upstairs, put up a stairgate. Whilst these strategies can help to prevent habits from forming, they don’t actually teach the dog not to, eg. as soon as the stairgate is removed, he may choose to venture upstairs, so more needs to be added to the ‘recipe’ -

Deter – by teaching the dog that unwanted behaviours do not get good results but instead something unpleasant can happen, he can learn to avoid doing it. It is very important that a dog learns to listen not only because he wants to, but also because he should, for his safety and the safety of others. Therefore, introducing something that is minimally aversive that will train the dog he must listen, is an integral ingredient.

Method

It depends, because each owner, dog and situation are different, so the ingredients are measured and mixed differently, but the recipe is simply the same.