Earlier today I was talking to a friend who thought it wasn’t possible to train a dog using only positive methods. What do you do if the dog won’t listen besides just withholding the reward? She thought there had to be something more to fall back on to motivate the dog.
She was picturing a wild, out-of-control dog, and me just standing there not giving him a cookie, as if the dog even cared about a cookie at that point. She was specifically thinking of my own dog Scooter, who barks like it is his job (he’s a hound, so technically barking is his job, but you know what I mean) and who used to go completely wild on walks when he saw a squirrel.
I could write pages and pages about why aversive training doesn’t work - stress hormones impede learning, it damages the relationship with the dog, etc., but it’s also really important to focus on why positive training does work.
Anyway, she’s half right. If I had waited until he was at the end of his leash spinning in circles and barking at a squirrel, and then asked him to sit with a cookie in my hand, I would not have been successful. That would be unfair and frustrating for both me and Scooter. By that point, barking at a squirrel is so much more rewarding than any cookie I could possibly have, and he’s lost all self-control and focus.
That’s not where we started training, though. We started in a quiet room in the house, and if he looked at me, I would give a treat. I put him on his leash and let him walk around the living room, and if he was anywhere except putting pressure on the leash, I would give a treat. That taught him that it pays not to pull on his leash.
Dogs do what works for them. If a certain behavior gets them something they like, or meets a need such as attention, they will keep doing it. When Scooter and I first started training, standing in the living room and frequently checking in with me, and not pulling on the leash, got him treats. After a couple sessions, I didn’t have to use a food-treat every time. I could pet him or tell him what a good boy he is or offer a toy.
Once he was reliably doing that, we moved to the dining room and did the same thing. Then upstairs. Then the front porch once I had scouted it out and made sure there weren’t any squirrels around.
I laid a lot of groundwork showing him that walking nicely on his leash and paying attention to me PAYS, before we ever got anywhere near a squirrel. That way, the first time we were walking and he saw a squirrel, he had a lot of experience to draw on telling him that barking at a squirrel sounds pretty fun, but paying attention to mom has a big history of earning him cookies and cuddles and tennis balls.
It was also important for me to keep in mind that when a dog is choosing between doing two different things, I have to make the one I want him to choose more rewarding than the other one. And truly, barking at a squirrel is super fun and exciting. So I have to be better than that. Teaching this kind of thing is when you get out the hotdogs or cheese or tennis ball, or whatever your dog loves best in the world. It would not be fair to Scooter to expect him to choose against his instincts and fun, and then only give him a dried up old biscuit. The dry biscuits have a place - just not when you’re first teaching your dog something really difficult.
It was an ongoing process. He’s five years old now, and when we’re walking and he sees a squirrel, he looks at me and we turn and go the other way. He doesn’t bark or growl or flip out.
All I used to teach him was practice, patience, and treats. I did not have to use any methods that relied on fear, intimidation, or force.
Incidentally, if I had used aversive methods, that probably would have made it worse. If I did a “leash correction” when he starting going wild about a squirrel, Scooter wouldn’t know why I did it - what he would know is, each time he saw a squirrel, mom popped him on the neck and it hurt. For whatever reason, squirrels make mom do the hurting thing. So logically, he should probably be even more alert and aggressive to run those nasty old squirrels out of town so mom would stop hurting him.
Positive training has somehow gotten a reputation of being permissive, but I actually think I’m more strict than a lot of pet-parents who use punishments. Because there are a lot of positive things in the world, and I can control access to almost all of them. It sounds tyrannical when I put it like that, but it’s really not. What I mean is, laying on the couch, toys, treats, attention, dinner, walks - these are all things Scooter likes and I can use them to reward good behavior.
The other side of that coin is, if Scooter makes the choice to bark out the window, he can’t lay in his favorite chair. Sorry pal, that’s the rule. I’m not stern or harsh or mean about it. When he barks inappropriately, I calmly walk over to him and tell him ”off.” When he’s quiet again, he’s welcome to lay in the chair. (The scientific term for this is “negative punishment.” Negative meaning I’m removing something - access to the chair - and a punishment meaning it decreases a behavior. It doesn’t rely on fear or pain, and Scooter can still choose to bark if he really wants to. He just can’t bark in the comfy chair. He has to choose which one he wants more - and having that choice is actually very empowering to a dog.)
If Scooter chases the cat, he can’t be in the living room with the family. He has to go behind the baby gate in the hallway for a whole minute. Then I let him rejoin us and he can try again. On the other hand, when he glances at the kitty and makes the choice not to chase, he can have a piece of cheese. It’s a pretty sweet deal for Scooter.
He gets dinner when he sits politely. He gets to go for a walk when he waits politely at the door. And if he dashes out the door and pulls on the leash, we go back inside and wait 5 or 10 seconds, then try again. Dogs figure out pretty quickly what they need to do to get what they want.
One final note, you can use the very thing your dog wants that is causing him to misbehave, as a reward for behaving. I’m going to go back to the example of pulling on his leash during walks - let’s say he was being rude and wild on his leash, pulling because there was one certain patch of grass he was just dying to go sniff. I’m not going to take him over there is he pulls. I am the one who holds the leash; I control access to that patch of grass. When he walks nicely, I tell him “ok, go sniff,” and he can get exactly what he wanted, just by being polite. I get a polite dog, wonderful companion, and work partner - and he gets almost everything he wants as long as he minds his manners about it.
For further reading on why positive training doesn’t mean permissive:
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