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| Praise goes a long way for a dog. |
Positive reinforcement increases the future likelyhood of the responses it follows. A response is the action performed by the dog after you have given a specific command. Take the command "sit" for example.
The desirable outcome of the command "sit" is obviously for the dog to sit. When the desired outcome is achieved it must be immediately positively reinforced for the dog to understand that what he has performed was good.
Positive reinforcement comes in many forms but most notably consists of food/treats, petting, play, praise. This "treat" allows the dog to pair a new stimulus (in this case its the action of sitting on command) with the positive feelings of eating a treat. It's important to understand that food, petting, praise and play are positive things for dogs instictively, basically you don't need to condition the dog to love food, it already does. It's for this reason that positive reinforcement is so powerful in teaching dogs what is right and whats not.
Teaching a dog what is not right can be achieved through negative reinforcement, a topic we'll cover in another article. Another way to encorage good behavior is to aid the primary reinforcer (the treat), with a secondary reinforcer. Secondary reinforcers allow the dog a chance to expect that you are going to present them with a treat, for example the word "Good!" or "Yes!!" are secondary reinforcers.
To correctly use a secondary reinforcer you must concentrate on the timing of your "Yes!", it must be immediately after the dog performs any wanted behavior, for example before the dog has even completely sat down (maybe she's just started to lower her back) you can provide a "Good!" to let her know if she completes the sit, she'll get rewarded. It works as an incentive and also is a means to tell the dog when they have done something correctly.
Clicker Training utilizes positive reinforcement and uses secondary reinforcers (the clicks from the clicker) along with primary reinforcers (small dog treats) to train dogs. The click is preferred as it is quick, emotionless, and produces the same uniform sound every time. We'll cover clicker training in depth in a forthcoming article.
In case I wasn't clear let's go over positive reinforcement again, this time in list form, gotta love those lists, anyways in the following scenario we'll be using the command "down" as an example;
1. Start in a quiet place free of distractions.
2. State the command to the dog, "Down".
3. If any wanted responses occur, slip them a secondary reinforcer(SR) a quick "yes" for example.
4. Keep providing SR's on a timely basis until your dog completes the command.
5. Give your dog the PR (treat) as a reward for his good work.
6. Don't be too harsh on the poor creatures, give them a treat for every couple of yes' you provide.
Hope this all makes sense to everyone,
Happy Training!
