The other day I was having breakfast with my son and I had an epiphany. He was eating toast with peanut butter and jam. My son is 4 years old so you can imagine pb & j and a 4 year old equal sticky stuff everywhere. I had given him a wet cloth to wipe his face and hands when he needed to. We were having a conversation and he went to use his sleeve to wipe his face and I said hey, nothing harsh just a mild hey what are you doing. He instantly stopped looked at me and smiled said "oh yeah" and used the cloth to wipe his mouth.
What do we want from a correction? We want the dog to perform the correct behaviour in this situation. What do we not want from a correction? Suppression, this does not help us in any way to help our dogs understand the correct behaviour. Fear, same as suppression, useless in training. Avoidance, in some situations may be useful but will the dog only avoid when you are standing right next to him and is the dog just looking for ways to perform the incorrect behaviour and get away with it.
Why is this a perfect correction? I stopped him from practicing the incorrect behaviour. He had enough value for the correct behaviour that as soon as I made him stop for a minute he chose the correct behaviour. The correction did not suppress him in any way, after wiping his mouth he went right back to chattering about whatever we were talking about before and didn't give it a second thought. The next time he went to wipe his mouth he remembered and used the cloth.
What is typical and nowhere near as effective correction? Anger, how dare the dog do the incorrect behaviour, he should know better. Physical force, it is felt that if physical discomfort is associated with the correction the dog will remember better next time. Repetition, corrections happen over and over for the same behaviour with no change in action from the dog.
What can be done to make our corrections more effective? Have you built enough value for the correct behaviour. I stop a lot of behaviours with the collar grab, so I need to have built enough value for the collar grab. Have you overfaced your dog, meaning are you putting your dog in a situation where the chance of success are nil. Have you allowed your dog to earn reward from continually practicing the incorrect behaviour. If there is a huge history of the incorrect behaviour it is going to take a lot of management and value building for the dog to perform the correct behaviour.
When you are working through all of this some thoughts to keep in mind. Do you have management tools in place to prevent the dog from earning reinforcement from the incorrect behaviour? If your dog has made the incorrect choice three times than change something he obviously doesn't get it.
What do we want from a correction? We want the dog to perform the correct behaviour in this situation. What do we not want from a correction? Suppression, this does not help us in any way to help our dogs understand the correct behaviour. Fear, same as suppression, useless in training. Avoidance, in some situations may be useful but will the dog only avoid when you are standing right next to him and is the dog just looking for ways to perform the incorrect behaviour and get away with it.
Why is this a perfect correction? I stopped him from practicing the incorrect behaviour. He had enough value for the correct behaviour that as soon as I made him stop for a minute he chose the correct behaviour. The correction did not suppress him in any way, after wiping his mouth he went right back to chattering about whatever we were talking about before and didn't give it a second thought. The next time he went to wipe his mouth he remembered and used the cloth.
What is typical and nowhere near as effective correction? Anger, how dare the dog do the incorrect behaviour, he should know better. Physical force, it is felt that if physical discomfort is associated with the correction the dog will remember better next time. Repetition, corrections happen over and over for the same behaviour with no change in action from the dog.
What can be done to make our corrections more effective? Have you built enough value for the correct behaviour. I stop a lot of behaviours with the collar grab, so I need to have built enough value for the collar grab. Have you overfaced your dog, meaning are you putting your dog in a situation where the chance of success are nil. Have you allowed your dog to earn reward from continually practicing the incorrect behaviour. If there is a huge history of the incorrect behaviour it is going to take a lot of management and value building for the dog to perform the correct behaviour.
When you are working through all of this some thoughts to keep in mind. Do you have management tools in place to prevent the dog from earning reinforcement from the incorrect behaviour? If your dog has made the incorrect choice three times than change something he obviously doesn't get it.